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Another criticism is that comic books, by their very nature, do not reflect the richness and complexity of the oral tradition of Indian mythology in which multiple versions of a story can co-exist simultaneously. The stories have often been in the past criticised as distorted depictions of history.
#Amar chitra katha books list series#
Acclaimed book critic Nilanjana Roy notes many stories of the series to reflect and reinforce the patriarchal stereotypes prevalent in mainstream Indian ethos.
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The apparent glorification of Sati across a series of story-lines were highly controversial, too. Women were supposedly portrayed in a domestic context and portrayals were hyper-sexualised. Controversies around religious and cultural portrayals were prominent, as well. Ĭriticism of the Amar Chitra Katha comics has largely centered around two core issues: the anti-communist ideology and the portrayal of minorities. On the other hand, he noted the series' promotion of "nationalism", and lamented that "as the most widely published and read Indian comics, books from this series are the ones that most scholars have focused upon, to the detriment of understanding the wider context of India's comics, storytelling, and visual cultures". Criticism Īmerican scholar Jeremy Stoll has noted that, "As the earliest indigenous comic books in India, the Amar Chitra Katha series set a strong precedent, one which has dictated comics content and style for decades since". Halbe, Jeffrey Fowler, Pratap Mullick and Yusuf Lien aka Yusuf Bangalorewala. Vitankar, Sanjeev Waeerkar, Souren Roy, C.D Rane, Ashok Dongre, V.B. The notable illustrators were Ram Waeerkar, who illustrated the very first issue of Amar Chitra Katha, Krishna, Dilip Kadam, C. Writers like Margie Sastry, Debrani Mitra and C.R Sharma also joined the creative team of Amar Chitra Katha, with Anant Pai taking on the role of editor and co-writer on most scripts. While Pai initially wrote the first few stories himself, he soon hired a core team of writers and editors, which included Subba Rao, Luis Fernandes and Kamala Chandrakant, who were responsible for the attempt at authenticity and balanced portrayal of history in comic books that became the hallmark of Amar Chitra Katha. India Book House started to bring out at least one comic book a month by 1975, and sometimes as many as three. "And he built a wonderful team and a great brand." īy the late 1970s, it was selling 5 million copies a year and had a peak circulation of about 700,000 a month. "They brought in Anant Pai" says Ananthram. To Ananthram's satisfaction, the 1965 Kannada ACK venture was a great commercial success which led to Mirchandani in the head office in Mumbai pursuing the Amar Chitra Katha idea in English diligently. "The English ACK titles begin from number eleven because the first ten were in Kannada," clarifies Ananthram. Ananthram which led to the first Amar Chitra Katha comics being produced in 1965-in Kannada, not English. Has this article about the genesis of this popular comic series: The idea and proposal for Amar Chitra Katha was made by a Bangalore book salesman called G.K. The above is an oft-told story of how ACK was founded beginning with 'Uncle Pai', in Mumbai in 1967. The first Indian comic done and released in ACK was Krishna (serial number #11). Īfter quitting Indrajal Comics, Anant Pai started Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) by buying the rights for 10 American fairy tales such as Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Pinocchio. It so happened that a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?". He was shocked that Indian students could answer questions on Greek and Roman mythology, but were ignorant of their own history, mythology and folklore. The comic series was started by Anant Pai in an attempt to teach Indian children about their cultural heritage.
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