Anant Pai, the creator of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle died at the age of 81. [BBC]

Anant Pai, widely known as Uncle Pai, to kids who grew up in 1980s India, was a chemical engineer, who followed his passion of story telling. He went to work with Indrajal comics, and was instrumental in introducing The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician to Indian audiences and also in the creation of another comic character, Bahadur. In 1967, he had an “eureka” moment when contestants in an Indian quiz show could not answer simple questions like “Who is the mother of Lord Rama?”. So instead of creating a website dealing with Hindu denigration, he created the comic book Amar Chitra Katha (ACK). Vivid illustrations, simple language and compelling story telling, led to a series of highly popular books among millions of children in India. His ACK comics mostly covered, Indian history and Hindu mythology, but I distinctly remember reading an ACK issue on Jesus. My personal favorites were the epics like Ramayana and Mahabhartha (this one spanned around 18 consecutive comic books). Pai through ACK took us on magical journeys through palaces of kings and queens and magical castles to more historically significant locations like Jallianwala Bagh, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. In mythological stories, the message was simple: good always triumphs over evil. We were regaled with tales of wise emperors like Akbar the Great and his smartass minister, Birbal. Kids would eagerly await for the next issue to come out in stores or be delivered to their house.

In 1980, Anant Pai created another comic book, Tinkle, replete with simple humorous tales and characters like Kalia the crow, Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, Tantri the Mantri and Nassurdin Hodja to name a few. Tinkle, is where Anant Pai became Uncle Pai to millions of children. In every issue of Tinkle, he answered letters from numerous children.

It must be pointed out yours truly was not among the fortunate few who got their letter answered by Uncle Pai. However, I had the fortune of meeting him in real life, when he gave a speech at my school. Few attended because the powers that be at my pathetic school did not deem it necessary to publicize his visit. My first and only impression of him is a rather slight unassuming gentleman with an infectious smile and sharp wit. Details of that day are hazy and this is what I recollect: Uncle Pai had each student walk to the front of the room and tell everyone what they planned to be when they grew up and the answer always was engineer, doctor, ***enter standard white collar profession*** or take over father’s business. My answer was “engineer”, when Pai asked why, my answer was “because my father is one”. Pai’s retort was “But what do YOU want to be?”. Deep words, the meaning of which I did not understand until, ironically, after I became an engineer. But this interaction is one I’ll always cherish.

In his personal life, Pai and his wife did not have any children, but between Indrajal, Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, Pai’s works reached millions of Indian children across multiple generations, and it must be pointed out multiple continents. This tweet, summarizes Anant Pai’s impact on the Indian psyche.

Thank you, Uncle Pai.

One of the “charms” of being an immigrant Indian in the USA is that you will inevitably be asked the “A-Question” as in : The Arranged Marriage question. This can range from the oblique “Do you believe in Arranged Marriages?” to the more frontal -assault ” Did you have an Arranged Marriage?”  (to which I am always tempted to respond ” No, it was quite chaotic really!”).  Its nice to remember that the Arranged Marriage phenomenon is not exclusively “desi”. I recently saw two really good movies that explore the insititution of arranged marriages in cultures other than South Asian.

In “Arranged”,  an Orthodox Jewish woman and a Muslim woman strike up a friendship when they meet as teachers in a Brooklyn Public school. Each one faces the possibility of an  arranged marriage.  Zoe Lister Jones plays Rochel Meshenberg, an Orthodox Jew whose family enlsits a traditional matchmaker who produces one unsuitable groom after another. Frances Behnamoue plays Nasira Khalidi, a Muslim woman, who also is dealing with the possibility of an arranged marriage. This is a little gem of a movie where the insititution of arranged marriage is treated with dignity and respect. The story of  how these two forge a friendship and end up happily (and arrangedly) married makes for a charming tale, enlivened by some wonderful nuanced performances from both the leading ladies. Almost restores my faith in human nature to see how Jews and Muslims can be friends, regardless of how the world expects them to treat each other!

 The other movie I recommend is “Sabah -a Love Story”. This Canadian production is the story of Sabah, a 40 year old Syrian immigrant in Canada. She commits the cardinal sin of falling in love with Stephen ( played by the dishy Shawn Doyle- last seen in “Big Love” ) , a non -Muslim white ( amusingly referred to as “Ajnabee” by her Syrian family - that must be the equivalent of “firangi” ! ). She has to sneak around so that her brother does not find out. Meanwhile, her niece rebels against having an arranged marriage. Arsinee Khanjian plays the lead with luminous intensity. I found this movie to be absolutely charming and very romantic. Far better than the horrible crop of romcoms that Hollywood churns out today!

