Review : Ravanayan #5 (Holy Cow Entertainment)

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In terms of the actual chronological events of The Ramayan, this issue reaches the milestone where Ravan kidnaps Sita using Mareech as the decoy/sacrificial lamb and kills the vulture warrior Jatayu, nullifying any efforts made to prevent Sita's abduction. This issue also presents a take on the fight between Mayavi and Vali which, as we all know, caused the bad blood between the Vanar brothers Vali and Sugriva, eventually leading to Lord Ram defeating Vali and as a result winning the support of the powerful Vanar army.
So, according to Vijayendra Mohanty (a.k.a, “the writer”) it was Ravan who lays the seeds of enmity between the Vanar brothers. It was Ravan who used Mavayi as a mere pawn to create the perfect misunderstanding. 

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Although this is an interesting assertion by the writer, what they have done is use the “all part of the plan” premise that they had so effectively developed in the previous issues and have kind of made the whole issue a little predictable. I mean as soon as I saw Ravan buttering-up Mayavi I just knew where the story was heading. It seems that the writer is trying a little too hard to portray Ravan in a good light, which I think is not necessary because he is such a wildcard of a character. Mohanty has himself stated that being born of an almost unnatural union he has the best of both worlds and is truly capable of being near-godly good or ruthlessly evil. So I really don’t get why Ravan should move on a single track when there are so many unexplored and exotic roads on which the story could take him.

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Coming to the artwork - the usual high standards which the art team of Holy Cow have set have been pretty much met in this issue. The thing about the artwork of Ravanyan (all the issues) is that it does not look mechanical; we can clearly make out the effort that has been put in to each and every detail. Again Vivek Goel (a.k.a, “the artist”) has brilliantly added many distinctive touches to the array of pre-existing characters in the Ramayana universe that make them stand out. A few examples of these nuances are Mavayi being all bad-ass with the sharp claws and the eyebrow-piercings, the Ravan-pod (if I can dub it so) with hovering capabilities and the very logical bearded Lord Ram (I mean, why didn’t other illustrators think of giving Ram a beard when he is in an exile? Its only logical). The only thing I did not like at all was the panel where Vali is presented as a key piece of this labyrinthine puzzle. The whole black and white sketch just did not strike the right chord.

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Overall the issue was good but it just could not do what the previous issue did. I would comfortably rate it 7.75/10.

- By ObiWayneK

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Rohan Parti  
Named Rohan Parti at birth, people of this alternate universe often refer to him as Obi-Wayne-K – a Jedi who is as incorruptible as Batman and dreams of becoming the Yoda of the geek multiverse. All he does is dream, read comics, paint, draw, play random music (if you can call it that), retrospect and occasionally fight the dark side of force. (No seriously: in brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape his light saber's sight)