n The Tale of the Talking Face, eminent Indian artist K. G. Subramanyan offers a stinging parable of democracy gone wrong by narrating and illustrating the story of a princess whose autocratic rule brought nothing but suffering to her people, despite her ambition of progress for her country. A thinly veiled satire on the political drama of 1970s' India, The Taleof the Talking Face is a universal record of the ever-deepening crisis of democracy and the threat of totalitarianism. "[Subramanyan's] art is radical in content, open in its approach to style and aesthetic ideas, meeting the proponents of style and craftsmen as equal and reflecting a high standard of artistic skills of different kinds. Cowed down neither by the figurative and non-figurative debate, nor loyalty to a school, which would restrain his originality, he is the quintessential Indian contemporary artist."--Suneet Chopra, Frontline "[Subramanyan has] come to be identified with the play of wit and satire, and with a phantasmagoric theatre of surfaces."--Nancy Adajania, Hindu