Is Mahabali a short, fair-skinned plump man with a pot belly and a handlebar moustache? Or is he a dark-skinned tall man with a regal bearing? Or could he be a tall, fair, clean-shaven man? “I have always been puzzled by the usual depiction of Mahabali. Given the fact that he must be a Dravidian, he is most likely to have looked like most of us. However, what is popular is this version of him as a chubby man with a huge paunch. I would like people to reimagine him and come up with their own versions,” says Sabari Venu.
He says that for a long time, he did not really think about Mahabali other than as the typical character that we have seen in pictures all around us, especially during Onam. “A furore over Vamana Jayanthi greeting for Onam last year started the conversation. My parents used to keep criticising how the image of Mahabali is so exaggerated and why we insist on following it,” says Sabari over phone from Bengaluru.
Sabari Venu
So, he did some reading and sought the help of his sister (who is doing history) and parents for references. “If you look at it historically, all this is likely to have happened in the pre-Aryan period. So the Mahabali we see could not be like the Malabali at that time if we follow the timeline,” he explains.
Reinventing images
To kickstart a debate and get people to deactivate their conditioned images about Mahabali, Sabari has drawn his version of a dark-skinned, tall, friendly Mahabali and posted it on his Facebook page ‘Mean Curry’ and on his Instagram handle with the same name.
“I wanted to start something where people, in a fun way, reinvent Mahabali. It may not be a definitive solution but it will definitely be a start. The pot-bellied character makes him comical and in many versions, he is fair-skinned. To play Mahabali, the uncle on the road uses so much make-up to make himself fair. I think, we should learn to appreciate ourselves,” he adds.
His post goes thus: ‘Where did the popular maha bellied, FAIR SKINNED, umbrella clad, SantaClaus like Mahabali character come from? How did a supposed Dravidian King end up looking like this dude - who our cosplaying uncles desperately try to recreate by dipping themselves in layers and layers of ... powder?
Mahabali, the ruler loved by all. A just and impartial King, who ruled over a perfect casteless society. He is more than just the individual, he stands for much more.
Asuras in general Savarna narratives are considered to be dark skinned, forest dwellers who are often demonized. Mahabali too was an Asura - but since he was loved by all he could not be demonized and instead was “gifted” fair skin and fancy clothes?
... I do not think the present Mahabali character does ANY justice to what Mahabali represents. And come on machus, we can really do better.
This is my version of our Asura King Mahabali.”
He invites readers and his followers to reinterpret the beloved King and tag him in it, says the post on September 5.
Well, since we have no photographs of the benevolent king, those interested can let your imagination run riot. In the meantime, there is more to savour if you check out his Instagram handle with more than 13.7 K followers. And that is within two years since he started posting his pungent, spicy comic strips that uses a mix of Malayalam and English and puns to make pithy, funny observations about contemporary events.
“I never thought anyone would like my chalu (Poor Joke). I started the page as a stress-buster but now it has become a habit,” says the 21-year-old graduate of design from the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bengaluru.
Clever wordplay
His strips are anything but trite. With a clever mix of words in both English and Malayalam, Sabari makes fun of the extreme right in the political spectrum with some carefully chosen characters. “Some of my strips have invited trolls and nasty remarks. Much of the really sharp stuff is posted on my personal page and Mean Curry has only the lighter strips that I have drawn. For that matter, even the Mahabali challenge seems to have irked certain people. Someone has abused me for it....There is no pleasing everyone,” he says. He emphasises that he had tried to make it as non-controversial as possible as it was a happy post. Sabari explains that he just picks up things from his childhood to make his comic strips. “I don’t think Malayalam-English pun is all that too common, especially in the comic form.”
He laughs when he says that he really has no clue how or why his followers, including Shashi Tharoor, like the comic strips. “I really wonder how people can appreciate these jokes. When I read them, I want to laugh.... Then I think ‘Oh man! people are really going to come at me... because this is a big chalu but I love making it and if people also like seeing it, that makes me happy.”
By now, entries have started coming in with different versions of Mahabali. “In fact, I got ten in the first 20 minutes after I put up the post. I plan to keep it open as long as people want to keep sending in their reinvented Mahabali,” he says.
Freelancing for the last two months, Sabari will soon be “joining another place soon”. “I have fun with Mean Curry. It is a relief for me and I like the action. However, there is one that I particularly like, which is a strip called ‘ Pennu is mightier than the sword’ [Pennu is woman in Malayalam. It can also be read as pen]. I find that popular Malayali culture tends to have a lot of misogyny. You see a lot of it on Instagram. I am slowly trying to get that out by having more representation for women, the clothes they wear, complexion... small things like that. Many may not see it but it is really important for me and I keep it in mind,” says the artist.
