Vimanika comics newest offering I am Kalki: The Red Book maintains the quality
standards Vimanika has set itself in the Indian comic book industry.
Every religion has a worldview on how the world will end. For Indian Mythology this concept is rooted
in Kalki . As per the Indian folklores, During the end of the world another
avatar of Vishnu will arrive to fight demons and cleanse the world from evil .
That avatar would be called KALKI.
Vimanika comics takes this concept of Kalki and puts their own unique
spin on it, which is how mythology comics should be done. We have all seen
mythology comics being done before in India, I mean Amar Chitra Katha is prime example of
mythology tales done right.
But now Indian audience wants more out of their mythology tales and our
comic companies seem ready to quench the reader thirst for such comics.
The story of I am Kalki as expected is set in the “end times” when
corruption and crime has reached its limit and there is a need for a Hero to
put things right. The Red book is a follow up of the previous Kalki book and is
divided into two stories.
To the uninitiated, in the previous book Kalki was born and his soul
was split in two. One was taken by the seven sages to Sapta-Anantha to nurture
it and the other was left on earth to experience earthly travails. The opening story focuses on the child on
earth and his relationship with his father. Its a very strong piece of
emotional story which can only be experienced through the merger of sequential art
and story that Shashank avvaru and Rishi Bhardwaj has created here.
The second half of the story is a bloody battle between the Naga Vasuki
and the demon Kali in the forest of Mudumalai. This entire piece is a well choreographed
fight scene with mystical weapons involved and is worthy of adding the color “Red”
in the title of the book. Well done Vimanika.
The story ends with more questions than answers however, and this is
where we would request Vimanika to focus on in their next instalment. Two
issues in , we now have set the base for the story to start gaining momentum. I
think we should start to see some of the connections missing here, which
converges the first part of the story to the second. In short , I think we wanted more story pages
from Vimanika.
At the end we are given profiles for characters that would come in play
soon. Enough with the tease Vimanika, increase the page count already and lets
get into the meat of the story !
In conclusion, its great artwork and gripping story. Vimanika has done
it again with its latest launch – I am Kalki, The Red book. It definitely
leaves us wanting more. Looks like the color of Indian comic books is going to
be red. Looking forward to more.
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