Indian Comic Books Have a Long Tradition but Only Recently Have They Started Tackling More Mature Themes, Writes Charukesi Ramadurai Sketches of the Past
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14 Books MARCH 20, 2011 SUNDAY MORNING POST Indian comic books have a long tradition but only recently have they started tackling more mature themes, writes Charukesi Ramadurai Sketches of the past few years ago, an unlikely who with girlfriend Bela and dog vanquished entire armies goddess was added to Chamiya, struck terror into the singlehandedly. India’s already hearts of the baddies. With the 1980s came overpopulated And during the next decade, fresh characters from pantheon. Going by entire generations of comic fans new publications. Athe name of Savita Bhabhi (meaning struck gold when, in 1967, India Chacha Chaudhary sister-in-law), she gave a new twist Book House editor Anant Pai (Diamond comics) to the term comic strip: she was created the Amar Chitra Katha and Detective India’s first pornographic cartoon comics. Literally translated as Moochwala (Target magazine) character. “immortal picture stories”, these were instant hits. They solved A29-year-old housewife, Bhabhi comic books featured stories based problems not with extraordinary had a dedicated website and mainly on Indian mythology. The powers but with their wits and thousands of dedicated followers. hero was always noble and valiant, cunning. Chacha Chaudhary’s brain But just a year after its launch in good always triumphed over evil, was said to be “faster than a mid-2009, the government, in a fit of and the difference between the two computer” – but we snippets on science and world such as Mother Teresa moral policing, banned the site and was sharp and unambiguous. But all know the speed of computers in cultures. By then, Anant Pai had (humanitarian), Kalpana Chawla Savita’s sexual shenanigans were no who cared? The Amar Chitra Katha the 1980s. come to be called Uncle Pai, and (astronaut) and J.R.D. Tata longer available for free viewing. comics were packaged in an Pai also introduced the classic regularly received letters from young (industrialist). Around that time, another appealing manner, interspersed Tinkle with stories based on folk readers. Tinkle characters such as After the lull, a renaissance has powerful woman appeared on the with small bite-sized morals, and tales from India and faraway lands. Shikhari Shambu, stupid Suppandi, been seen in the past few years with scene – but this time offline. Devi, were easy for kids to digest. The Each issue also carried contests and Tantri the Mantri and Kalia the Crow new publishing companies created by filmmaker Shekhar themes expanded to include all live in the collective memories of appearing on the scene. In 2006, Kapur (Elizabeth, Bandit Queen), modern history – the lives of Indians of a certain generation. After Virgin Comics came to India with was a sassy heroine from Virgin freedom fighters, for instance, and It is clear there is no Pai died from a heart attack on sleek offerings which combined the Comics with flashing eyes and a popular legends. February 24, a wave of nostalgia storylines of Amar Chitra Katha and luminous bodysuit. And then there For a long time, Indian comics lack of enthusiasm spread over blogs and newspapers the graphic stylings of Avatar. The was Sachin Tendulkar, the cricket were all about larger-than-life carried a range of tributes to the company was shut down in 2008, star who was reinvented in a series heroes and their exploits. among readers of creator of the nation’s original but has been relaunched as Liquid called Master Blaster which proved Superheroes (of the Indrajal variety) comic books. I could cartoon network. Comics. Ramayan, set in AD3392, is that a short, stocky frame meant regularly pulled off six impossible After the success of Pai’s Tinkle, one of Liquid’s best sellers, while nothing to a superhero. Mock him, things before breakfast. And in sense genuine comic books also started appearing Vimanika is another company that and he vaporises you with a flaming Indian mythology, gods have in regional Indian languages, offers comic books based on Indian cricket bat. superpowers. Some goddesses too, excitement featuring local characters. But the mythology. What a great distance India’s for many Indians believe in the ...................................................... strips remained exclusively for In the past few years, the industry comic book industry has come. It’s equality of women where it is least Samit Basu, author of Devi, on India’s children, with simple humour has started to target adult readers been a long, colourful journey relevant. They carried mountains on first comics convention, held in instead of clever wordplay. There with complex narratives and non- involving Western imports doing their hands, flew in the air and New Delhi last month was none of the sophistication of linear presentations. Protagonists battle with heroes from the