In Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

: Shaktimaan (literally possessor of Shakti

Shakti

Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...

, power, is a term used to describe somebody who possess a lot of powers.)

Shaktimaan, is a fictional

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n television superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

 created by Nirmal Jani

Nirmal Jani

Nirmal Jani is an Indian cinematographer working in the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai.He debuted in filming the 1991 film Patthar Ke Phool under director Anant Balani‎ and starring Salman Khan....

 and telecasted on Doordarshan

DoorDarshan

Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...

, India's national television network. It was first aired on September 13, 1997. It has also aired on the Pogo

Pogo TV

Pogo, which launched on 1 January 2004, is a cable and satellite television channel created by Turner Broadcasting, a unit of Time Warner for India which primarily shows animated programming and some live-action shows based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a family entertainment channel in India...

  in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Chutti TV

Chutti TV

Chutti TV is a 24-hour Tamil language television channel owned by the Sun Network. The target audience are children aged between 3 and 14. It was launched in 2007, making it Sun TV Network's first ever television channel for kids....

 in Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 and repeated its Hindi telecast on STAR Utsav

STAR Utsav

STAR Utsav is a free-to-air Hindi general entertainment channel based in Mumbai. It shows some of STAR Plus' popular programs.This channel is available in India. STAR Utsav caters to viewers who have recently entered the fold of cable and satellite television...

. Mukesh Khanna

Mukesh Khanna

Mukesh Khanna is an Indian television and film actor, best known for portraying strong, dynamic characters. He was born on 22 July 1951, in Mumbai, India. He came into the film industry in 1982 after graduating from Film and Television Institute of India. He rose to fame and is still best known for...

 plays the role of Shaktimaan and his alter-ego Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri, a photographer for the newspaper Aaj Ki Aawaz. Shaktimaan has super strength, the ability to fly, and is invulnerable to things that cause injuries on the body. The characterization of Shaktimaan and Gangadhar is inspired from Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

 where the superhero lives and works in a city as a reporter Clark Kent. Geeta Vishwas is also a reporter in the series who loves Shaktimaan.

Origin of Shaktimaan

Shaktimaan received powers from seven gurus who trained and blessed him with "yogic shakti

Shakti

Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...

".
He was the chosen warrior against evil by siddha gurus of catapult named Suryanshi. They are followers of the star Sun. As part of training he trained with Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini yoga

Kundalini yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual discipline for developing strength, awareness, character, and consciousness. Practitioners call Kundalini yoga the yoga of awareness because it focuses primarily on practices that expand sensory awareness and intuition in order to raise individual...

 to waken the 7 chakras of body and gain 'super natural' powers from them. To gain complete control over his powers he performed the ritual of death. However, this did not cause death but made him more alive than when he was a normal man. He also performed Yajna

Yajna

In Hinduism, yajna is a ritual of sacrifice derived from the practice of Vedic times. It is performed to please the gods or to attain certain wishes...

 in which he entered the fire himself and dissolved his body in fire. Then, the five elements of life, i.e. fire, wind, water, earth, sky revived his body giving him 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 as Shaktimaan.

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

Powers of Shaktimaan

Shaktimaan has unlimited powers which lie inside his body in his seven chakras of Kundalini

Kundalini

Kundalini literally means coiled. In yoga, a "corporeal energy" - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent, hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent...

 attained through mediation. Shaktimaan worships God through the symbol Om

Aum

Om or Aum Om or Aum Om or Aum (also , written in Devanāgari as and as , in Sanskrit known as (lit. "to sound out loudly"), ', or ' (also as ') (lit. "Auṃ form/syllable"), is a sacred/mystical syllable in the Dharmic or Indian religions, i.e...

. Truthfulness is his motto. 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 even faster than the speed of light. He can shoot laser beams with his fingers and toes and other body parts and he can also stretch his hand and legs and other body parts very far. He is an expert at Judo, Karate, and other Martial Arts. He possesses the power of telepathy, teleportation, etc.

His only weakness is a crystal possessed by Tamraj Kilvish. This makes him powerless because it is filled with the evil of the world and is the source of the black powers. However, its effects are temporary.

Shaktimaan's powers are as follows:

1. Flight at a speed faster than light
2. Invisibility
3. Powerful vision
4. Ability to manupulate the 5 elements known to man
5. Immortality

Enemies

Tamraj Kilvish is Shaktimaan’s archenemy. Tamraj means King of Darkness (tama = darkness, raj = king). He has lived 6000 years, and is the source of evil in the world. He intends to rule the world by spreading darkness, hatred, sin 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 the Suryanshi. However, it is also mentioned that the source of his strength is the evil that is committed by people in this world.

It was later revealed that only Shri Satya can kill Tamraj Kilvish. After a death defying adventure, Shaktimaan was told that he is the rebirth of Shri Satya. Shri Satya had given the exact time of the child's birth and the place before he died about 5000 years ago. Tamraj also knows this and this is the main reason he is frightened by the appearance of Shaktimaan as he knows that only Shaktimaan can kill Tamraj. 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 (who can shoot lightning blots from his body), Stone man (who can shoot stones from his body), Plastica (who can stretch any part of her body), Dr. Jackal (who is an evil scientist) and other. Dr. Jackal has helped Kilvish in his various schemes by cloning Shaktimaan and also by turning aliens against him.

