pulp painter

he goes by the pseudonym shelle — a derivative of the hindi word for style. it was suggested by friends because his name, mustajab ahmed siddiqui, takes up too much room. for the people of north india, his work is more familiar than they think; they have had around 40 years to get acquainted with it.

his name accosts them when they walk into railway stations across the country. every bookstore they pass showcases his work boldly — the guns, women, blood. the covers of most action-packed hindi pulp novels have been painted by shelle. without his brush, best-selling hindi writers like anil mohan, ved prakash sharma and surender mohan pathak would have far poorer sales.


now, thanks to chennai-based blaft publications, shelle can find a new audience. for a meagre rs 295, we all have a chance to take a closer look at some of his marvellous cover art. heroes, gundas, vamps & good girls is a collection of 25 postcards — page after page of luscious lips, lecherous villains, shiny pistols — all promises of the horror lying in wait for those who pick up those fast-paced novels.

rakesh khanna, one of three directors at blaft, says the idea for a chronicle of shelle’s work came from a blogger called sudarshan purohit, following the release of the blaft anthology of tamil pulp fiction. purohit wanted someone to focus on hindi pulp fiction too, and agreed to translate a surender mohan pathak novel. what the publishers went gaga over, however, were the covers — most of which were done by shelle. “we wanted a similar cover for our translation, too,” says khanna. “so we went out to amroha, in uttar pradesh, to visit shelle in his studio. while he was showing us his huge collection —literally thousands of book covers — we came up with the idea for the postcard book too.”

the artist himself is used to people going gaga over his work. “writers and publishers always tell me how much they like it,” he says, the pleasure in his voice evident over a telephone line. siddiqui started out as an art teacher before finding extra work as a cover designer in 1971. since then, he has done over 4,000, and continues to find new work. when asked if he now finds it monotonous, he laughs. “i have never done the same kind of stuff,” he points out. “i experiment constantly, with water colours, poster colours, collages, even computer software.” currently working on a public exhibition of his work, he finally intends to do his own thing. “what i have done for years has been based on other people’s direction; i need to find my own expression.” from rs 25 per cover, the artist now commands thousands, taking around 3 days to finish an oil painting for a cover.

khanna says it’s too early to discuss sales, but initial indicators seem good. “i can imagine different kinds of people liking the book,” he says, “fans of pulp art in general, people who used to read hindi crime novels when younger and are nostalgic about them, or travellers who want to send fun cards home from their india trip.” the publishing house has a number of other unusual projects lined up, including a graphic novel, the blaft anthology of tamil pulp fiction vol. ii, and another novel by surender mohan pathak.

the latter will, of course, boast a brand new cover by the guy who does them better than the rest.