|
Literary Review
Cartoon characters
IN most self-respecting Hindi movies there comes a time when the wild-eyed protagonist, driven mad, begins crying — and imperceptibly his weeping changes to maniacal cackles of laughter. Our politicians turned us into versions of this madman long ago, but the grey bearded pomposities that usually write about politics are not often ready to accept this insanity and treat Indian politics with the mirth it deserves.
Journalist Pamela Philipose's slim little book of political satires is refreshing because it treats politics with ridicule. She takes no sides, ladling out contempt equally to all political bugs and beasts. Go past the opening, with its slightly strained poetic/satiric description of Indiaprastha, unconsciously echoing the opening of Dylan Thomas's "Under Milkwood" and Ezekiel's much-imitated "Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S." The rest of the book contains wickedly accurate portraits of the country's walking political clichés: politicians who refuse to die despite having "ground down at least five sets of dentures", politician offspring who neatly switch from Gap casuals to kolhapuris when the Country Beckons, the godman, the floor crosser, and the rest of the motley crew that populates those bungalows with their clipped green lawns. The accompanying caricatures by Saurabh Singh are sometimes even better than the writing.
The sketches take the reader into our lurid political past, the author tossing out the appositely tongue-in-cheek quote, the well-informed political parallel abroad. However this is not a book to be read at one sitting for the style can begin to pall, and even when satirised, after a while, our beloved politicians make you feel like you've swallowed extract of neem.
Laugh All the Way to the Vote Bank, Penguin, Rs.150.
ANURADHA ROY
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
|
