Motu Patlu is an Indian animated sitcom that premiered on Nickelodeon in India on 16 October 2012. This show is available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada and Bengali. The series is adapted from the classic comic strip Lotpot.[5] It focuses on the misadventures of two friends, Motu and Patlu, landing in trouble and comical situations, later being rescued only by luck. It is one of the most popular kids' shows in India.[6]

Motu Patlu
GenreComedy
Fantasy
Created byJowthath Nadeem
Based onMotu Patlu
by Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj
Directed bySuhas Kadav[1][2]
Voices ofSaurav Chakraborty
Omi Sharma
Sankalp
Brian D. Costa
Rajah
Renu Sharda
Umar Riaz
Theme music composerSandesh Shandilya[3]
Opening theme"Motu Aur Patlu Ki Jodi" by Sukhwinder Singh
Ending theme"Motu Aur Patlu Ki Jodi" by Sukhwinder Singh
ComposerSandesh Shandilya
Country of originIndia
Original languageHindi
No. of episodes1128[4] (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerAnu Sikka
ProducersDeepa Sahi
Anish JS Mehta
EditorPrasad K. Patil
Running time22 minutes
Production companiesMaya Digital Studios
Viacom18
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
Release16 October 2012 (2012-10-16) –
present
Related
Inspector Chingum

Premise

Setting

The series is set in a fictional town of Furfuri Nagar of India.[7] It is a peaceful yet glamorous small town, simultaneously noble and squalid, adjoined by a river with a few shops, a large market area, a bus depot, a cluster of single-storeyed houses, temples, and a few recreational places. The town has three or more banks, three or more jewellery shops, Furfuri Nagar Police Station, Chingum's house, Boxer's house, Motu Patlu's house, Chaiwala's stall and house, Furfuri Nagar Central Jail, Furfuri Nagar Bus Stand, John's den, Dr. Jhatka's laboratory and house and Ghasitaram's house. There are a few villages and a few neighbouring cities around, such as Kamalpur, Sursuri Nagar and Modern City. Despite being a small town it has its own airport. It is not clearly mentioned where the town is exactly located, but most of the vehicles carry license plate numbers starting with "MH", which stands for the state of Maharashtra. The local police force wears uniforms of the Maharashtra Police.

However, in the later episodes, they had moved to Modern City for unknown reasons. A quick trailer showcasing new episodes mentions the differences in their new setting.

In the later episodes, they were on a trip to countries of Europe. Some European countries and cities they have visited include Pisa, Italy; Rome, Italy; Tuscany, Italy; London, England and Paris, France. They also visited Germany's Berlin, Switzerland's Top of Europe, Russia's St. Petersburg, England's Salisbury and Switzerland's Jungfraujoch.

In the later episodes, they are on a trip to India. Firstly, it streamed digitally on Voot Kids[broken anchor] on 12 April 2021. It started airing on Nickelodeon 10 May 2021. Some Indian cities of monuments they have visited include Taj Mahal (Agra), Gateway Of India (Mumbai), Victoria Memorial (Kolkata), Qutub Minar (New Delhi), Hawa Mahal (Jaipur), Tea Plantation (Assam), Backwater (Kerala), Charminar (Hyderabad), Bandra-Worli Sea Link (Mumbai), Rock Garden (Chandigarh), Elephanta Caves (Mumbai), Bekal Fort (Kerala), Red Fort (New Delhi) and Howrah Bridge (Kolkata) and many more.

However now they are back to Furfuri Nagar as same settings.

Plot

Motu and Patlu are two friends living in Furfuri Nagar.[8] Samosas are Motu's favorite food, and he frequently tries to steal them from a small shopkeeper named Chaiwala who makes the best samosas in the town, along with selling tea. After Motu eats samosas, he temporarily gains more energy and strength. Motu is mainly the black sheep of the duo, unintentionally creating problems due to his incompetency while Patlu is the smart one who always tries to stop him. The two land in trouble and comical situations, later being rescued only by luck. Ghasitaram occasionally misdirects and swindles them by making them try Dr. Jhatka's vast repertoire of quirky gadgets and gizmos.