I think the common theme I liked in both these movies was that non-Western cultures were treated with respect, while making a muted plea for immigrants to open up a little to the freedoms that the Western world offers. I hope some of you enjoy watching my recommendations ( both are available on  Netflix). Do let me know via the comments if you agreed with them or not!

Hindustan Times reports that the politically incorrect but popular comic book franchise, Tintin, will soon start releasing books in Hindi. (news and images from the Tintin Facebook fanpage)

On Monday, the Belgian ambassador’s residence in the Capital will see the launch of eight Hindi language books from the Tintin series.
The books have been translated by Puneet Gupta, an ad film-maker

Presumably, this is a more concerted effort to target Indian audiences, which, in my opinion, should’ve started a couple of decades back, if not earlier. Better late than never, is the popular proverb. Now a lot of kids around my age growing up in India, read Tintin comics and they remain popular to this day but their appeal among Hindi and other regional language audiences is TBD.

To appeal to the Hindi-speaking audience, various Tintin characters are also assuming Hindi names.

Snowy (originally Milou) is Natkhat
Thomson and Thompson (originally Dupont et Dupond) are Santa Singh and Banta Singh
Prof Cuthbert Calculus (originally Professeur Tryphon Tournesol akak Prof. Sunflower ) is Professor Surajmukhi
Bianca Castafiore is Malika Castafiore (a name inspired from famous singer Malika Pukhraj)

Translation of literary and musical content across languages are often more miss than hit as evident in some of the books’ titles: “Kaala Dweep (Black Island)” and “Samrat Ottokar Ka Raajdand (King Ottokar’s Sceptre)”. One can only imagine the names of the characters and book titles, if they decide to print in Tamil, Bengali or Gujarati.

SPOLIER ALERT: This review contains spoilers for “Raavan”. In case you plan to see it, don’t read it. I am going to do you a huge favor and tell you : Don’t see it !

I am and have been a die hard Mani Ratnam fan. From the day I saw “Mouna Raagam”, through “Agni Natchathiram”, ” Bombay” ,”Roja”,”Naayagan”, Iruvar” , “Guru”. I loved the recurring elements : the feisty heroines, naughty grandmas, the mature understanding of the man – woman relationship in all its forms, gorgeous vistas in the rain, excellent music. So with a heavy heart , I have to ask : Mani Ratnam: What the hell happened to you?

I want the near-to-3 hours of my life spent watching Raavan back. I never thought I would ever use “ham-fisted direction” and “Mani Ratnam” in the same sentence. But there you go. The premise is interesting. A retelling of the “Ramayana” to show both sides of the story. The titular “Raavan” in the film is Beera – a sad combination of Veerappan and a Naxalite, played atrociously by Abhishek Bachchan. Jr. Bachchan starts off with an imitation Amitabh – in – Agneepath – growl that inexplicably disappears in the latter part of the film – along with all semblance of plot, logic and common sense. Abhi grimaces, twitches and makes a complete ass of himself. Amitabh he is not – never was and never will be. In what was thought of as a casting coup, Aishwarya Rai (of the Shrimati Aishwarya Bacchcan Kanya Mahavidyalaya fame) – his real -life wife – plays Ragini – the wife of police officer Dev ( Get it ? Dev = God = Ram) Sharma ( played by a blank look aka Vikram). Beera abducts Ragini thereby setting the stage for a retelling of the Ramayana epic. Aishwarya starts out strong and her acting ( presumably impacted by Abhi’s lack of acting) gets progressively weaker. The twist in the tale is that Beera has good and justifiable reasons for wanting revenge against the police. Ragini develops a serious case of Stockholm syndrome. Dev rescues her and then questions her fidelity. The movie ends with Ragini’s deeply held beliefs being questioned. In other words what appeared bad maybe good, what appears good maybe bad. Which is fortune cookie philosophy at its best.

