Kung fu came to Bangalore in the mid 70's in the form of that awesome master warrior Bruce Lee. "Enter The Dragon", the Master's last offering took India by storm. The queues at Galaxy theatre had to be seen to be believed. Trust me, I was part of them, on 7 occasions. And never regretted it. He had an almost invincible aura around him, his phenomenal skills made him a unique warrior around whom reel life unfolded. He had muscles which I did not even know existed,. You see, we belonged to the "Dumbell" generation and at the most would develop satisfying Lumps of muscles on our torsos and appendages without knowing what to do with them.
He did. His speed strength and technique were almost supernatural in nature. When he hit someone, they stayed hit. Here was a man all of us secretly longed to be. Machismo in its pure distilled form. Someone nobody dared confront. One wrong move and you were dead long before you knew it!
Our entire fighting technique in those days revolved around a sneaky kick to the Gonads. Or, to those more informed in the art of combat, a punch to the "Solar Plexus". In those days everybody knew where it existed ( just below the sternum) and one punch would render your opponent "Hors de combat" Strangely though this particular part of the body seems to have disappeared nowadays, at least I don't hear of it any more either in gyms or the Doctor's offices. Strange. So you could understand our veneration for Shri Lee and the fierce anger that a man who could inspire us to join desi Dojo's was struck down in his prime.
Only to be replaced by Jackie Chan, a pale imitator, more into stunts than kung fu. Followed by a flood of Chinese "Shaolin" martial arts movies of little entertainment value. That is until the arrival of Jet Li, who even impressed the Wife with his lethal technique in "Lethal Weapon 4". Some achievement, given girls just arnt into Martial Arts Movies even those starring the "Master". I guess there is no Kung Fu in Venus though Mars is heavily loaded with it.
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