Review: Ramayana 3392 AD by Shamik Dasgupta

Among the new things I wanted to try this year one of them was to read comic books and graphic novels. Since I had a friend who loves this genre I naturally turned to her for recommendations. So thanks to her I picked ‘Ramayana 3392 AD’ as the very first graphic novel I would read. A little strange choice for me considering there existed a large universe of Marvel and DC comics and also the other popular ones like Maus, Persepolis, etc. Nevertheless I trusted her judgement and dove right into it.

Ramayana 3392 AD follows the same story as in the original Ramayana albeit with a futuristic twist to it. The weapons, transportation etc are more modern and way cooler in this one. The first thing that hits you when you start reading this is the art work. It is so meticulous and beautiful that it simply blows you away. Various different colour tones are used through the book to depict the different scenes and for me the scenes with Sita were my favourite because of the vibrant and vivid colour tones that were used. Have a look at the two pictures below. Now imagine it on glossy paper (sort of) and with more vibrant colours. That’s how amazing the graphics were!

I am told that very often different artists work on different parts of the book and hence the art within the novel itself can be very different. It’s like reading a story which has been written by different authors. The story itself is kept simple and keeps the reader engaged right through. The one is picked was the first of three parts I believe so I most certainly look forward to reading the rest.

I can’t help wondering how people can afford to keep up with such a reading habit though. The novel I read costed approx. Rs 500 and I managed to finish it in about 2-3 hours of reading. I know for a fact that the Marvel and DC comics are pretty expensive too. I haven’t been able to buy myself a Tintin collection simply because it’s so expensive. Any comic book enthusiasts out there who know a workaround to this problem? What do you guys do?