Amazon Adventure by Kamleshwar Mukherjee: a review

I was waiting for this day. Amazon Obhijaan released yesterday and I guess this is the best time for me to post what I felt about the graphic novel which I received a long time back. Amazon Adventure: the graphic novel is director Kamleshwar Mukherjee's tribute to Bibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay's Chaand er Pahar. The book carries forward Shankar's story to another adventure. Here's the blurb of the book…

According to the blurb- Amazon Adventure is an enthralling story of two adventurers – Shankar & Anna who travel thousands of miles to reach the mythical city of Gold – El Dorado. With natural difficulties, wild animals, savage tribes, and vicious gold digger, it’s story of discovery & knowledge, unrelenting courage, survival, loss & pain. But above all, it is a tale of universal human bond and connection & the wisdom an individual gains from it.

Just as the blurb says, this story is a tale of universal human bond. The book has beautiful illustrations made by the talented artist- Arghya Das. One look at the book makes you go back to your childhood. Talking about childhood, this generation’s favorite actor essays the role of Shankar and kudos to Arghya for actually making the character of Shankar in the book look like him at places.

This 71 page book brushes through the main pointers of the book and you might as well feel that this book is a great introduction to what the larger than life film would look like. But I must warn you that if you're looking for a book that matches the scale of Chaand er Pahar then I would hold you there for a second. NO. This is a tribute and should be read as one.

The main story is told through shorter dialogues and makes you crave for what the movie might have in store for you. All inclusive of the pros and cons keeping in mind, I wanted to read probably more of the story that the movie holds. A few more pages of the book wouldn't have harmed. The characters are nice but in the book, certain things lack depth. Probably because this book is a translation of the movie and not Vice versa as is usually done. For me, it is a 3.5 out of 5 and I would really wanna congratulate Mr. Mukherjee for even attempting this.