Why send a drab email when you can send a deliciously outlandish postcard dripping with suspense, blood, sex and tragedy, ripped from a collection titled Heroes, Gundas, Vamps and Good Girls inspired by Hindi pulp fiction covers. Here's why North India can't get enough of Shelle's cleavage-sporting chudails and Haryanvi ghouls
Why send a drab email when you can send a deliciously outlandish postcard dripping with suspense, blood, sex and tragedy, ripped from a collection titled Heroes, Gundas, Vampsu00a0and Good Girls inspired by Hindi pulp fiction covers. Here's why North India can't get enough of Shelle's cleavage-sporting chudails and Haryanvi ghouls
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Shelle's covers adorn most action-packed Hindi pulp novels |
He goes by the pseudonym Shelle a derivative of the Hindi word for style. It was suggested by friends because his name, Mustajab Ahmed Siddiqui, takes up too much room. For people of North India, his work is more familiar than they think; they have had around 40 years to get acquainted with it.
Shelle's name accosts them when they walk into railway stations across the country. Every bookstore they pass showcases his work in bold, because his are the covers adorning most action-packed Hindi pulp novels.
Without his brush, bestselling Hindi writers like Anil Mohan, Ved Prakash Sharma and Surender Mohan Pathak would have far poorer sales.
Now, thanks to Chennai-based Blaft Publications, Shelle can find a new audience. For Rs 295, we all have a chance to take a closer look at some of his cover art through Heroes, Gundas, Vamps & Good Girls, a collection of 25 postcards.
Rakesh Khanna, one of three directors at Blaft, says the idea for a chronicle of Shelle's work came from a blogger called Sudarshan Purohit, following the release of The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction. Purohit wanted someone to focus on Hindi pulp fiction too, and agreed to translate a Surender Mohan Pathak novel.
What the publishers went gaga over, however, were the covers most of which done by Shelle. "We wanted a similar cover for our translation, too," says Khanna. "So we went out to Amroha, in Uttar Pradesh, to visit Shelle. While he showed us his huge collection, we came up with the idea for the postcard book."
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Heroes, Gundas, Vamps & Good Girls: Hindi Pulp Cover Art by Shelle: 25 Postcards, has been published
by Blaft Publications and is available at bookstores for Rs 295. |
"Writers always tell me how much they like it," he says, the pleasure in his voice evident during a telephonic chat. Siddiqui started out as an art teacher. Since 1971 though, he has done over 4,000 book covers. When asked if he now finds it monotonous, he laughs. "I experiment constantly, with water or poster colours,
collages, even computer software."
Currently working on a public exhibition, he finally intends to do his own thing. "What I have done for years has been based on other people's direction; I need to find my own expression." From Rs 25 per cover, the artist now commands thousands, taking around three days to finish one oil painting for a cover.
