Return of Hanuman, that time when Anurag Kashyap made an animated movie for kids

From his unreleased debut film Paanch to Gangs of Wasseypur, Anurag Kashyap’s filmography has been nightmare fuel for the Indian Censor Board. The only time when the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) let go of Kashyap scot-free was with regards to his fourth film, a 2007 animated feature called Return of Hanuman.

As today is celebrated as Hanuman Jayanti, it only makes sense to revisit this “cult classic” (even though Kashyap himself wouldn’t want it). A sequel to 2005’s Hanuman (which was a largely faithful retelling of Hanuman’s mythology and his parts in the Ramayan), Return to Hanuman still played around some concepts that were certainly amusing for that time. 

What is Return of Hanuman about? 

Interestingly, the CBFC categorised Return of Hanuman as an “education film”, given its central focus on global warming. The film reimagines Hanuman arriving in the modern world as a young boy (who still has a monkey-like face). 

Given his appearance, he’s often bullied by his schoolmates but he finds a new mission to save the world when the asuras (demons) make use of human pollution and global warming to destroy the planet itself. In the end, Hanuman even has to fight a monster made out of plastic waste! As Internet trolls often stereotype Kashyap as a user of drugs (ranging from cannabis to harder substances like cocaine), they wouldn’t be surprised if he came up with the story in a drug-induced haze! (maybe taking a leaf out of ST Coleridge's Kubla Khan, who knows)

The animated film might not be a game-changer but Kashyap’s intentions still seem noble. Having directed and written the script himself, the film serves as a classic tale of how humans end up bringing their own downfall, thanks to heavy industrialisation. Even though a Hindu god is the world’s saviour, Kashyap’s screenplay is still low on any extremely religious dialogues or preachy moral discourses. 

Daler Mehndi contributed to the Return of Hanuman soundtrack

Leave alone the story, even the songs make for interesting visuals. For instance, there is the Daler Mehndi-led track Aasman Ko Chukar Dekha (which has been recently resurrected as a popular song on Indian Instagram Reels). The song shows how Hanuman joyfully wanders all over the planet and even manages to save some lives every now and then. 

One standout moment from the song is when a plane is passing through two twin towers that are obviously implied to be New York’s World Trade Centre. But before 9/11 can be set in motion, the monkey god shows up and literally folds the towers sideways so that the plane doesn’t crash into them! He also makes the Statue of Liberty dance and makes the Leaning Tower of Pisa upright.

Even if you ignore the movie, the music video for Aasman Ko Chukar is definitely a surreal work of Indian animation to check out. 

Oh also, not to forget, the soundtrack also includes a sad song called Black Hole sung by Adnan Sami!

Kashyap thinks Return of Hanuman is “terrible”

Anurag Kashyap might be struggling to hold his ground with recent misfires like Bombay Velvet and Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat, but one can’t deny that the controversial filmmaker is a truly versatile man. Just look at his track record in 2007. Not only did he helm Return of Hanuman this year, but also the highly-experimental Kafkaesque thriller No Smoking! 

However, Kashyap himself flushes with embarrassment whenever Return of Hanuman is mentioned. Just like how Bombay Velvet taught him not to play around with big-budget films anymore, Return of Hanuman made him realise that he’s just not cut out for animation. 

This claim can be supported from Kashyap’s own tweet from December 2019 when a fan celebrated Return of Hanuman’s 12-year anniversary. Twitter user Anish Mohanty happily tagged Kashyap and called the film “arguably one of the best animated films made in India.” He also mentioned how he loved Kashyap “merging mythology with new-age fiction effortlessly”. He ended the tweet by asking Kashyap to make another animated film. 

And then came Kashyap’s answer. The Black Friday director admitted that he’s incapable of doing animation and that Return of Hanuman was a 'terrible film'. He instead suggested the Japanese anime version of Ramayana and Geetanjali Rao’s animated films like Bombay Rose as better Indian animated titles. 

Where can you watch Return of Hanuman? 

Well, Kashyap might remember it as a dark chapter of his career but the ones who are still curious to watch Return of Hanuman (for nostalgia’s sake at least), they can watch it for free on YouTube with Shemaroo Kids legally releasing the full cut in 2014.