Ravanayan - The Greatest Story Never Told

I was born on a Dusshera and ever since I was a little boy people used to tease me saying that "Ek Raavan maraa aur doosra paida ho gaya." I used to think initially that it is a bad thing to be compared with a "Demon Lord" but when I used to sit in my Grandma's Pooja room and heard her narrate Ramayan to us kids everyday I begun to think otherwise.

Even when I was a kid my mind failed to understand how can such a learned man who is such a true devotee of Lord Shiva can be this horrible villain which people are painting him as to be. This belief was further strengthened when I saw the TV serial on Doordarshan & then the much acclaimed animated movie (Even though they were still biased in their portrayal of Ravana.) Ram was equally flawed as those who have read & understood Ramayan would probably agree but in order to tell a tale of Pure Good vs Pure Evil his flaws were overlooked while Ravana's were magnified. Even Ram knew the genius of Ravana & so at the end of the war he asks Laxman to go & learn from the most learned of all men. So, I gradually embraced the comparison and in my heart I started to believe Ravana was as much of a hero of the tale as Ram himself. But I often wondered if somebody else shares this view & will someone ever tell us the other side of the story?

Then, one day I came across a retweet from one of the people whom I am following on twitter which seemed to me as if my wish has finally come true. RAVANAYAN, Just the name was enough to intrigue me to the core! Finally someone has decided to give Ravana the place he deserves in the literary history! Within seconds I found myself looking at the order confirmation page on flipkart and the long and unrelenting wait begun!

And it was worth every single second of that wait! First of all the cover - even though I had seen its picture - was an absolute stunner to see for real. I am no expert in art or anything and I have no idea about the terminology what inking, illustrations, penciling, lettering etc is but the images are simply WOW! I have been a comic reader all my life and particularly Indian hindi comics like Raj & Diamond comics but I have never seen artwork like this. It is at par or even better than any international comic out there and even the quality of pages is something that I have never seen. The one thing that I particularly liked about the artwork is that they have not made the characters super beefy or extra lumpy to make them look heroic. My case in point is look at the Nagaraja, Super Commando Dhruva or for that matter even Gamraj when they first appeared. They appeared to be normal human beings but lately they are being drawn as steroid injected super freaks! Thank god the characters of Ravanayan are not drawn like that in the first issue & I hope it stays like that throughout the entire series.

I have already gushed on and on about how psyched I am about the concept of the entire series and the first issue doesn't seem to disappoint at all. It merely raises expectations about what to expect from the rest of the series in terms of story & content. The prologue leaves and impact right away and I loved the way how the first meeting between Ravana & Ratnakar is portrayed. The setting itself is so powerful that you are pulled right into the story.

The first chapter deals with Ravana trying to find his inner balance, struggling to find out who he is and why he is the way he is. I loved the part where his mother tells Ravana that he is not bound by destiny like everyone else. On the contrary he has been blessed that he can choose his own path and create his destiny by himself.

There is only one problem with my copy and I think it was a fault at the printers; the text on half the pages of my copy is a little blurry and hard to read. I hope the quality of printing is better in the second issue.

I am glad that one of the greatest epics ever written is being re-told from the point of view of its antagonist as well. It will only help us in getting a better understanding and insight into the Ramayana. It helps in painting even those shades of picture which were previously left untouched. I am going to collect all the 10 issues of Ravanayan and preserve them properly because when my daughter is old enough to understand and read I am going to make sure that she reads Ravanayan along with Ramayana and learn about the epic in its entirety.

Overall, I am really impressed by this comic book and I am very proud that we have people like Vijayendra Mohanty & Vivek Goel who have dared to embark on such a bold project. I am simply bowled over by the fact that they have even thought about this concept and I salute to the amount of creativity these two individuals have.

Hats off to them!