Paws & Effect: Canine Companions Are Finally Top Dog On Screen | Four-legged film stars are chasing their own tails of glory. |  | Vikram Phukan | | LAST MONTH , James Gunn’s smash reboot of Superman recast Krypto the Superdog for a new generation. As a fully CGI creation unbound by the limitations of live-action or dated visual effects, this version of Krypto gets to revel in the unruly mischief and ‘bad dog’ energy (as David Corenswet’s Superman quips, “He’s not even a very good one”) that make him so comically compelling. There’s even an ironic bite to his name: Krypto often behaves like Superman’s own personal kryptonite, derailing carefully laid plans with an unshakeable (and oblivious) urge to pounce on everyone in sight. Still, there’s a real dog behind the pixels. Krypto was partially inspired by Ozu, a playfully destructive rescue dog Gunn adopted while writing the film, and his digitally rendered behaviour draws directly from Ozu’s real-life canine quirks, seemingly blended with a greatest-hits showreel of every dog on the internet: TikTok pups with their head tilts, viral tantrums, and slapstick loyalty. Dog-parents may have known the secret all along, but for a world now primed to respond compulsively to a steady algorithmic drip of cute dog (and cat) content, Krypto hits each note of endearment with eerie precision. | The second half of that earlier line, “But he’s out there alone. And he’s probably scared,” which refers to Krypto’s abduction by Lex Luthor, is telling of Superman’s bond with the dog. When the Man of Steel barrels into LexCorp and demands, “Where is my dog?”, it should be funny since Krypto has been comic relief until now, but we’ve been trained (via the John Wick films, no less) to recognise that this kind of moment in action cinema is deadly serious. When we finally find Krypto chasing holographic squirrels in a pocket-universe ‘prison’, the loneliness registers more sharply than the absurdity. In John Wick (2014), the puppy in question (Daisy) barely gets five minutes of screen time. But she’s soft, tentative, and shares in John’s (Keanu Reeves) haunted silence. She was played by an eight-week-old beagle, specifically chosen for his expressive eyes and gentle temperament. This makes Daisy’s brutal death all the more unforgettable, triggering Wick’s return to the underworld in a fury that feels both personal and inevitable. The grief is deliberately outsized, even operatic (and likely helped spawn the flood of Sad Keanu memes online). More restrained than explosive, Corenswet doesn’t perform his grief in the same key, but the emotional weight still lands. Krypto may not determine the outcome of the plot like Daisy does, but both dogs serve as important emotional fulcrums, revealing their hero’s unguarded self. And discovering that Krypto’s actual owner is Supergirl (on whom the next film in this new DC Universe is based) hints at a longer arc for the caped canine. Watch all four John Wick films here on OTTplay Premium. | During the pandemic, like so many others stuck at home, my relationship with our family dog changed in subtle but lasting ways. As I spent months in a slower, more static environment, Pepsi, a Labrador named for her vim rather than the fizzy drink, ironically brought a sense of stillness to each day with her calm, almost meditative presence. She isn’t remotely camera-friendly and offers none of the quirky moments that might make for a surefire viral reel, but there’s a kind of deliberate watchfulness in her that grew more pronounced during that time. Her history carries its own quiet drama: before she came to us, she fell from a building at just two months old — a limp lingers in her gait more than a decade later. Her previous owner had circled our house for hours before deciding if we were the right people to adopt her, and now she’s formed a unique, private bond with each member of the household. Yes, she’s motivated by food and its sundry providers, but beyond that, there’s a kind of stoic companionship. | The other thing lockdown introduced many of us to was inordinate binge-watching. In the long hours between news cycles and case counts, I dove deep into the irresistible cesspool of multi-season genre sagas. Cue eleven seasons of The Walking Dead (2010-2022), the zombie apocalypse horror series, and several more of Outlander (2014 onwards), a medieval-era time-travel melodrama with a touch of the macabre. Amid the frequent bloodbaths, I found myself increasingly fixated on the dogs— Rollo, the wolfish companion to Young Ian in the latter, and Dog (that’s the name), who trails behind Norman Reedus’s Daryl Dixon like a silent, loyal sentinel in the former. They were