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A review by khepiari
Adi Parva - Churning of the Ocean by Amruta Patil
5.0
'The thread twirls and brings us to a queen of this land, whose story closely mirrors Shakuntala's. Like Shakuntala, she was born of a king and an apsara. Like Shakuntala by the Malini, she was a motherless baby left by the river Yamuna. She too was taken in by a foster father, without any mother-figure in the picture. Unlike Shakuntala, though, this queen was a fierce boulder- not victim- of fate. With her, the childlike innocence of Krita Yug started slowly giving way to the gritter Treta and Dwapar'
We see the Epic Mahabharata as the story of Five Brothers' quest to gain the rightful and those five imbeciles were husband to one fiery woman. We see the Kauravs as the evil and Pandavs as ethical. Yet Amruta Patil traces the whole lineage of our myths to the abstract, metaphorical, very primal rivalries between the children of Kadru and Vinata - the reptiles vs the aviators.
I am no expert in art, but calling this book a #graphicnovel is not enough! There is flowing platter of mix media, styles and observations. Garuda is being drawn like Horus picked from a Hieroglyph. Vishnu is indeed androgynous and Ganga the Saturadhar painted in black and white invokes the ancient tradition of oral storytelling with a pinch of sarcasm.
Patil retells the myths from the beginning among many beginnings, she keeps the overlapping of stories deliberate and the questioning audience mere mortals to witty Narrator. Best part was when Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv call it a tie on who is the creator of multiverse!
We see the Epic Mahabharata as the story of Five Brothers' quest to gain the rightful and those five imbeciles were husband to one fiery woman. We see the Kauravs as the evil and Pandavs as ethical. Yet Amruta Patil traces the whole lineage of our myths to the abstract, metaphorical, very primal rivalries between the children of Kadru and Vinata - the reptiles vs the aviators.
I am no expert in art, but calling this book a #graphicnovel is not enough! There is flowing platter of mix media, styles and observations. Garuda is being drawn like Horus picked from a Hieroglyph. Vishnu is indeed androgynous and Ganga the Saturadhar painted in black and white invokes the ancient tradition of oral storytelling with a pinch of sarcasm.
Patil retells the myths from the beginning among many beginnings, she keeps the overlapping of stories deliberate and the questioning audience mere mortals to witty Narrator. Best part was when Brahma, Vishnu and Shiv call it a tie on who is the creator of multiverse!