Batman, Vol. 1, #351 (Sept. 1982) © DC Comics.
Horror is a genre which explores moral boundaries and changing values. In other words, it pegs the Zeitgeist. Vampire stories appear wherever something is going wrong in a society. European vampires had origins in the Black Death and in the transgressions of the late medieval nobility (as here and here). From around 1800 onward, the Romantic insomniac suave and decadent vampire reflected the sordid vanities of aristocrats. That preoccupation with class inequality persisted over the next two centuries in the Old and New Worlds alike, whether the vampire was a Gothic immigrant, a surrealists' favourite or an expressionistic caricature, pulped (like DC comics' Batman character, who is basically a metropolitan playboy vampire-turned-vigilante, although the editors make the connection plain only occasionally), or reworked as a celebrity, a rock star, an addict or a fashion model (as below). Millennial America produced vampires who were suburbanites and depressed teenaged vegetarians.
In India, two of the Ramsay brothers directed Bollywood's vampiric answer: Bandh Darwaza (1990). This film is a clunky cult favourite, whose vampire spans the distance between old-fashioned Indian familial expectations and a rapid move into the modern world. See it below the jump.
There is a list of depictions of Dracula in popular culture here.
Noot Seear's vampiric Mona Lisa for Yves Saint Laurent's Rive Gauche ad campaign in 1998 cast another light on the mysterious smile. Image Source: Cute and Beauty Girls.
Bandh Darwaza (1990). Video Source: Youtube.
Synopsis: The dark caves of Kali Pahari (Black Hills) is the lair of the dangerous Dracula, Nevla, who sleeps in a coffin by day, and transforms into a bat at night in hunt for human blood. He craves the supply of young women in order to spread his evil seed and the Thakur's wife, Lajjo becomes his latest victim. Lajjo is unable to conceive a child and enlists the help of her maid, Mahua who takes her to Nevla. He assures Lajjo that she will give birth but if it's a daughter, then she must surrender her to him, to which she agrees. Shortly thereafter, she gives birth to a daughter, Kamya, but refuses to surrender it. Mahua poisons her, abducts Kamya, and takes her to Nevla. Thakur Pratap Singh storms Nevla's cave and banishes Nevla to a coffin in a cavern, and rescues his daughter. Twenty years later, Kamya grows up to be a beautiful girl and she has her heart set on Kumar, her childhood friend. But Kumar is in love with a girl named Sapna and snubs Kamya. An enraged Kamya soon finds herself taken by the gang to the altar of Neola where he is resurrected and bites Kamya. She becomes hypnotized to serve Neola forever. Doing the wicked deeds of Nevla, Kamya, in the quest to make Kumar her own puts everyone she knows in grave danger. How much blood will be shed to quench the thirst of Nevla? How can the vicious Bat be sent to the depths of hell before the survivors blood drains out?
NOTES FOR READERS OF MY POSTS.
If you're not reading this post on Histories of Things to Come, the content has been scraped and republished without the original author's permission. Please let me know by following this link and leaving me a comment. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment