Cricket-lore for the desi kid

CARTOON NETWORKERS, here's some news for you. There's this new bunch of cricket-loving toons, all set to hit the stands. Yes, desi toons brought to you by phoren company Toonz Animation, every month for fifty bucks.

Good Books, Alwarpet would be distributing the comic book series of `Pakka Toons' and `Classic Toons', Bill Dennis, CEO of Toonz Animation announced at a press meet on Wednesday.

Also present was cricketer Venkatraghavan, who earlier in the day, had spent time, interacting with children at Good Books, facing questions ranging from `How difficult is umpiring' to `Who is the best batsman in the world'.

Soon, books were passed on for the press to have a taste of what the product was. You curiously flip through the pages. And the very first page had one of the Mumbai residents crooning to his neighbour `Kya Bolti Tu... Aati Kya Khandala'.

Just as you think, `Wow!! Here's desi comic', you see the footnote at the end of the page explaining the song: Song from a famous Hindi film enquiring about weather!

Stumped at the translation, you proceed to read the rest of the tale based on cricket-lore. That's when you see how much the characters really connect to desi kids.

Wannabe street cricketers, the nightmare of the neighbours, the chaps who are used to smash the ball into the gallery, breaking window panes for trophies, the kids you find almost anywhere in India who just love the game and play it, no matter how much of space they have, whether they have enough people or paraphernalia. All that `It happens only in India' brand kriket.

The first in the `Pakka Toon' series, is called `Cricket Miracles'. The comic-book that introduces to the children, the characters who would be the stars of the forthcoming issues.

Guru is the captain of the team, who is ``handsome, clever, a bit of a rebel but most definitely the most popular guy in town who holds his team together.

Aunt Sweety is the coach who knows to blend cricket, coaching and cooking. Gray is the guy who knows every single thing about cricket, ''but when it comes to actually playing the game, Gray sucks``. Then, there's Star, who is the star of the team, Bull, the gentle giant who when provoked turns a ''human steamroller``.

Also a part of the tale are Frog, ''the uncommonly lazy wicket- keeper who has the uncanny ability of catching any ball thrown his way``, Shaker, the team's fastest runner ''who never takes off his helmet`` and Thakral - the villain of the piece.

That's about `Pakka Toons', the other series being brought out by Toonz is `Classic Toons', which tell tales out of Indian folk- lore like the Panchatantra. Every year, the company would bring out six issues of `Pakka Toons' and six of `Classic Toons'.

The books are more in league of Chacha Chaudary, Amar Chitra Katha and other desi comics. Each book from the house of Toonz Comix will have 56 pages of stories.

But will the desi kid be able to shell out 50 bucks every month to read about icons they haven't heard about?

By Sudhish Kamath

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