The main antagonist of the series is a criminal named "John the Don" (briefly and very famously known as John) who is accompanied by his two big but weak and dumb henchmen, Number 1 and Number 2 who steal people's money and jewelry and create havoc in Furfuri Nagar. John intends to become a don (gangster), but his plans always fail due to the heroic actions of Motu and Patlu, who trap and expose him and his plans tit for tat. In some episodes, John tries to harm them by stealing Dr. Jhatka's newest gadget and using it against Motu and Patlu, but they eventually manage to give John a taste of his own medicine.

Characters

Main

  • Motu: Motu is a fat man who serves as one of the central protagonists in this show. He loves to eat samosas. Motu's best friend is Patlu.
  • Patlu: Patlu is a thin man who serves as one of the show's central protagonists. He is often portrayed as the smartest guy in the city however, he often gets into a lot of trouble with Motu.

Recurring

  • Inspector Chingum: Chingum is a police inspector. He believes that no criminal can escape from him, however, he manages to catch them mostly by the help of Motu and Patlu. He takes pride in the fact that no criminal can ever get away.
  • Doctor Jhatka: Doctor Jhatka is an eccentric scientist, engineer, a doctor and an inventor, all skills combined together. His inventions are usually very impressive but are of little use to the townspeople, since some of them often gets someone in trouble.[9]
  • Ghasitaram: Ghasitaram is cowardly and often claims to have twenty years of experience in various stuff but only a very few of the experiences are useful to others.
  • John: John serves as the main antagonist of the show. John's ambition is to become a Don. But his plans always fail very badly and thus end up in him getting arrested or being taunted by other people.
  • Number 1: Number 1 is John's sidekick who serves as one of the supporting antagonists.
  • Number 2: Number 2 is John's goon who rarely speaks.
  • Chaiwala: Chaiwala owns a tea shop near Motu's house. He makes Motu's favorite samosas and Patlu's favorite tea in the city.
  • Boxer: Boxer is Motu's neighbor, he is an aggressive man.

Other

  • Khopdi: Khopdi is a goon in who always tries to defeat Motu Patlu. He is the Don of Modern City.
  • Pappu-Haddi: They are two assistants of Khopadi.
  • Skull: He is the elder brother of Khopdi. He likes to catch animals.
  • Commissioner Bubblegum: Commissioner Bubblegum is Chingum's father and the police commissioner of Furfuri Nagar and adjoining villages.
  • Hera Singh: Hera is Chingum's first Hawaldars.
  • Pheri Lal: Pheri is Chingum's second Hawaldar.
  • Sabziwali: Sabziwali sells the best vegetables in the whole Furfuri Nagar. Motu can be troublesome to her too at times and also owes her some money.
  • Munni: Munni is Motu's sister who is shown very rarely in the episodes.
  • Chotu: Chotu is Motu's nephew(Munni’s son). He wears a green T-shirt with a pink trousers. Sometimes, he wears a brown shirt with yellow trousers.
  • Virus Scientist: Virus is a scientist, He always invents something for John. In return, he asks John for money but John somehow fools him and makes his run away. John uses his gadgets as a trial on him and puts Virus in trouble.

Production

Music

The music featured in the series and film is written by Sandesh Shandilya, an Indian film composer. The theme song of the series, "Motu Aur Patlu Ki Jodi", is written by Gulzar and sung by Bollywood singer Sukhwinder Singh in Hindi.

