This is a post by Avinash @ designhook.blogspot.com. I like his interpretation of how bollywood has defined notion of masculinity in Indian Design Community.
To Read the Complete post, click here..
http://designhook.blogspot.com/2010/01/super-ram-and-durga-woman-contemporary.html
It has long been my contention that Bollywood has defined Indian notions of masculinity in more ways than one. Now it looks like there are parallels in Indian comics as well. In 1978, Ram on the iconic ACK Valmiki’s Ramayana cover by artist Pratap Mullick is a muscular thickset man with features that are unmistakably from Uttar Pradesh: much like Dharmendra, the superstar action hero of that era. Abhishek Singh’s Ram for Ramayan 3392 AD is more like today’s Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan, with sharp exotic features and an impossibly V-shaped torso. But add messy dreadlocks (Pirates of the Caribbean?), fabulous sword (He Man? Lord of the Rings?), and mysterious eyes under a brooding forehead (Batman?), and you have a truly 2008 Indian Superhero.
This exhibition also pays due diligence to the development of the Super Heroine, by tracing the journey of the Durga Icon. First, there is the Devi Mahatmya painting from the Guler tradition (c.1750), showing a nubile Durga in Mughal armour. Then there is Souren Roy’s brilliant imagination of Durga for ACK (1978), which is essentially a Bengali Durga with muscles, achieving curious shades of masculine aggression in a very motherly goddess. Saumin Patel’s Devi (2006) is all Comic Book Woman, complete with oversized breasts and tight leotards. Catwoman is an obvious influence, and he certainly likes Halle Berry. But when you are confronted with the illustration Devi Vanquishes Bala, you realize that the history of the Durga icon is too strong to shake off. As she plunges her spear into the chest of the demon, she is so unmistakably Mahishasuramardini! The weight of a 1500-year-old art heritage lends a pulsing, melodramatic quality to this image, and indeed to most of the illustrations on display.
