James Colmer on the philosophy of Jadoo:

By Bollywood Hungama -

August 13, 2003 - 12:00 AM IST

Throughout history, in every culture there are ancient traces of civilisations and knowledge which suggests a much more advanced and intelligent race of beings once lived here. In creating a history for Jadoo, I felt it was important to include these esoterical and mystical influences. Jadoo comes from a very intelligent and advanced race which may have visited our earth many times before, passing on this ancient knowledge to our different cultures in the hope of uniting us all. It was important to Rakesh and to the script that Jadoo was able to use the energy of the sun. This was an ideal opportunity to introduce the symbolism of the tree of life. When a practitioner uses the so called "Kundalini" energy, they are creating in their mind an image of the Kabbala around them, imagining the energy flow in a lightning flash which draws upon the "fire" and sends it up the middle pillar, through the gates of wisdom, past the reptilian brain, to charge the pineal gland, or third eye of the mystics. Jadoo symbolically draws upon the "fire" to summon his energy, resulting in a sublime glow at his crown chakra. THE COSTUME The robes have been designed as to not be too elaborate or royal but to suggest a wise being similar to that of a monk or shaman. The gold robes we often see Krishna dressed in were used as a reference for selecting a suitable fabric. The colour also complemented the alien's blue skin. Jadoo's people believe in a universal energy. Each is a part of the whole. The design on Jadoo's back represents the energy lines or "chi" moving toward the key chakra points. The design also represents an awarenessness of the inner self. The detail in the shoulder fabric echoes the design of the spaceship and also represents the notion of vibration. Everything in our world is made up of energy which vibrates at a particular frequency. A subtle reference to Ganesh has also been incorporated into our alien design. It's nose / mouth structure, ears and larger head sub-consciously resemble that of Ganesha without the trunk. The long and full robes also allowed us to disguise the back pack which housed the remote controls for the animatronic head, as well as the actor's human body shape. BRACELET The bracelet that jadoo wears serves a particular purpose as well as being symbolic. The light it gives off acts as a homing beacon for Jadoo to find the ship as well as for the ship to locate Jadoo. It is an amber gemstone, which is surrounded by eminating waves like a pebble sitting in a stream. It represents nature and it's subtle forces. The stone is hard and heavy yet the water can carry it, erode it, and shape it. The water's energy is also reflected in waves from the stone. In a sense it transmits its energy via the water. NECKLACE The necklace that Jadoo wears is a direct representation of the sound "om" (as written in english), which is so frequently refered to throughout the film. From this necklace design came the idea and concepts for the spaceship. THE SPACESHIP The Spaceship is a combination of elements, all which have a very specific meaning. The original design was drawn from the necklace which Jadoo wears. It felt right to create a ship which would reflect their way of thinking, and also I think sparked a very different spaceship design. In Sanskrit form AUM is not common to the English language, so we initially represented this symbol with the letters O and M. When viewed side on the spaceship literally becomes a giant symbol of our stylized "aum". This subtle shape became the link between the design of the alien's costume, it's jewellery and the spaceship. Later in the design process we discovered that the shape we had created is very similar to the Waythik and Byranike representation of "OM". The sub-conscious connection was definitely universal. We also wanted to incorporate was the peace symbol. We wanted to represent the aliens as a peaceful race of beings and fitted well with the notion of "we come in peace. This symbol was also transformed so that the connection would be subtle and sub-conscious. In the original design for the spaceship, the top plated section of the ship has a series of panels, which like Jadoo draws in power. The ship utilises universal energy, like riding on solar winds. The craft also has the capacity for time-space warping. THE OCTAPAD The Octapad was originally designed to be similar in shape to the spaceship. However given the era (ie the 1980's) in which the Octapad is apparently built by a man in his garage, this was revised. THE SCIENTIST'S ROOM Rakesh asked if I would come up with a design for the scientists room. I felt it should be a messy place, probably full of junk, with pieces of outdated equipment hacked together. I was also influenced by the simplicity of the bedroom set used by Mathew Broderick in "War Games".