nation’s say, Asterix, or the cynicism of have also begun to show shades of extensive mythology, and an Calvin and Hobbes. grey; between the divine and the appraisal of the evolution of the art The arrival of satellite television diabolical, there is Devi. As Karan Vir form has been under way since the brought an end to the glory days of Arora, chief executive of Vimanika, death of Indian comic book pioneer comic books on the subcontinent says: “Our comics bring out both the Anant Pai last month. with its wide variety of cartoon rough side – the anger and India’s earliest comic strip heroes shows. Comic book publishing aggression of some of the gods in were imports from the West. In the houses found it difficult to survive in our mythology – and the soft side of mid-1950s, publishing group amarket where children’s reading our ancient history. This shows our Bennett, Coleman & Co launched habits were already in decline. culture, our values and our dharma Indrajal comics, bringing to India Indrajal was the first to go in 1990. [code of conduct].” characters such as Phantom (“the Shaktimaan was reduced to Comics are also now looking ghost who walks”), Flash Gordon endorsing biscuits on television, beyond the successful staples of (“he’ll save every one of us”), and something of a comedown for Indian mythology. Campfire, which Mandrake (the magician who India’s Superman. But somehow, has been coming out with a series of “gestures hypnotically”). Indrajal Amar Chitra Katha adapted and graphic novels since 2008, publishes also later introduced home-grown survived by adding more stories derived not just from Indian hero Bahadur (meaning “brave”) Anant Pai, pioneer of many popular comic books, who died on February 24 contemporary themes and heroes and Western mythology but also SUNDAY MORNING POST MARCH 20, 2011 Books 15 Grassroots focus for indie documentaries Two pages from Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma and the cover The New Chinese Documentary Film Movement translates as “on- of an issue of edited by Chris Berry, Lu Xinyu and Lisa Rofel the-spot realism”, Ramayan 3392AD, Hong Kong University Press, HK$195 aesthetically it’s all published by very much at odds Liquid Comics Nicola Davison with the glossy mainstream and is In May 1999, Chinese independent filmmaker closer to cinéma Wu Wenguang ran into the police. He was on a vérité, or “truthful road trip with an underground performance cinema”, a French- troupe in Shaanxi province when they were born documentary accused of “staging obscene entertainment”. movement that The leader of the troupe was taken in and uses naturalistic their equipment confiscated. When Wu was techniques in questioned about his role, he had two which the answers: “I’m making a documentary” and director’s presence “I’m an author”. Although the police let the is often felt. In Bumming in Beijing Wu uses a troupe off with just a fine, Wu remained hand-held camera and no artificial lighting, troubled by these definitions of his work, simply shooting things as they happen. People neither of which quite fitted. ramble in and out of the frame. Wu is one in a small group of determined As Chris Berry and Lisa Rofel note in their filmmakers who, during the past few decades, concise introduction to the book (which have been documenting China outside of doubles as an accessible overview of the censorship and on shoestring budgets. movement), this style was enabled by the Although a handful of academic books in introduction of DV. Digital tools allowed Chinese have looked at the issue, The New directors to work without a crew and, as Chinese Documentary Film Movement – a editing could be done on a computer, on the comprehensive collection of essays written by cheap. The influence of DV and its on-the-spot filmmakers and academics – is the first book in aesthetic can be seen not only in the New English to discuss the phenomenon. Chinese documentaries, but also those of the Part of Wu’s difficulty in defining his own Sixth Generation filmmakers who started work is that it developed separately from the making films in the late 1990s. mainland’s mainstream film culture that was Jia Zhangke, who makes independent dominated by lush, stylised Fifth Generation documentaries beside his commercial work, films that rejected the socialist realism of the and often employs an on-the-spot style, communist era. In his essay in the book Wu, has hailed the post-DV age as “the age of who’s regarded as the forefather of the the amateur”. movement, writes about his more natural Though separated into four themed approach to the troupe, where he used his chapters, as an almost purely academic text digital video (DV) camera “like a pen”. (with the exception of Wu’s chapter, which has “Getting up in the mornings, I would pull arefreshingly personal tone), The New Chinese on my shoes, walk out of the tent, and take a Documentary Movement is difficult to p*** in the wilderness, the air incomparably penetrate at times.