AHMEDABAD (TIP): Documentary filmmaker Jahnavi Prasada and illustrator Girish Arora, a graduate of the National Institute for Design, have joined hands to create a graphic version of Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography ‘The Story Of My Experiments With Truth’ — the first in the world.
The graphic novel is in the final stages of review and is being vetted by Gandhian scholars. “We chose the graphic novel form because it has a strong visual connect — the person in the autobiography is brought to life.
This art form is the most poignant way of telling complex and important stories,” says Prasada, who along with Arora, has been working on the project since the last 18 months. The graphic adaptation runs into more than 200 pages and tries to visually engage Gandhi with today’s youth.
The book will capture Gandhi’s principles in political life, the use of civil disobedience only to remind adversaries of their common humanity and also his quest for truth from childhood days till his death. The only other graphic novel on Gandhi was by a Japanese artist Kazuki Ebine in ‘manga’ format.
“I was inspired after reading the graphic novel on Babasahed Ambedkar recently and learnt so much about him. It was then that I decided on making a graphic novel on Gandhiji,” Prasada adds.