A Menagerie Feels The Fire

Before we get into the paratha and potatoes of this story, let바카라�s be clear that this is not another Partition tale rising from the tomes바카라�non-fiction and pulp alike바카라�that we have swallowed, ruminated and digested. Countless depictions of those horrific days, since the Radcliffe Line was drawn and millions were uprooted from their hearths, have made most of these tales a stale topic; almost cartoonish at times. In a way, we have become desensitised to those horrors. Then again, Chhotu is a Partition story바카라�바카라�a parable of the past that is not removed from the present바카라�. Part novel, part art and equal parts tender love and boundless suffering, this coming-of-age story is a commentary on something more pervasive and endemic if you scratch beneath the surface. It is a commentary on the violence and oppression that persist to this day.

On the face of it, Chhotu is about Chhotu, the orphan바카라�a slap-happy schoolboy growing up in the lanes of Chandni Chowk, with best friend Pandey and love interest Heer, the new girl in the local­ity and school. The British are about to leave, freedom is a matter of days but something sinister is shuffling in the horizon. Just when Chhotu바카라�s love is about to blossom, an aloo crisis hits uncle Bapu바카라�s paratha business. The story then trapezes through a snaggle of pol­itical upheavals, communal blood-savagery and personal intrigue바카라�almost Bollywoodish, like the 바카라�golden age SRK trifecta: K3G, Kuch Kuch, and DDLJ바카라�. But all along, you could feel love radiating from the pages, up to a letter from Srinagar at the end.

By now, you have figured out Chhotu is a graphic novel, what an English professor calls a highfalutin term for comic books. All the characters are anthropomorphic: Chhotu, the cheeky monkey; uncle Bapu, elephant-like and wise, his proboscis sniffing out trouble; Heer, the doe; Shere, the curmudgeonly villain with a sad and murderous past. Does it closely shadow American car­­toonist Art Spiegelman바카라�s Pulitzer-winning Maus? No, Chhotu is not a pastiche. Of all things that define this genre, the first and foremost priority is to make the story and visuals enjoyable to read and look at, which dem­and keeping the pace moving. Author Varud Gupta and artist Ayushi Rastogi manage to pull off both.

The artwork doesn바카라�t reflect film noir or comic strips. The grap­hic artistry sparkles in black and white, supplementing the fiction that is actually a very clever allegory on what most people would call a weird, shameful chapter of our history. The story pictorially unlocks the inner machinations of cold, plain and simple life바카라�and the distorted reality of terrible events that have far-reaching effects.

Halfway through a book is the best time to decide whether to abandon it or not. Chhotu doesn바카라�t allow such a thought. It is compelling, a 바카라�single tomato that can change the entire gravy바카라�. Oftentimes, we take for granted events that have made compelling stories over many years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. And, as they say, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.