Authors Create Characters

 Hercule Poirot, Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond.. almost everyone in our circles (readers, film-goers) knows these characters. Some of us may be aware of Nero Wolfe, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, and a few others too. Cartoonists did that too. R.K. Laxman's Common Man, or Mario Miranda's Miss Fonseca are examples.

Creating a new character is not easy. You have to give him/her a personality like a real woman/man, and make some of their mannerisms or characteristics unique, like the egg-shaped head, the constant talk about "the little grey cells" and a few French words/phrases in the case of Hercule Poirot, so the reader starts visualising the character. 

In my brief writing journey, I am proud of having created two characters, at least. Two humans, that is, and a mosquito, Anopheles. She has views about us humans, and they are not always charitable. But we are friends, so I take these in my stride. Very intelligent conversationalist, she can talk about any topic. 

The two human characters were Lord Rocheskatchewn (pronounced Rooska-toon), 21^st Earl of Rocheskatchewn and an MBA student, Gurumurthy, who shows the Lord around the campus when he visits IIM Bangalore.

A A Fair

You might not recognise the name, but this is the other name used by one of the bestselling authors. Erle Stanley Gardner, who created the criminal lawyer -Perry Mason-who escorts all his clients out of a murder rap. Clever as hell, he has an efficient secretary, Della Street, and Paul, a private detective who does the shadowing of suspects and witnesses. Typical fast-paced American murder mysteries.

The same author has created another unforgettable pair of private detectives, Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. They are as unlike each other as a strawberry and a potato, but complement each other and run a deadly agency, always coming out trumps, even in the face of obstruction from the local police in the form of Sgt. Frank Sellers. I have just been reading a couple of Cool and Lam books, and they are ..cool.

The other good pair of detectives in book form is by Rex Stout- Nero Wolfe,the orchid-loving fat, brainy guy who never stirs out of his New York home-cum-office, cooks and leaves the leg work to his assistant Archie Goodwin. Haven't found him on shelves of book stores lately, but may be available on digital sites.

Agatha Christie, Mystery Books and Films

Agatha Christie was a part of growing up. I read a lot of her books. My favourite creation of hers is the Belgian with the egg-shaped head, Hercule Poirot. I also watched a few of the English films that were made based on her books. The three films I liked best were Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, and Murder on the Orient Express. Naturally, they are all Hercule Poirot mysteries, with Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney playing him. I also saw a couple of films based on the Miss Marple character, but to me, she was an "inferior" detective.

The Hindi film Gumnaam was also based on And Then There Were None, written by her. It was a really good film in the suspense genre, where winners of a contest are flown to an island resort, and bumped off one by one..excellent plot. Mehmood acted really well, and the song Hum kaale hain to kya hua dilwaale hain that he sang on-screen became a rage. Other popular songs were Jaane chaman, shola badan, filmed on the lead pair of Nanda and Manoj Kumar, and Jaan pehchan ho, jeena aasaan ho, sung at the party where the contest winners are announced at the beginning.

I doubt if anyone wrote as well as her in the world of detective fiction, though I also like Rex Stout and his detective Nero Wolfe (with Archie Goodwin as the sidekick), and Perry Mason, the lawyer who solved mysteries while getting his clients off the hook (literally, as they faced murder charges). A black and white TV series starring Raymond Burr as Perry Mason was my favourite while in the U.S. in the late eighties.

The other singular author in this genre was of course, Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is incomparable, as is Watson. Elementary, you say? Also filmed well in an old TV series I remember watching on DD.

Interesting Fictional Characters

Alice from Wonderland is probably the most fascinating, that appeals to the child in all of us. Other assorted characters like the Mad Hatter are also very appealing.

Sindbad the sailor was one of my favourites, with his myriad voyages, each an adventure in itself.

The famous five of Enid Blyton, in two sets- the mystery series and the others.

Phantom, Mandrake, their respective girlfriends Diana and Narda, the skull cave, the jungle mail, and the secret villains, ..fascinating.

Asterix, Obelix, Getafix, Unhygienix, ..the names alone brought a twinkle to your eyes.

Sherlock Holmes and Watson, an inseparable combination of wit and the lack of it.

Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin created by Rex Stout.

Bertha Cool and Donald Lam, and Perry Mason, all creations of Earl Stanley Gardner.

Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective of Agatha Christie. Par excellence!

An Indian detective in Bangla costume- Byomkesh Bakshi, immortalised in a TV serial.

Superman, with Christopher Reeve epitomising him.

Jeeves and Bertie, immortal creations from Wodehouse.

Remington Steele, starring Pierce Brosnan.

Birbal, and Tenali Raman- semi fictional, perhaps.

Mulla Naseeruddin, with his great wit.

James Bond, with his vodka Martinis.

Gabbar Singh, Mogambo, Mr. India, Amar, Akbar and Anthony, Gunmaster G-9.

Master Pillai from Padosan.

Babu Moshai from Anand. Anand from Anand.

Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi.

Laurel and Hardy.

Charlie Chaplin's common man. R.K. Lakshman's common man.

Casper, the friendly ghost. Little Lotta. Dennis the Menace.

Goofy, Donald, Mickey, Uncle Scrooge, Huey, Luey, Duey.

Castle and Suspense Serials

Over the years, I have watched some suspense serials on TV, starting with the classic Sherlock Holmes which Indian TV Doordarshan used to telecast on Sundays many decades ago.

After that, I watched several episodes of Murder, She Wrote, Tehkikaat starring Vijay Anand, Bomkesh Bakshi ( a very good one), a few episodes of CID, Remington Steele which I like a lot, and now some episodes of Castle last year. Castle has been now revived on Star World, both old and new season episodes.

X- files is of the same type, with Gillian Anderson and Mark Duchovny (hope the names are right) playing the investigators. That reminds me, I saw Gillian Anderson recently in a movie starring Mr. 'Bean" Atkinson (a hilarious Bond spoof called Johny English Reborn).

All these in their own way are good, engaging serials if you like the genre of murder or other mysteries. Some better than others. I also loved the black and white Perry Mason series (starring Raymond Burr) that I watched on American TV many years ago in their re-runs. It takes a lot of imagination to churn out engaging characters like Perry Mason, Della Street and in hundred plus intricate stories, all with a courtroom angle.

Among Indian film producers, B.R. Chopra made a few good courtroom dramas, like Kanoon, Dhund, Hamraaz, Gumraah and so on. A part of Nikaah was shot at Osmania University Arts College, and we saw a few minutes of the shoot- boring, I must add.

On a different note, read somewhere that The Great Gatsby is being made with Leonardo Di Caprio. It is a nice book I read last year, after missing out on it for many years. Like The Old Man and the Sea, and Zorba The Greek. All great finds.