Young Mujib in the hearts of graphic novel ‘Mujib’ readers

The torch of courage, compassion, and love lit by the Father of the Nation decades ago still stirs the imagination of children and catalyses the creative spark of artists. 'Mujib', a graphic novel based on the life of Bangabandhu – from his prime to the prime-mover of the country's independence – carries forward that torch, bringing forth lesser-known aspects of his life often outshined by his role as the architect of independence, as the prime minister, and as one of the insurmountable figures of world history.

Savouring details of his life – from young Mujib to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – in the graphic book, I had an epiphany flashing in my mind that reality outsmarts fiction and real heroes outperform superheroes. As the repressive regime of Pakistan used up all the instruments to root out the harbingers of equality, progress, and emancipation, it had its hawk-eye on one leader since the inception of the state, paving the path for him to serve years in jail. But his voice defied the high walls of the prison through the journals he maintained providing first-person accounts of his life as a schoolboy to the time of his political awakening.

His stories were too true to die out and it was long after his assassination and long after the country's independence that the unexplored gems were discovered and framed as a book titled 'The Unfinished Memoirs' offering a glimpse of his life as a commoner not the one as a global icon in the political sphere. When the vignettes in 'The Unfinished Memoirs' were retold in the form of the graphic novel, I considered it as a paradigm shift in storytelling in our country where the stereotype of an officious manner of writing settled upon the heart of political biography. So, the comic-style presentation of the life of the Father of the Nation better captures our imagination and helps us develop the conviction that a youth with a middle-class upbringing in a rural setting can represent the voice of a nation – planting in the heart of 70 million people the dream of freedom and sovereignty that they were denied over a couple of centuries.

Even some anecdotes narrated in the graphic novel left me gaping and I would not even believe those stories had they not been told through the first-person narrative. It was unbelievable to note that the man who stayed in a straight, unwavering posture even at the face of the bullet shot from the assassin's gun had encountered the haunted phobia about the operation on his eye and he had attempted to escape the ophthalmologist's chamber. I could feel that there were leaders who had a profound influence on young Mujib and set the stepping stones for his leadership. Whenever any crisis brewed up, young Mujib lent his heart and soul to the people in distress and screamed at the top of the lungs against any injustice that turned out before his eyes. As the three episodes of the English version made it to the list of my lifelong collection of reading, I am waiting for the shuttle that will carry me the rest since his journey inspired the journey of our fathers and forefathers who became one towards the cause of freedom, the inception of the red and green flag that majestically flies on our horizon.