( ASIDE DESIGNED TO BRING A HINDUTVA FATWA ON MY HEAD: What is godly about questioning one’s wife’s fidelity at the drop of a hat? How can Ram be “Maryada Purshottam”( Ideal man) if he abandons his pregnant wife ? And does no one see the inherent misogyny of the basis of Sita’s abduction?That she dared to cross an imaginary line drawn by an in -law? But that is probably fodder for another post!)

I cannot in good faith believe THE Mani Ratnam directed this nonsense. I have a sneaky feeling that one of his directorial assistants must have taken over and Ratnam -ji must have franchised his name ( a la McDonalds). The camera angles are atrocious and MTV-video like (in the days when MTV actually showed Music videos as opposed to crappy reality dating shows). Govinda is completely wasted in a cameo appearance as Sanjeevani (aka Hanuman), an alcoholic forest guard who practices some kind of parkour.

Ragini’s and Beera’s relationship is never properly developed. He acts all caveman and Tarzan-ish, winging from vines. She is happy playing Jane- looking remarkably put together despite being in a jungle,where Beera’s hideout is. Why on earth she feels any sympathy for him is unclear. The ONLY redeeming feature of this movie is the locations. The jungles of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are glorious, lush and damp. The movie is only damp.

The music pretty much sucked. There are plot holes large enough for a truck to be driven through. For example: How is Ragini able to make her way back to Beera super secret hideout (after Dev questions her fidelity) when the entire Indian Police Force is unable to? And of course the original Ramaayan plot hole: If Sanjeevani could find Ragini, why did he not simply rescue her?

This post is a kind of 3 in one : a review of a book, a movie and random musings from me.

I just finished reading Orhan Pahmuk’s “The Museum of Innocence”.Pahmuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize winner has written a magnificent, wordy, illuminating and infuriating novel. The  book tells the tale of Kemal a rich young businessman from Istanbul and of his obsessive and destructive love for the beautiful (but poor and hence off-limits)  young Fusun. His obsession leads him to a passionate affair with her while he is still engaged to the Sorbonne-educated and more suitable Sibel. Ultimately, Kemal’s obsession leads him to create a museum dedicated to Fusun- hence the title. A couple of things struck me while reading the novel. The first : there is so much similarity between the society of Istanbul in the 70s and that of upper middle class India that I experienced in the 80s. Pahmuk is known for delving into the dichotomy of Turkey as an Islamic and as a European society and the inherent conflicts that arise between the demands of conservatism and the pull of openness. In this story too, Kemal, his fiance Sibel and Fusun as well as Kemal’s set of rich,Westernized friends constantly undergo turmoil as they struggle to fit into the mores of traditional Turkish society while trying to taste freedom sexual and otherwise. There is a lot of lipservice and hypocrisy which definitely reminded me of India!  The second  thing that resonated: while I loved the book and admire Pahmuk’s prose, it was very difficult to feel empathy for the “hero” Kemal. His behavior through the book reminded me of another hero – one I have always actively disliked – the pathetic, wimpy, tragic  Sarat Chandra  Chattopadhyaya creation – Devdas.

Coincidentally, just last week I finally watched the latest spin on Devdas, the Abhay Deol starrer “DevD”. This movie caused quite a buzz with its re-imagining of the Devdas tale in modern times. DevD is a semi – watchable , noirish film about – who else?- DevD a spoilt , self- indulgent rich kid unable to come to terms with his love for Paro. Like every other Devdas before him, he drowns his sorrows in drinks and drugs. What can I say? Whether it is Abhay Deol, Dilip Kumar or Sharukh Khan ( in Snajay Leela Bhansali’s ornate “Devdas” starring Aishwarya Rai), I am unable to muster any empathy for the title character. His motivations are unclear to me. His behavior is immature, wimpy and ultimately his destruction is self -wrought. My impatience with the Devdas character is his inability to act rationally. I just do not get what is so fascinating about self indulgence and self pity. Why does the tragic male lover , a Devdas like character keep reappearing in various interpretations? Pahmuk’s book is just the latest in a long string of movies and books about such tragic heroes.

Coming back to the reviews: By all means read “The Museum of Innocence”. Ialso recommend watching “DevD”- its flawed but has its moments. ( The high point for me was a song whose lyrics go ” Touba tera jalwa/Touba tera pyaar/Yeh Emotional/Atyachar!”- I kid you not!)

I am pretty sure I am missing out on some deeper symbolism here . I welcome any input from our readers – anyone out there like or understand Devdas? Please educate me!