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Literary Review
Graphic Novel
Unequal music
VIJAY NAIR
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While the illustrations are superb, the text is disappointing.
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GRAPHIC NOVELS are a new genre in the literary firmament. Barely three to four Indian graphic novels have made it to the publishers in as many years. It’s difficult to critique any new work without exploring the genre itself. Some of the questi
ons the new graphic novel Kashmir Pending raises have to do with issues of ownership. By its very nature, these works are efforts born out of collaboration. There is a writer who writes the narrative and an artist who illustrates with
sketches. Ideally the two should complement each other. Even when the illustrations are at odds with the written word, the creative tension between the two should give the work its biting edge.This is where Kashmir Pending fails. The i
llustrations by Saurabh Singh in black, white, red and khaki are superb. But the novel is let down by the text Nasseer Ahmed pens. It starts promisingly enough — “There is no place like prison if one wishes to get closer to God.” After that it’s all downhill. The work claims to be based on a true story and tells us nothing new other than what any of the countless magazine articles have had to say about the reformed terrorists of the valley.
An outsider
The protagonist Mushtaq has internalised the anger against the armed forces — beautifully illustrated in the prologue to the novel where we get introduced to him as a child throwing stones at the water to register his protest whenever an army
shikara passed by. This is the part that works the best as there is hardly any written word to substantiate the illustrations. The disenchantment sets in when Mushtaq starts explaining. He projects himself as the victim of all the system
s he has been part of. His father is contemptuous of his sketching abilities, the school and the university lead him time and again to a set of militant outfits that brainwash him. When he goes to get trained in a terrorist camp, he discovers the incumbents from across the border are given preferential treatment. When he decides to get back, he has to bribe the guide with his wrist watch. Later he discovers the outfits that patronise rebels, double crossing their own recruits. He loses his best friend and that sets in motion the reformist zeal in him.
The trouble is, despite all the terrible things that happen to Mushtaq, we never really feel for him. He comes across as someone who’s seeking easy resolutions all the time. Maybe the story is not so much of a cop out as the hero is. And Naseer Ahmed doesn’t help the cause of his protagonist by giving him a narrative voice devoid of wit and irony.
Theoretical issues
The book raises an important issue purely from an academic perspective. What kind of space do writers of graphic novels wish to inhabit? If their ambition is to journey towards the literary space, then they have to look at meeting the requirements of the same. On the other hand, if illustrations have to take primacy over the written word, then shouldn’t the artist/ illustrator take precedence over the writer? He should be feted rather than the author and perhaps the word “novel” would be a misnomer to describe such work. After all, Victorian novelists like Charles Dickens also had their novels illustrated. But we have never been confused about who was the creator of Great Expectations, and A Tale of
Two Cities.
In the case of Kashmir Pending, clearly the honours rest with Saurabh Singh.
Kashmir Pending, Naseer Ahmed and Saurabh Singh, Phantomville Publications, price not stated.
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