In the television series, Kilvish is often treated as the personification of darkness itself even though he was once a human being who later becomes a very powerful and commits many evil deeds. In an attempt to become immortal, he left his mortal body and took an ethereal body which can't be killed but Shaktimaan is told that he has to kill all the evil in the world to destroy Tamraj’s ethereal body. Kilvish's 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 beginning episodes of Shaktimaan, his face is never shown and his voice is different from the voice that he uses in the later episodes of Shaktimaan, in which his role is played by Surendra Pal

Surendra Pal

Surendra Pal is an Indian film and television character actor who is best known for his television roles of Dronacharya in Mahabharat, Amatya Rakshas in Chanakya and Tamraj Kilvish in Shaktiman.Surendra Pal was born in 1953....

.

Geeta Vishwas

Shaktimaan lives as Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastry. Gangadhar works as a reporter for the newspaper Aaj ki Aawaaz with Geeta Viswas, and the fact that Gangadhar is Shaktimaan is still a secret. Later on, however, it is revealed to Geeta Viswas. Though Gangadhar loves Gita and they both know this, they cannot marry as Shaktimaan is a "Bal Brahmachari" i.e. a man who has pledged to remain celibate for his whole life.

Main cast

• Mukesh Khanna
  Mukesh Khanna
  Mukesh Khanna is an Indian television and film actor, best known for portraying strong, dynamic characters. He was born on 22 July 1951, in Mumbai, India. He came into the film industry in 1982 after graduating from Film and Television Institute of India. He rose to fame and is still best known for...
  
   as Shaktimaan/Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkaar Naath Shastri
• Vaishnavi Mahant
  Vaishnavi Mahant
  Vaishnavi or Vaishnavi Mahant is an Indian actress who is best known for playing Geeta Vishwas in Mukesh Khanna's television series Shaktiman telecasted on Doordarshan. She also acted in various Bollywood films such as Bambai Ka Babu opposite Saif Ali Khan, Laadla, and Baabul.-Early life and...
  
  /Kitu Gidwani
  Kitu Gidwani
  Kitu Gidwani is an Indian actress and model. She has starred in some movies as well as serials in Indian television. She became popular after a TV series, Air Hostess aired on Doordarshan in 1986, and received critical acclaimed for her roles in Dance of the Wind , Deepa Mehta's Earth , Govind...
  
  ^‡ as Geeta Vishwas
• Surendra Pal
  Surendra Pal
  Surendra Pal is an Indian film and television character actor who is best known for his television roles of Dronacharya in Mahabharat, Amatya Rakshas in Chanakya and Tamraj Kilvish in Shaktiman.Surendra Pal was born in 1953....
  
   as Kilvish
• Tom Alter
  Tom Alter
  Tom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is best known for his work in Bollywood, but has also worked in the theatre...
  
   as Mahaguru
• Rajendra Gupta
  Rajendra Gupta
  Rajendra Gupta is an Indian film, television and theater actor and director who is best known for his television roles of Pandit Jagarnath in the 1990s Doordarshan fantasy television series Chandrakanta and Sudha's father - Jagat Narayan - in the 1998-2001 Sony TV drama Saaya.An alumnus of the...
  
   as Geeta's Father

^‡ - Gidwani

Kitu Gidwani

Kitu Gidwani is an Indian actress and model. She has starred in some movies as well as serials in Indian television. She became popular after a TV series, Air Hostess aired on Doordarshan in 1986, and received critical acclaimed for her roles in Dance of the Wind , Deepa Mehta's Earth , Govind...

 was the original actress to play Geeta and was later replaced by Mahant

Vaishnavi Mahant

Vaishnavi or Vaishnavi Mahant is an Indian actress who is best known for playing Geeta Vishwas in Mukesh Khanna's television series Shaktiman telecasted on Doordarshan. She also acted in various Bollywood films such as Bambai Ka Babu opposite Saif Ali Khan, Laadla, and Baabul.-Early life and...

 due to unknown reasons.

Fame

Shaktimaan is the defender of the 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 Shaktimaan first aired on Doordarshan, there were a lot of controversy created as children set themselves on fire or jumped off buildings hoping that Shaktimaan would save them. In an effort to promote responsible behavior among children, Mukesh Khanna spent a substantial part of the airtime in explaining to the children that the stunts shown on television were not real and should not be emulated. Khanna also stated that most of the controversies were fake and were raised in media to undermine its popularity.

Shaktimaan was one of the most popular and longest-running television series for Indian children on the Doordarshan channel.

Later a series of comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

s appeared featuring Shaktimaan and published in many Indian languages as well as English in association with Diamond Comics

Diamond Comics

Diamond Comics Pvt. Ltd. is the largest comic book distributor and publisher in India.-Overview:Diamond Comics is responsible for popular Indian comics characters such as Chacha Chaudhary. Diamond Comics has been publishing many foreign characters comics such as Phantom, Superman, Batman,...

 and Raj Comics

Raj Comics

Raj Comics is an Indian comic book line published by a division of Raja Pocket Books.Raj Comics' best-known characters include Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Doga, Parmanu, Shakti, Bhokal and Super Indian.-History:...

. Shaktimaan merchandise like costumes, stickers, dolls, etc. were also introduced in market.

In the wake of the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake

2001 Gujarat earthquake

The 2001 Gujarat earthquake occurred on January 26, 2001, India's 52nd Republic Day, at 08:46 AM local time and lasted for over two minutes. The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District of Gujarat, India...

, Mukesh Khanna toured the affected areas in character as Shaktimaan topping morale and giving relief to people.

External links

• Shaktimaan Comics
• Shaktimaan at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
• Shaktimaan profile at BizHat.com
• Interview with Mukesh Khanna at Indiantelevision.com