always placed at an emotional brink, perpetually at risk, but survived many a cliffhanger. Yet, the anxiety about their immediate fate would often lead me to Google, where spoilers reign supreme. That’s where I discovered DoesTheDogDie.com , a strange but oddly comforting site that feeds into our anxiety while offering a kind of balm: a trigger warning of sorts, a form of self-protection, and it covers a spectrum of distressing plot points, not just the imminent passing of dogs. It’s not unlike checking the live scoreboard of a tennis match streaming with a time delay — not to ruin the drama, but to brace for it and stay in control of what might otherwise unravel you (Rafael Nadal losing a pivotal point, in this case). But perhaps it was Pepsi’s quiet, everyday presence that made me care more about these fictional dogs, or maybe it was simply that these parts were better written. | Anatomy of a Fall (2023) offers a case in point: though framed as a gritty marital and courtroom drama, its most unforgettable character might just be Snoop, the dog played by Messi, a French Border collie (not the footballer). In a quietly astonishing performance over the course of the film, he is by turns playful, loyal, or at the edge of exhaustion, capturing an emotional range that goes beyond any background presence. When Messi deservedly took home the Palm Dog at Cannes, what was surprising was learning (for those who came in late, as the old comics would say) that such an award even existed. But it’s far from a gimmick. It recognised what many overlook: that dogs can be true actors, carrying emotional weight and narrative consequence. Unlike many human performances that lean heavily on dialogue and gesture, Messi’s acting unfolds in subtle body language, with slow, almost imperceptible shifts in posture, including the way he meets eyes, or sags with fatigue. Editing and directing around a dog’s emotional arc demands patience and precision. I was happy to learn the Palm Dog has been handed out for decades. It makes you wonder, what does a dog make of award season shenanigans? Even if they’re chauffeured to events full of tuxedos and gowns, does it feel extra posh or just confusing? Maybe the real award goes to the trainers, like the one for Messi, who talked about coaxing behavioural subtlety rather than tricks and scripted beats. | Away from Hollywood and the European arthouse circuit, Indian cinema has never been short on animal actors. Films like Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) or Teri Meherbaniyan (1985) gave circus animals and loyal pets starring roles, often earning them top billing in the credits. Teri Meherbaniyan was unforgettable for many of us who saw it at a young age. It was a full-blown revenge drama led by a dog, Moti, after his master is killed (with a title song on loyalty to boot). But the performance relied heavily on close-ups, slow-motion, and swelling music rather than any nuanced behaviour. The dog wasn’t acting so much as being framed for maximum emotional projection. Still, as a child, that didn’t matter; the image of a loyal dog taking revenge was deeply affecting. More recent Indian films have pushed this further. 777 Charlie (2022) gives its titular dog a full character arc, one that mirrors the lead’s journey through grief and healing. It works hard to give the dog (albeit one that is played by three Labrador Retrievers) a consistent emotional register. Valatty (2023), a kind of street dog romance, takes an even bolder leap: it imagines a canine love story told almost entirely from the dog’s perspective, although its use of voiceovers for the dogs calls for a leap of faith. Thanks to evolving training techniques, closer observation, and a deeper understanding of animal behaviour, all these stories attempt something far more textured: not just placing dogs in the frame, but letting them shape the emotional scaffolding of the story. Perhaps what dogs offer most is not drama or devotion, but a kind of groundedness — something steady to hold on to, even when the story unravels. But whether it is algorithmic conditioning, pandemic-induced empathy, or cinematic evolution, the cultural moment for dogs on screen matters more now than ever before. These beloved canine adventures are streaming on JioHotstar, now part of your OTTplay Premium subscription. Watch now! ⬇️ | Like what you read? Read more of what you like: Subscribe to our (free) newsletters , visit the website or download the app , and follow @ottplayapp on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram . We'd love to hear from you! Know someone who'd love this newsletter? 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