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Comic relief! Uncle Sam stripped!
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War and satire may not always go hand in hand. But put Jug Suraiya's wit and Neelabh's drawing skills together and you may just be struggling to wipe off that smile from your face. The two have just put their best pen forward in "Dubyaman' as S ANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY finds out... .
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Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter. Is he not the only one to be laughed at - Greville.
JOURNALIST-HUMORIST Jug Suraiya and illustrator Neelabh Banerjee seemed to put this generalised remark for a specific use when they dissected many a `protagonist of the post 9/11 War against Terrorism' to give birth to their new comic-strip-turned-book `Dubyaman's Duniya'.
Dubyaman's Duniya is an end-product of the duo's humorous interpretation of serious business, a typical comedy of errors, making hollow the US's `big-brother attitude and the ever-willing American interest to taste every pie possible'. The illustrations tickle your funny bone through its prime target, post-Ground Zero U.S. President George W. Bush's hilarious `Rambo-speak pronouncements' against his prime target Osama Bin Laden and an all-out march to "smoke him out". Even the book's title has been plucked out of Bush's nickname Dubya.
Justifying the entire exercise, Jug says: "So when Dubya declared his all-out, no-holds-barred `war' against terrorism— which could be staged initially in Afghanistan, India's already sensitive backyard -- I was acutely apprehensive of the possible repurcussions. More so because New Delhi's own political Keystone cops - starting with Atal Behari Vajpayee and the sesquipedalian Jaswant Singh - were going gung-ho on joining the campaign.''
Hence, Jug's satiric interpretations gave birth to Dubyaman, `a deranged American superhero in the mould of comic book Superman'. But make no mistake as this Superman is not a child's fantasy and a do-gooder but a monster, shaping history with deeds flowing from "an intellectually challenged'' mind. And, here rests the mainspring of the book's laughter, with the creators making people chuckle by mirroring through farce as to what is behind the curtains.
Not that the illustrations left behind US's instruments of War against Terrorism - Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf. With illustrations of Vajpayee announcing from atop a chariot that he has `the belly for everything except mango kernels' - an obvious take off on the Government's supply of mango kernels to the starving people of Kalahandi, and Gen Musharraf's white lies to the U.S. that he is not harbouring any terrorist while a few armed ultras peep out from behind his chair, provide hilarious undertones and covert connotations of the entire `farce'.
One of the book's effulgent toon strips is that of Bush hovering over the world to smell trouble in his Superman costume and mistaking a fist-fight between Vajpayee and Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi for an impending Indo-Pak conflict. Dubya's apology and request to them to carry on makes you feel that humour is the best medicine in a hapless political milieu, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him.
So, how long will Dubyaman live? "As long as the Dubyamanitis continues,'' Jug says. Flaying `the blitzkrieg tactics' employed to fight terrorism and not delving into the root of the disease, both Jug and Neelabh say Dubyaman is no longer an individual but a state of mind. The elements of Dubyamanitis can be traced in Gujarat riots and in Ayodhya, they opine.
However, the book's concluding leaf seems to send across the ultimate message to the readers : while Osama still remains out of the net, the US President is at his hollow herospeak. The book ends with an unhappy Vajpayee complaining to Dubya about the US-Russia agreement to scrap the anti-ballistic missile treaty wherein the superhero says - "to take out 10 times of our current life insurance." Therein, Osama peeks out of his `Wanted' poster and blurts: Make no mistake. My family owns the insurance company.
In this comical War against Terrorism, the elusive Osama seems to be having the last laugh. Did someone say jesters do often prove prophets ?
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