THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: P Padmarajan’s admirers can now see their favourite ‘Thakara’ and ‘Kallan Pavithran’ in a new graphical format. Not only them, but the evergreen love story of Kesavan Nair and Saaramma will also come to them in a graphic format.
Giving Malayalee readers the first graphical experience of novel reading, three graphic novels - P Padmarajan’s ‘Thakara’ and ‘Kallan Pavithran’ and Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s ‘Premalekhanam’ - were released on Monday at the International Book Fair and Science Festival here. DC Books, the publishers of these books, has plans to bring out novels and short stories by C V Balakrishnan, Madhavikutty and Paul Zacharia in the graphic format as well.
Avid novel readers are familiar with graphic novels but it is for the first time that such a concept is being introduced in Malayalam. K P Muraleedharan has recreated ‘Thakara’ and ‘Premalekhanam’. Amal, novelist and short-story writer, is the artist behind ‘Kallan Pavithran’. This is their first venture in the book format. The cinematic adaptations of both ‘Thakara’ and ‘Kallan Pavithran’ were well received and the graphic format attempts for a different visual reading of the same giving more space to the author.
ROLE OF WOMEN
A debate on ‘Women and Channels’ relating to the portrayal of women in television programmes was held as part of the International Book Fair and Science Festival here. Journalists and TV anchors such as John Brittas, Saritha Varma, Sulochana Ram Mohan and Radhika C Nair took part in the debate. John Brittas spoke on how television played a major role in empowering women. Writer Radhika C Nair was of the opinion that television serials did a lot of moralising these days on issues like chastity and family honour. ‘’A scam that rocked the government involved a woman and this was the reason why that the issue was blown out of proportion,” she said.
Writer Sulochana Ram Mohan wondered why no channel in Malayalam had a major TV show that was anchored by a woman. She also said that crimes were dealt in a mild manner in serials and that there was a large section of women who blindly believed the spiritual shows in television channels.