Fiction puts a face on places we've never been. This one by Ram Venkatesan deals with four friends growing up in the slums of Mumbai. But when the fiction is a comic book, and one of the four is a writer, and another is an artist, it's not entirely fiction, is it?
Grafiti is the artist, and true to his name, he spends his days honing his skills on various walls, including one in the trash heap which he and his friends have claimed as their clubhouse. Hence "Grafiti's Wall" in the title.
At this climactic point in the story, Chasma the pudgy, shy writer has embarked on a tentative romance with Saira, the moll of local drug lord Mario. She has stolen Mario's stash of cash and invited Chasma to run away with her, but Mario catches up with them at the train station. In his moment of truth, Chasma chooses to stay behind and distract Mario, allowing Saira to escape on the train.
It's easy to see that Radhakrishnan counts Moebius and Otomo among his artistic influences, a style well suited to the controlled chaos and decay of a tale set in one of the world's most populated, wealthiest, and poorest cities.
