Mythboosters

More than a century later,the appeal of Indian mythology seems to be as strong. The recent Hindi release,Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti,has borrowed episodes as well as characters from the Mahabharata while Mani Ratnam’s Raavan,as the title suggests,attempts a contemporary retelling of the Ramayana. Both the films are made on a grand scale with an enviable star cast. These factors only go on to enforce the power of mythologies.

Ace filmmaker Ratnam justifies their eternal appeal. “What makes a story an epic is the fact that they have lived and survived for so long and are relevant over changing times that stretch over centuries and maybe even more than that,” says Ratnam. According to him,the film is a contemporary story but has roots “far far beyond”. “It is what one can call the celebration of the ability as an epic,” he adds.

Even though nothing reflects the Indian psyche better than movies,a look at the new releases at bookstores,the list of upcoming graphic novels/comic books,advertisements and television shows and animation reveal the deep impact of mythological characters and stories on the artist as well as writer communities. After the success of Kari,writer-cum-graphic novelist Amruta Patil is focussing on Parva—which is a retelling of the Mahabharat. But unlike Jha and Ratnam,she is not trying to contemporise the tale. “There is no need for that. The contemporary world lacks the magic and colour to do justice to the original settings—I am only sifting and retelling. Following the essence of the oral tradition— retelling a tale to make it accessible to a new audience,” Patil had said earlier.

The magic of myths lies in the high drama,varied emotions and larger-than-life characters they encompass. Jha puts it succinctly. “The Mahabharata is an epic. It deals with every kind of character,incident and drama you can think of. You create any character today,and you will find a resemblance in the epic.” With “the hunger for power” at the heart of this film,it was probably natural that the director chose to incorporate a few sub-plots from the epic—where power-lust leads to the Mahabharat war—in his film.

Much before the box-office verdict on Raajneeti and Raavan became apparent,Indian readers had given a thumbs-up to The Immortals of Meluha. Its author Amish,an IIM graduate,created a delightful mix of mythology and history by making Lord Shiva the hero of his trilogy. The first part has been on the Indian bestseller charts for quite some time now. The reason for coming up with such a concoction is simple for Amish. He loves reading history books and by virtue of being a Benaras priest’s grandson,he is well-versed with mythological tales. “Indian mythology is a rich treasure of stories. And when retold,these stories have a universal appeal since most us are familiar with them,” he says.

Like Amish,the impact of Indian mythology is obvious on the novelist,Vamsee Juluri. He admits his book,The Mythologist,began as an attempt to write a mythology-inspired allegory about the media soon after the 9/11 attacks in America. “The novel grew into something much bigger,especially when I turned to the virtually inexhaustible sources of Indian mythology,and to the rich tradition of South Indian mythological cinema into which I have had the privilege of being born,” he says.

As ancient Indian lores continue to be a perennial draw for writers,artists and filmmakers— from the ancient times to the Raja Ravi Varma period and the present crop of creative persons—Juluri provides an explanation. “The ‘myths’ are not only great stories,but are stories with a cultural resonance that go beyond the confines of each time and place that they reappear in,” says the professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco. However,Namita Gokhale,co-author of In Serach of Sita,offers another theory for it. “The reason why mythology in India is never static—it adapts and modulates to the contours of the times.”

This makes one thing clear. The trend of reinterpreting or revisiting mythology is not going to stop anytime soon.

Coming soon

* Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik

* A six-and-a-half-hour-long movie on the Mahabharata,in two parts,by Ravi Chopra

* Ravanayan by Vijayendra Mohanty and Vivek Goel