[Ojay]

The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchatantra by Samit Basu and Ashish Padlekar
Requirements: CBR Reader, 88 MB.
Overview: Something's invading the stories of our childhood, leaving death and oblivion in its wake. Now, a motley crew of animal heroes from ancient Indian fables must unite to survive. But first they must find the boy destined to save them, the chosen guardian of the Panchatantra. Thing is... he has no idea they even exist! With naughty boy wizards, cuddly anime-sociopaths, and a not-so-frightful King of the Jungle, this ain't your Mother Goose's story!

Vishnu Sharma is a somewhat apathetic teenager living a normal life. Until one day a trio of magical talking animals follow him home, and inform him that it is his destiny to Save the World. And then Harry Potter shows up and tries to kill him. No, seriously.

The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma: Panchatantra

Written by Samit Basu
Art by Ashish Padlekar
Color(s) by Vishwanath Manokaran, Seshasainan and Sundara Kannan
Letterer(s) by Nilesh S. Mahadik Rakesh B. Mahadik
Publisher: Virgin Comics, 2007-2008

Reviewed by Elena, February 19th, 2009

Vishnu Sharma is a typical teenage nerd who loves video games. He has little interest in the tattered old copy of the Panchatantra that his grandfather hands down to him. One day, however, a group of three animals from the Panchatantra stories approach Vishnu and beg for his help. It turns out that Someone – or Something – is hunting down all of the old stories in the world, and killing them. Vishnu is extremely reluctant to help these strange creatures, until their mysterious enemy attacks him. Now Vishnu is forced to flee, with his animal allies, into the world within the pages of the Panchatantra book.

The plot of Tall Tales is, on the surface, all about Vishnu’s journey through the worlds of the Panchatantra stories. And Vishnu’s journey is not so much a literal one – frankly, he doesn’t physically travel very far – as it is a personal one. Whereas Tall Tales could easily have gotten caught up in its own high concept, romping through fairytale worlds and having ancient heroes do battle against modern book and cartoon characters, the narrative instead grounds itself by focusing on Vishnu’s character. Vishnu is an everykid, but he’s not just a cipher. He’s a complicated person who has realistic reactions to the insanity that he’s suddenly confronted with. He’s not always brave. He’s not always heroic. In fact, he makes at least one really bad, selfish decision in the third issue of the series. Vishnu doesn’t follow a straight path from everykid to epic hero. Instead, he fails miserably, and the final two issues of the series center around Vishnu’s attempts to correct his mistake and redeem himself.

Although dense with mythology and folklore references, Tall Tales is actually quite accessible to teen readers. This is probably helped by the fact that it is (sometimes incredibly) violent, with plenty of fantastic action sequences that help balance out the more ponderous, philosophical talky scenes. And, to be perfectly honest, the violence gets really violent. The series opens with a graphic murder, after all. There is blood, some gore, and a rather disturbing scene in which a villainous child gets shot in the head. Whether this makes the series more or less appealing to teen readers, well… I guess that depends on the reader. One thing that is definitely appealing about the series, however, is the humor. Samit Basu has a tendency to make some (but thankfully, not all) of his characters devastatingly witty. Basu’s writing will appeal to readers who expect their action heroes to be able to crack jokes at the same time that they’re decapitating evil robots. Padlekar’s colorful, visually inventive artwork also helps make the series a lot of fun to read.

Tall Tales is so much fun to read, in fact, that it’s easy to forget how densely-packed the story is, both in terms of its literary references, and in terms of its complicated narrative and frequent moral twists and turns. For example, here is the way that the Jackal from the Panchatantra introduces himself to Vishnu:


“Jack of all trades, of fine taste and immaculate pedigree, son of old Anubis himself. You’ve met some of my relatives, no doubt – the dog in Two Gents of Verona? The real hero in dear Mr. Forsyth’s slightly overdone thriller? The wily coyote? Or his great-grandfather, the Aztec’s Ueuecoyotl? No? Mr. Kipling’s Tabaqui? Something more contemporary? Very well, the Anti-Christ’s mother in The Omen – my niece.”

For some readers, encountering an uber-referential passage like that is going to throw them right out of the story. For other readers, however – especially teen readers who love to read, are just discovering the joys of metafiction, or who are hungry to know more about history and literature from cultures other than their own – that is exactly the type of passage that is going to suck them right into Vishnu’s tale

# Note: All Indian Mythology:

- Ramayan 3392 A.D.;
- Ramayan 3392 A.D. Reloaded;
- Buddha, A Story of Enlightenment;
- Devi;
- India Authentic;
- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma;

Download Instructions:
http://www.gboxes.com/ln5q4ez3inz8 -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 01 (2007)
http://www.gboxes.com/prxy0f0htziq -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 02 (2008)
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http://novafile.org/6l8jtpb78enb -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 01 (2007)
http://novafile.org/shdhumypoj71 -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 02 (2008)
http://novafile.org/pfo3iyy19n6k -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 03 (2008)
http://novafile.org/8ywqo0sdihzr -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 04 (2008)
http://novafile.org/xetdgkgwl64f -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 05 (2008)

(Closed Filehost) http://tusfiles.com/6oy6cev8ano0 -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 01 (2007)
(Closed Filehost) http://tusfiles.com/e1lfbtqrz3fh -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 02 (2008)
(Closed Filehost) http://tusfiles.com/m87x93q6zi5r -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 03 (2008)
(Closed Filehost) http://tusfiles.com/xpd6m98bwokf -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 04 (2008)
(Closed Filehost) http://tusfiles.com/2jpqb4o5grde -- The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma--Panchatantra 05 (2008)

[Phex]

Nice release! 5x5 +3 WRZ$ Rewards. Category: Comics