Of good Girls and Vamps

Meet Shelle, the man whose works have attracted millions in search of 'timepass' at bookstalls and libraries across India Her kohl-lined eyes are serene and dispassionate. A huge bindi adorns her forehead and her lips are a glossy red. Though vile-looking nails pierce her body all over, she retains her serenity. Had she not been a face on a book cover, the maiden would most definitely been the ever-suffering bahu in a 1980s Bollywood family drama. The same bahu whose conniving mother-in-law will try every trick on the book to make her life miserable. Tea cups will be flung on her face, her cooking skills mocked and then she will be made to wash mounds of dirty clothes.

So you see she is not just a face on a book cover. For Mustajab Ahmed Siddiqui (aka Shelle), a resident of Amroha, in Uttar Pradesh, she is an inspiration. A prototype on whose mould countless other cover girls of Hindi pulp fictions are created. "She is an icon. I have based her on all the heroines of Bollywod films. Their stoic sufferings are reflected in her eyes," says Shelle.

If you frequent railway stations across North India, you couldn't possibly have missed Shelle's women. The stare at you from those ubiquitous book stalls, they lie abandoned in station benches dog-eared and defeated. Giving the ever-suffering heroine stiff competition is the seductress in hot pants, crimson-lipped and mascara-eyed. She is an antithesis to the heroine, the chalk to her cheese. "In our days you only had heroines and vamps. No grey characters. The heroines were paragon of Indian virtues while the vamps were corrupted by Western lifestyle," Shelle laughs.

By his days Shelle means the good old 1970s, when he started painting covers for Hindi crime fictions. "I was an art teacher before. In 1971 I was approached by one of the publishers to paint the cover of a book and I haven't looked back," says Shelle.

Since then Shelle's artworks have graced the covers of more than 4000 Hindi pulp fictions.

And it wouldn't be presumptuous to say that he has contributed a lot in making the likes of Anil Mohan, Ved Prakash Sharma and Surender Mohan Pathak bestselling authors. "As much as I would like to, I don't get to interact with the authors much. Generally the publishers give me a briefing and I follow instructions. But nowadays I insist on lengthy interactions with the authors," says Shelle. The paintings are 12"X18" in size and are three times the size of the printed books. Shelles usually uses oil paint, with cuttings from magazines and posters to add to a collage feel. "They are scanned later and then the book titles and blurbs added. Technology has made our life a lot easier," says Shelle.

Technology, however, has spelled doom for the market of Hindi pulp fiction. "People are so used to gadgets and internet now that they don't need to fall back on these books for entertainment," says Shelle.

However, thanks to Chennai-based Blaft Publications, Shelle's works have found new avenues. They have bought out a collection of 25 postcards for Rs 295, Heroes, Gundas, Vamps & Good Girls, which offers us a closer look at his artworks.