Jagga Jasoos : Our Desi Tintin??

Yesterday I chanced upon the latest trailer for 'Jagga Jasoos'. Having grown up on a healthy dose of Detective Sam D'Silva (remember Tehkikaat), Byomkesh Bakshi and Sherlock Holmes (much before I got Sherlocked), I was naturally excited about the 'jasoos' movie. With Ranbir and Katrina in the lead, it sure looked like a cracker for reasons, more than one!

And I must say the trailer looks promising!
Something about the way Ranbir looked, rang some bells, but I let it go for the moment.
What came up next in the trailers were exotic locations, dangerous villains, wildlife and thrilling chases in a vast variety of vehicles.

Now the bells were ringing louder than ever! Images from a childhood filled with books floated by.
And then it was clear like daylight!
"Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles in a thundering typhoon!" How could they?

This post on facebook from a year back should help you connect the dots!





Jagga Jasoos takes a huge inspiration from my favourite piece of childhood. And the similarities are too huge to be just coincidental! So I set out to see where those inspirations came from. The fact that I had a PDF collection of the entire series certainly helped!

Hold on as I run you through a piece of journalistic investigation my childhood hero Tintin would be proud of!




The Look

The biggest giveaway has to be the quiff sported by the hero! That hairstyle has been made iconic single-handedly by Tintin. And if the hairstyle wasn't enough, they even dressed him like Tintin.
I mean just look at them!

Jagga Jasoos - Desi Tintin??

The Vehicles

Throughout the adventures of Tintin, we came across a variety of vehicles which you wouldn't see too often in your daily life. And the vehicles would generally cover land, air and water.
The trailer shows  some of these vehicles and the similarity is again striking

The yellow plane from "The Black Island"

The tank that Tintin drives in "The Calculus Affair"

The Disguise

Another skill that Tintin exhibited on multiple occasions was how he used disguise to go unnoticed in difficult situations. In the trailer, we see Ranbir in a soldier's uniform. Now this is something we saw Tintin do in "The Broken Ear" (though it wasn't disguise exactly, since he was made a Colonel by General Alcazar). We also see a shot where Ranbir (in uniform) is running away while shot. Exactly, what happens with Tintin.

Tintin in a soldier's uniform in "The Broken Ear"

Tintin having a narrow escape in "The Broken Ear"

The Wildlife

Tintin on his travels to exotic lands also comes in contact with a lot of wildlife. This wildlife is seen in the trailers too. And the similarity is again striking ( Come on! They could at least have used a tiger instead of a cheetah)

The encounter with the cheetah in "The Red Sea Sharks"

Tintin comes across a jumbo in the forest in "Cigars of the Pharaoh"

The Chases

And the mainstay of Tintin's adventures were his confrontations with the villains and the adrenaline pumping chases over various terrains and using various means of transport!

These again find a remarkable duplication in the trailers. Scroll ahead for some of the frame by frame references.

Tintin faces a tight situation in "The Broken Ear"

Tintin in a red car narrowly escapes black train with red accents in "The Broken Ear".
Thankfully they changed the top of the car to white

A car chase in "Land of Black Gold"

Tintin escapes in a boat with the pursuing cops falling into the water in "The Crab with the Golden Claws"

Tintin goes train hopping in "The Black Island"

The sidecar chase from "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets"
Another sidecar chase was seen in the 2011 movie "The Adventures of Tintin"

Tintin zips down a line in the 2011 movie "The Adventures of Tintin"

The Poster

And last but not the least, the poster of the movie looks very similar to the cover for "The Broken Ear".
Looking at the number of times The Broken Ear has been referenced, I guess the director really liked that particular adventure!

Tintin rows his way through the river in a tropical rain forest in "The Broken Ear"

Inspired or not, I love the fact that I got to revisit Tintin because of Jagga Jasoos.
If you haven't seen the trailers yet, have a look at them below. Also, do catch the movie when it hits theatres on 14th of July.

Update : I watched the movie and the movie is definitely inspired by Tintin. So much so that, Jagga even has a comic of his own.

And if you haven't read the books, get the complete hardcover set on Amazon here.  However, these are smaller in size and not recommended. Link: http://amzn.to/2fByU4a

The box pack of the paperbacks (full size ones) can be ordered here. Link: https://amzn.to/3tLbF8V

EDIT : I compiled a list of links to the entire Tintin comic set. You can find it at the link below.
http://sagaranjos.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-complete-adventures-of-tintin.html


Trailer 1




Trailer 2