Stuff

How do i start this particular post? To be very frank i dont have much of an idea.Inspite of wanting to write about a few things i have not been able to find time to post anything.My classes have been quite hectic,and i am as good as dead these days.Hopefully i will get some respite from all the work for a few days two weeks from now.Anyway, a lot has been happening around the world lately.Famous people have been talking how the Holocaust was nothing but a fairy tale,a call center working woman was murdered.I guess you will read about all that in the papers.During this long period of silence my friend Savio has been very persistent in asking me to post on my blog.I must say -Savio loves reading substandard crap! Now,getting back to what i was going to write about.Recently India has seen the launch of its first graphic novel.Its called Corridor,written by Sarnath Banerjee.I read it a few days back.So what will follow next is sort of my review-or rather what i felt about the book NOT my critique.Read on.

I am a great fan of comic books and graphic novels in general.Having been a fan of works by Alan Moore,Masamune Shirow,Katsuhiro Otomo,Neil Gaiman,Daniel Clowes etc i have been in love with the medium itself.So when i first heard about this book-the first Indian graphic novel i was quite interested in getting my hands on it.Now that i have i feel like i have been hit by a bad spot of indigestion.The feeling wont go away and i guess this bad aftertaste is going to stick with me for a few days more.The book's problem isnt its pseudointellectuality,the book has other bigger problems.First and foremost the artwork.The majority of the frames are dependant on the foreground and the characters involving the plot(or rather the lack of plot).Minimal usage of mid-ground and background makes it look very two dimensional lacking any depth.The main characters are going through their lives all involved with their petty problems.When i read the novel i didnt feel close to any of the characters.Brighu sounds like he is an emotional vegetable,Digital Dutta thinking only about Karl Marx and Shintu of course stuck on sex.I know what you will think,this book is supposed to be talking about this kind of superficial life.It is one thing to talk about superficiality and it is another thing to just mention a few names and give snapshots of pseudointellectual tidbits and depend on them to speak out for themselves.The storyline meanders,becoming apparent that the author couldnt make up his mind what exactly should this be about.The problem i had with this novel was that i could feel it reeked of being reverse engineered.Its as if the writer sat down and figured the only people who will be even interested in buying a graphic novel in india would be come kind of elitist,so why not talk about Marx,existentialism in a wild tangent making inane references to them every third page or so.Mix that with sex,old records,second hand book shops and H1-B visa-wallah!You've got a heady cocktail which every snobby intellectual will lap up like a hungry dog.Sorry but this just doesnt cut it.Graphic novels can be very powerfull in its message delivery.One good example i can think of in the same lines as this novel is Daniel Clowes' Ghost World.If you can,please read that before reading this work.You will see what i mean.