Shaktimaan

In Hinduism: Shaktiman (literally possessor of Shakti, the female aspect of God) is a term used for the male aspect of God.

Shaktiman, or Shaktimaan, is a fictional character, an Indian television superhero created by Mukesh Khanna and shown on Doordarshan, India's national television network, beginning September 13, 1997. Now it was airing on Pogobut now they have stopped airing it. Mukesh Khanna plays the role of Shaktiman and his alter-ego Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnathnath Shastri, a photographer for the Aaj Ki Awaaz newspaper. Like Superman, Shaktimaan is superhumanly strong, has the ability to fly, and is invulnerable to injury.

In the wake of the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake, Pal toured the affected areas in character as Shaktiman, along with local politician Vishal Kansara of Navsari, boosting morale and distributing relief supplies.

Origin of Shaktimaan

He received his powers from seven gurus who trained and blessed him with "yogic shakti". He was the chosen warrior against evil by the siddha gurus of a cult named Suryanshi. They are the followers of Sun.As a part of his training he was trained with Kundalini Yoga to awaken the 7 chakras of body and gain super power from them. But it was not easy. To gain complete control over his powers he had to perform a ritual of death. He was to perform a Yajna in which he entered the fire himself and dissolved his body in the fire. Then the Five Elements of life i.e. Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, Sky revived his body giving special powers from them. Thus after leaving his mortal body he was given a super human form to fight against the evil in the world. He is a defender of truth and justice as well as a role model for his television audience, even going so far as to lecture viewers on hygiene, patriotism, and education.

When the serial was first aired on Doordarshan, there was a lot of controversy created as children set themselves on fire or jumped off buildings, hoping that Shaktimaan would save them (as in the serial) and this caused an uproar in India. In an effort to promote responsible behavior among children and to spread useful messages among them, Pal spent a substantial part of his allocated airtime in explaining to children that the stunts shown on television are not real and should not be emulated. Shaktimaan was one of the most popular and longest running television series for children on Doordarshan. Now, it was repeated on Pogo TV, but now it is not shown.

Later a series of comic books appeared featuring Shaktimaan and published in many Indian languages as well as English

After Shaktimaan was created he set out to destroy his archenemy Kilvish (the devil itself). But, as the guru Mahaguru explains, Kilvish can only be defeated after evil is destroyed. Shaktiman's adventures show him pursuing justice and saving his friends while Kilvish and his minions plot to defeat him.

Powers of Shaktiman

Shaktimaan has unlimited powers which lies in his seven chakras of Kundalini attained through meditation. Shaktimaan worships God through the symbol OM. God and Shaktimaan's seven gurus have blessed him with powers, even to rearrange the galaxies and merge the whole universe into one Galaxy. His powers have no limits. He can even separate his body into five different bodies of fire, wind, water, earth and sky. He can convert his body into light and flies with the speed of light. He can shoot laser beams with his fingers and can stretch his hand and legs. He is an expert of Judo, Karate, Martial Arts. He possesses power of telepathy, teleportation, X-ray vision,etc.

His only weakness is a crystal possessed by Tamraj Kilvish. It makes him powerless because it is filled with the evil of the world and is the source of black powers. However, the effects are temporary and always good wins over the bad.

Shaktimaan lives as Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastry. Gangadhar works as a reporter for the newspaper Aaj ki Aawaaz. That Gangadhar is the superhero Shaktimaan is still a secret to the world. Later on it is revealed to Gita Vishwas. Though Gangadhar loves Gita and both know this, they cannot marry as Shaktimaan is a "Bal Brahmachari" i.e. a man who has pledged to remain unmarried for whole life.

Shaktimaan’s archenemy

Tamraj Kilvish is Shaktimaan’s archenemy. Kilvish is covered with his clothes, his face is dark and fingernails are long. Tamraj means King of Darkness. He has lived 6000 years. He is the source of evil in the whole world and intends to rule the world by spreading hatred, sins and evil. It is said that the source of his strength is one-half of the Shakti Punj (the half which is referred to as Paap Punj) which he managed to retain after he originally obtained the entire Shakti Punj by deceit from Shri Satya (Satya means truth), the founder of Suryanshi. However, it is also often mentioned that the source of his strength is the sins that are committed by people in this world. In any case, he has managed to fill his half of the Shakti Punj with sins (hence the name Paap Punj for this half) and transformed it from its original white radiant color to a dark one (Kaala Punj).

It was later revealed that only Shri Satya can kill Tamraj Kilvish. After a death defying adventure (which nearly had killed Shaktimaan), Shaktimaan was told that he is the rebirth of Shri Satya. Shri Satya had given exact time of the child birth and place before he died about 5000 years ago. Tamraj also knows this and this is the main reason he is frightened to death by the appearance of Shaktimaan because he knows that only Shaktimaan can kill him. He murdered Shaktimaan's parents and his adoptive father, Pandit Shastri. He and his minions plot to kill him but always fail. His minions include Electric man, Stone man, Plastica, Dr.Jackal and others. Dr. Jackal has helped Kilvish in his various schemes including cloning Shaktimaan and turning aliens against Shaktimaan.

In the television series, Kilvish is often treated as the personification of darkness itself even though he was once a human being who later became very powerful and committed many great evil deeds. In a very hard attempt to remain alive, he leaves his mortal body and takes an ethereal body which can't be killed. Shaktimaan is told that now he has to kill all the evil in the world to destroy Tamraj’s ethereal body. His trademark quote is "Andhera Kaayam Rahe" (May Darkness Persist), which is also used by his followers.

Kilvish's character evolves as the series progresses. In the initial episodes his face is never shown and his voice is different from the one in the later episodes, in which his role is played by Surendra Pal.

Main cast

• Mukesh Khanna as Shaktimaan/Pandit Gangadhar Shastri
• Kitu Gidwani and Vaishnavi as Geeta Vishwas
• Surendra Pal as Kilvish
• Tom Alter as Mahaguru

External links

• Shaktimaan at IMDb
• Shaktimaan Comics
• Shaktimaan at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
• Shaktiman profile at BizHat.com
• Interview with Mukesh Khanna at Indiantelevision.com
• Online episodes of the Indian Television Series Shaktimaan