Pixar This

Ramayana: Divine Loophole (Chronicle Books) is a funky,colourful illustrated book by Sanjay Patel,a 35-year-old who works with Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville,California,as their supervising animator and storyboard artist. Patel was born and raised in Oakland,California. He grew up in a Hindu household,mystified that his parents would mutter Sita-Rama when he sneezed,and puzzled by the framed drawing of a monkey carrying a mountain on the walls of his house. The comics and storybooks that he devoured had no answer: they catered squarely to Western sensibilities.

That curiosity led him to the Ramayana. Once I began reading the story,I fell in love with the visual potential. It was also ripe for being re-imagined in a postmodern context, he says. Patel went on to create an alternative visual language for young American-born Indiansone that would reflect the values and myths of India but tell it in a tone that was relevant to young NRIs. His first book was the Little Book of Hindu Deities (2007). Besides his regular work at Pixar,Patel has floated his own brand,Ghee Happy,that creates products and merchandise related to India. The idea is to celebrate Indian mythology and culture through design and storytelling in a fun and modern way, says Patel.

Fun it definitely is. Rama is the Blue Prince with big round eyes and a toothy grin; Ravana is he who makes the universe scream but also,a ten-headed demon with bad teeth. On Day One of his exile in the forest,the narrator asks,What do you do when you have 14 years to kill? The answer: Well,for starters,Rama,Sita and Lakhsman decided to hit the trails. There are breezily named chapters like Blue Boy,Fatal Attraction,Break a Bow,Tie the Knot and Deer of Deception and cool buzzwords like shape-shifting demondefinitely called for when the target readership is the authors young nieces and nephews unfamiliar with the dense web of Hindu mythology. I dont think I introduced any new ideas to the book,other than a strong visual style and a lighthearted writing tone, he says.

Patel has predecessors like Osamu Tezuka whose Manga-style retelling of the life of Lord Buddha stretched to an eight-part series. He follows what he calls the continuum of animation style that was born in the 1950s,known as the golden age of American animation. It was the age when Disney studios gave birth to characters like doe-eyed Bambi,Snow White and the adorable Seven Dwarfs and Dumbo the Little Elephant,who wanted to fly. While lines that render characters have grown sharper over the years and colours are more psychedelic by the time we come around to the Pixar style of animation,the basic wholesomeness of Disneys protagonists remain intact. My approach in Loophole is not very different from what we do at Pixar,so its not like I had to break out of the Pixar style and find a different one. Our style is modern,flat and iconic and it has persisted due to its simplicity and charm, he says. What is different from my work at Pixar is re-discovering Hindu mythology and sharing it in a way thats reverential while still being refreshing. Translated,this means that Rama is still noble and benevolent. The demons are a good mixture of the comical and the fearsome,many resembling the shadow puppets of Java and Kerala. The effect,though,is rather simplistic sometimes.

To get the story across,Patel cut out plot details,secondary characters and a fair bit of complexity. He chose a happy ending of the Ramayana,in which Sita is not swallowed up by the earth. Instead,the happy couple is re-instated on the throne. The Ramayana has always been told in sections,be it six volumes or seven. The section that concluded the story on a tragic note was something that I was well aware of and had decided to cut for the sake of simplicity and uninspired visual potential, says Patel,who believes in the less-is-more maxim when it comes to imaging.

The book is also a departure from the style followed by Amar Chitra Katha,a staple diet for most Indian children who want quick,easy access to mythology. For his own inspiration,Patel prefers old childrens books of the 1950s and vintage graphic design. ACK is great in its vintage style and format. But the books were generated in the late 70s,which makes them suffer from dated artwork that veers towards kitsch and subpar translations, says Patel.

The story leaves you in a happy place and even the demons have their brief moments of redemption. Soorpanaka has been described as a love-struck demon who made a pass at Rama: I know,gross,but hey,demons have hearts as well! says the narrator. The bit about Soorpanaka having feelings is in the original story but I felt it was important to include it otherwise we wouldnt understand why the demons would attack Rama,Sita and Lakshman, says Patel.

While the book is admittedly straightforward,Patels take on good versus evil is nuanced. Were all demons and gods,sinners and saints. The fact that Ravana or Soorpanaka are dark characters is not defined by complexion and geographymost people know that. The demon designs are my favourite. I found them more interesting to do than the depiction of the gods, he says. If only he were more involved in developing the character of Sita,perhaps she would not have remained just a pretty young thing till the end.