The illustrated book "Ramayana: Divine Loophole" is a thoroughly modern graphic rendering of the Epic Ramayana by Sanjay Patel, an animator at Pixar and whose works includes popular animated movies like ‘Monsters Inc’, ‘Cars’, ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘A Bug's Life.’ Sanjay Patel’s graphic retelling of the Epic Ramayan is influenced by the illustrations used in modern animated movies.
Hindus who are used to cute and life like images of Lord Ram, Mata Sita and Hanuman might not be attracted to Sanjay Patel’s images with round edges or villains with hard-edged triangles. But this is a path breaking attempt to share one of the oldest epics in the world in a modern graphic language which is popular among international audience.
The story of 'Ramayana: Divine Loophole' sticks to the original but the images are a perfect mix of different styles of modern animation drawings with strong influence of Japanese style of animation.
Suhag Shukla, managing director of the Hindu American Federation, got that book for her sons. She says Hindu epics have their fair share of violence and are not always kid-friendly. Patel, she says, does a good job "trying to balance some of these more tricky themes with the goal of sharing with others a heritage he loves and respects."
You can take a look at more illustrations and buy the book here at the website – Ghee Happy.
Ramayana: Divine Loophole
By Sanjay Patel
8-3/4 x 8 in; 208 pp; full-color images throughout
Hardcover
Published in January, 2010
Price - $29.95