Hercule Poirot might just come to India soon, if a planned spin-off decides to bring him here. We do a recap of other legendary sleuths and adventurers whose travels have brought them to the country.
ET Bureau
It is quite hard to imagine Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective from Agatha Christie's intricate world of crime, using his 'little grey cells' or sipping on a cup of cocoa in India, but this may not be such a stretch of the imagination soon. Sophie Hannah, a crime novelist who has previously written a Poirot spin-off, revealed last month that she may soon write a book which features the detective cracking a case in India. Even if the book does come to fruition, however, Poirot wouldn't be the first character from a famous franchise to have visited India. Read on to find out who else did. Indiana Jones
The highlight of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, which sees Jones land in the Himalayas and retrieve a magical stone, is a grotesque meal prepared in his honour, which includes scarab-like insects, a cooked python which somehow has smaller live snakes inside it, and eyeball soup.The film also features Amrish Puri as the villain Thuggee, who manages to removes his victims' hearts by pressing through their chests (who knew it was this easy?).
In Octopussy, James Bond experiences the full 'exotic' nature of Rajasthan. The film plays on just about every western stereotype about the country, including people swallowing swords, sitting on coal, sleeping on beds of needles and baraatis unwilling to stop dancing at any cost (okay, maybe the last bit is true) even when a Bond villain is running down the street with a gun.
Mission Impossible
The fourth instalment of the Mission Impossible series takes Ethan Hunt to Mumbai in an attempt to stop a terrorist from bombing the US. The MI team track down Brij Nath, a rich businessman (and serious flirt), played by Anil Kapoor, to retrieve some vital information for the mission, but not before the female lead, Jane, lays a series of blows on Nath.
Even trained assassins need a break and when they take it, they head to Goa like the rest of us. At the start of The Bourne Supremacy, we see Jason Bourne and his girlfriend Marie's vacation (of sorts) interrupted by a car chase and them driving into a river. The downside of the movie's realistic depiction of the place is that afterwards you're stuck thinking that any person not wearing beach clothes is “all wrong“, as Jason puts it, and is therefore a hitman.
While the detective never actually sets foot in India, the series does have a number of Indian connects. John Watson serves in India, before eventually coming to 221B Baker Street. The Man With The Twisted Lip revolves almost entirely around the Revolt of 1857, while The Speckled Band features a doctor who used to live in Calcutta and uses a swamp adder, `the deadliest snake in India' (so deadly that it doesn't exist), to kill his stepdaughters. The Sign Of Four features a group of colonists stealing treasure in Agra. Diehard fans can also take solace in the fact that in Sherlock (the TV series), the detective does solve a case in Delhi (although we don't actually see him do it), which was seen in a special episode released in 2013.
Tintin
In The Cigars Of The Pharaoh, Tintin follows opium smugglers to the fictional kingdom of Gaipajama, where, among other things, Snowy is alm ost killed for biting a cow and the ginger reporter gets to wear a turban and sherwani. In Tintin In Tibet, he takes out time from rescuing a friend in Nepal to go sight-seeing at the Qutub Minar and Red Fort (because that's what we all do while trying to save a friend. He would've gone to Jama Masjid too, but he's late for his flight!). India might also possibly hold the curious distinction of having the only character who manages to outshout the foulmouthed Captain Haddock, as Haddock's assailant yells in Hindi.
Asterix And Obelix
In 1987's Asterix And The Magic Carpet, Asterix travels to India to save princess Orinjade. James Bond's India pales in comparison to the depiction in this overthe-top cartoon, which features people bathing in elephant's milk and climbing enchanted ropes (who needs stairs any (who needs stairs any way?). Oddly enough, it also has Indian doc tors speaking fluent Latin.
ET Bureau
Get Unlimited Access to The Economic Times
