The comic universe of Amar Chitra Katha

Lord Rama dominated this last week as all eyeballs were centered on Ayodhya for the consecration Amidst the joie de vivre in Mumbai city motorcycles whizzing by with orange flags attached to the rear a hologram of Rama reflected on the Sea Linkmdashthe Ramayana came back to me I never got down to reading the Ramayana or the Mahabaratha as booksmdashbut for me both epics dated back to Amar Chitra Katha comics in the seventies and in my brain they stayed imprinted as realistic cartoons as epic tales of valour and vindictiveness chivalry and chauvinism skill and sacrificeFor us 70s kids Indian mythology was learnt from Amar Chitra Katha comics My stack of Anand Pairsquos marvels alongside my Mad magazine collection have stood the test of time Uncle Pai and the good folks at ACK believed in the axiom ldquocatch rsquoem youngrdquo and they didmdashthe finely detailed illustrations our first exposure to religious superheroesThe Mahabaratha was my favourite story growing up the detailed daybyday waging of war each book dealing with one specific battle on Kurukshetra the main battle groundmdashthe PandavaKaurava battle swung one way then the other Arjunarsquos great familial doubts as he saw his cousins on the opposite side Krishnarsquos persuasion that he must fight Karna as a tragic hero Yudhishtra losing all his kingdoms and wealth in the game of dice including Draupadi Duryodhana and co attempting to disrobe her and Krishna stepping in as saviour by endlessly extending her sariIrsquom thinking that as an eight year old the Mahabaratha ldquocapturedrdquo me via the story though the Ramayana perhaps had the more distinct charactersmdashin the former there was no one clear protagonist and no definitive antagonist the two sets of cousins the Pandavas and Kauravas facing off against each othermdashin the Ramayana the ldquoherordquo of the story is banished with his wife and brother to the jungles and the ldquovillainrdquo of the story kidnaps the ldquoheroinerdquo and the hero has to save herRama the clear protagonist had things and events happening to him but as a child it was the ldquoevilrdquo antagonist Ravana who was more enthrallingmdashthe concept of a demigod with multi heads each brain thinking a different thing but all of them converging on one aim kidnapping SitaTalking about ldquovillainsrdquo has there ever been a more shaded lsquobaddiersquo than the demon king the rakhshas Ravana And his brother Kumbakarna we talk of an ideal eight hours of sleep he managed six months between satisfying his whopping appetite and walloping his enemies in battle and their sister Surpankaha incensed that she was rejected in marriage by Rama provoking her brother Ravana to abduct Sita All this was magic realism at its bestMany other characters of the Ramayana fascinated me as a child mainly gods who took the form of ldquoanimalsrdquomdashJatayu the eagle or vulture who in his younger reckless days tried to fly towards the sun and nearly got scorched saved only by his brother who with his giant wings attempted to shield him But now older and wiser Jatayu tries to protect Sita from Ravana but has a portion of his wing chopped offmdashas he dies is able to tell Rama and Lakshman of the kidnappingAnd the greatest character of all the monkey god Hanuman loyal to Rama a fighter to the core resourceful in the building of the RamSetu bridge And Ravana setting Hanumanrsquos tail on fire and parading him around Lanka but on Sitarsquos pleading to Lord Agnideva made sure that the monkey king was not hurtmdashand that he shrunk himself in size to get off his ropes and set fire to Lankamdashone of the great ldquorevengerdquo storiesPerhaps today is as good a day as any to revisit Amar Chitra Katha comicsmdashIrsquoll begin with the story of Abhimanyu son of Arjuna as he found his way into the Chakravyuh but unable to retreat fought armies upon armies armed only with a chariot wheelRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom