The two-minute YouTube video introducing cricket megastar MS Dhoni’s look as Atharva purportedly the main character in what we are told is a new age graphic novel authored by Ramesh Thamiani, produced by Adaikalarai and Asok Manor.
Dhoni appears as a scruffy best chested warrior battling it out with an assortment of demonic characters armed to the teeth against an aptly sombre musical score. His classical good looks accentuated by his raw warrior appearance make him look intriguingly fierce and steely-a look that the cricketing fans will find oddly familiar and comfortable.
Backed by Dhoni Entertainment, Atharva-The Origin is a mythological sci-fi web series that promises to be a spectacular success given Dhoni’s mass appeal and the slick manner in which Dhoni’s animated avatar manages to attract the viewers’ attention.
Dhoni seems to have quite a few plans for his post cricket life, judging by this surprise that he had sprung on us via this new presentation. One must give it to Dhoni when it comes to his choices in life. From being Captain Cool of the Indian cricket team to being the much-loved Chennai Super Kings skipper and from being a patriotic and adventure-loving Territorial Army officer and now a graphic novel superhero-you get the feeling that there really is nothing that he cannot do.
Like his successor captain of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli, Dhoni is in a league of his own, when it comes to managing his celebrity status. No wonder the youth of the country love and adore him as much as they do. Here’s to Atharva! May he vanquish all his adversaries the way MSD would dispatch the red cherry to the boundary for a six.