Movies

No. Title Premiere Date
1 Motu Patlu In Wonderland! 10 July 2013
2 Motu Patlu Mission Moon 25 December 2013
3 Motu Patlu Deep Sea Adventure 19 May 2014
4 Motu Patlu Kung Fu Kings 23 October 2014
5 Motu Patlu Khazaane Ki Race 26 January 2015
6 Motu Patlu Kung Fu King Returns 14 June 2015
7 Motu Patlu In Carnival Island 22 October 2015
8 Motu Patlu 36 Ghantey Race Against Time 25 December 2015
9 Motu Patlu In Alien World! 14 February 2016
10 Motu Patlu In Double Trouble 29 May 2016
11 Motu Patlu King of Kings 14 October 2016
12 Motu Patlu The Invisible Plane 25 December 2016
13 Motu Patlu In Dragon's World 25 June 2017
14 Kung Fu Kings 3: Motu Patlu In Hong Kong 19 October 2017
15 Motu Patlu In Octopus World 24 December 2017
16 Motu Patlu In The City Of Gold 29 April 2018
17 Motu Patlu Dino Invasion 24 June 2018
18 Kung Fu Kings 4: Motu Patlu And The Challenge Of Kung Fu Brothers 21 October 2018
19 Motu Patlu The Superheroes Vs Supervillains From Mars 26 January 2019
20 Kung Fu Kings 5: Motu Patlu And Robo Kids 26 May 2019
21 Motu Patlu In The Game Of Zones 25 December 2019
22 Motu Patlu The Superheroes Vs Alien Ghost 28 June 2020
23 Motu Patlu's Dangerous Road Trip In Switzerland 25 October 2020
24 Motu Patlu: Christmas Special 25 December 2020
25 Motu Patlu Vs Dr Destroyer 03 January 2021
26 The Secret Mission Of Motu Patlu 23 May 2021
27 Motu Patlu Planet Of No Return 27 June 2021
28 Motu Patlu In Toy World 31 December 2021
29 Kung Fu Kings 6: Motu Patlu & The Secret Of Devil's Heart 29 May 2022
30 Motu Patlu And The Terror Of Giant Beast 13 Nov 2022
31 Motu Patlu In Metal World 25 June 2023
32 Motu Patlu And The Race To The Diamond Valley 28 April 2024
33 Motu Patlu And Mission Kung Fu Kid 02 August 2024

Merchandising and promotion

Since the inception of the television series, its creators, Lotpot magazine, Maya Digital Studios and Nickelodeon India are aggressively promoting its merchandising, the series products and tie-ups.[10][11]

In March 2014, Nick India tied up with the Yellow Diamond chips brand for promotion of its products across various media.[12][13] In November 2014 a major deal was signed by Horlicks for promotion of its brand with the series's characters in its marketing advertisements.[14]

Numerous mobile video games based on the series have been released by Indian software companies such as Nazara Technologies and Tangiapps.

References

  1. ^ AnimationXpress Team (16 October 2012). "'Motu Patlu' Premiers Today on Nickelodeon – In Conversation with director of 'Motu Patlu' Suhas Kadav". AnimationXpress. Archived from the original on 21 March 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  2. ^ Ramachandran, Naman (15 September 2016). "India's Viacom18 Teams With Nickelodeon for 'Motu Patlu' Animation". Variety. Archived from the original on 24 February 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Nickelodeon presents home-grown animated show 'Motu Patlu by Cosmos Entertainment/Maya Digital Studios". Bollywoodtrade.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  4. ^ Service, Tribune News. "Animated series Motu Patlu completes 1000 episodes". Tribuneindia News Service.
  5. ^ "Storyboard18: Catching up with Motu Patlu ahead of Children's Day". cnbctv18.com. 12 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  6. ^ Milligan, Mercedes (19 May 2016). "Cosmos-Maya Leads Regional Animation Production". Animation Magazine. Archived from the original on 17 November 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  7. ^ "Have you won an invite to the coolest party this summer?". 28 May 2013. Archived from the original on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  8. ^ "living in". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  9. ^ "Dr Jhatka, who gave us a shock". Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  10. ^ Anil Wanvari (30 October 2012). "Indian Television Dot Com – Nickelodeon gears up to promote Motu-Patlu". Indiantelevision.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Viacom18 to expand sale of TV channel merchandise". The Hindu Business Line : Mobile Edition. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  12. ^ "Nickelodeon signs Motu-Patlu Licensing Deal with Prataap Snacks". Afaqs.com. 13 October 2014. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  13. ^ Anil Wanvari (7 October 2014). "Indian Television Dot Com – Nick opens up Motu Patlu for promotional licensing; launches toys with yellow diamond rings". Indiantelevision.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  14. ^ Urvi Malvania (29 December 2014). "Nick's toons revel in telefilms". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 25 May 2015.