Tarzan Goes To India

That was the movie I stumbled onto by accident while flipping through the TV channels today. I didnt get to watch it from the beginning, which was lucky because I'm pretty sure I wouldnt have had the patience to sit through the whole thing. But catching it halfway through didnt pose much of a problem in understanding the plot, such as it was... What took me by surprise was seeing Feroz Khan and Simi Garewal in the movie - a very young, very enthusiastic Feroz Khan, at that, complete with fake "English" accent. (I guess he - and Simi - had to be young since the movie was made in 1962!)

Tarzan was played by a guy called Jock Mahoney - an American. Hollywood has this annoying habit of simply appropriating folk heroes (or otherwise imaginary ones even) from other countries and making them American! Tarzan, as envisaged by his creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was English - an English peer, to be precise. Tarzan, Lord Greystoke. He wasnt meant to be American, just as Robin Hood wasnt meant to be American either.

I mean, Robin Hood is synonymous with English folk history. Americans dont HAVE anything - or anybody - approximating a Robin Hood (or do they?). I quite like Kevin Costner and I quite liked the movie "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" as well... but the fact remains, they werent supposed to be Americans! Oh well, I guess Samuel Taylor Coleridge's words still stand true - to enjoy some things, to go into the realm of fantasy, a "willing suspension of disbelief" is very necessary.

PS. Ok, I HAD to bring in a literary angle! I mean, I graduated in English Literature, and what use a "classical" education if I cant introduce a classical allusion or two into my writing, huh?

PPS. "Tarzan Goes To India" is worth it if only to look at the baby elephants... man, those li'l babies are soooooooo damn cute!