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Kari, a slim 116-page graphic novel that tells the story of Kari, a quiet Indian woman employed in an advertising agency, her inseparable friend Ruth and their life in Mumbai. It has been written and illustrated by Delhi-based Amruta Patil, a first-time novelist. Published by HarperCollins and priced at a modest Rs 295, it has opened a new chapter in contemporary English writing. The illustrations are a mix of black and white drawings and colour sketches. The text, in fancy calligraphy, is placed around and in-between the drawings. But there are also comic book-like blurbs thrown into the picture frames for a heightened effect. "Novel has never been an easier medium. It is not really difficult to understand stories narrated with pictures, which is what a graphic novel all about. Pictures are timeless, older than words and when laid out in a planned format with prose, it makes for an interesting medium," said writer-cartoonist Manjula Padmanabhan. "Amruta’s novel is special because she has chosen a difficult path as a first-timer, both of a writer and illustrator," she added. HarperCollins has printed 4,000 copies of the book as part of the initial print run and hopes to sell a minimum 3,500 copies. All the promotional copies, nearly 50 of them, on display at the recently held World Book Fair were sold out, V.K. Karthika, editor-in-chief at Harper Collins, told. Though popular in the European publishing circuit, the graphic novel took time to take off in India because it has a niche readership despite the popularity of comic books.
"I would rather call it a transit novel," said Mumbai-based textile designer Michelle D’ Souza, who read Kari en route to work. "The illustrations are beautiful and the theme is so pertinent to scores of singletons, especially women, who live in Indian metros." The format targets young Indian readers hooked to television - for whom narratives make sense only when accompanied by bold graphic visuals. It is a difficult format for a writer, who has to possess great artistic skills to coordinate the graphics with the text. But for author Amruta, armed with a master’s degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, it wasn’t too tough. "It evolved from some illustrations that I posted on my website for my friends and Harper Collins liked it," she said. The writer said her childhood in Goa has a lot to do with her graphic story-telling format. "I had a quiet childhood in coastal Goa. I wrote a lot of fairy-tale stuff and illustrated them, mostly for my own pleasure, as a child," said the author. Amruta began her picture jottings around the time she was seven years old. "Initially, it was a lot about myself, my own life. And then along the way, I met more clever people, who had better repartees than me and I ingested them into my writing," she recalled. The "tad-autobiographical" Kari grew as a character and travelled to Boston with Amruta. And once back to India, the novel really took off. "I may be an illustrator, but writing has always been my first love. Illustrations are a kind of scaffolding to my words," she said. She is now working on her next graphical novel, a mytho-historical epic that she describes as a "rather ambitious and longer venture", and a book called 1999. — IANS
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THE contemporary novel
is changing shape in India. The latest entrant that is finding place
on bookshelves is the "graphic novel", which tells stories
through illustrations and prose in a single format.
Goa-based
writer-designer Orijit Sen of the The River of Stories fame had
dabbled in the medium in the 1990s. This was followed by
artist-filmmaker Sarnath Banerjee, who wrote Corridor in 2004
and The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers in 2007. "But slow
awareness was an impediment to the growth of the genre," said
Karthika.