Velamma — Episode 25 - Babu The Bully

The comic uses visual storytelling to emphasize this. In panels where Babu raises his hand or raises his voice, the framing is tight, claustrophobic—trapping him in his own anger. The women, by contrast, are often drawn in wider frames, looking past him or turning away. They have already left the conversation. Babu is screaming into a room that has already emptied itself of his relevance. Velamma has always been problematic, reveling in the very voyeurism it purports to critique. Yet Episode 25 momentarily steps into more dangerous, honest territory. The bullying is not sexual—it is domestic terrorism. Babu’s weapon is the threat of violence, not the act itself. He understands that in the family hierarchy, the fear of a man’s anger is more effective than the anger itself.

In the end, Babu is every bully who rules through fear because he has nothing else. And the episode’s lasting power is its mirror: it asks us to look not at Babu, but at the society that enables him—and at ourselves, for watching. Velamma Episode 25 - Babu The Bully

In the sprawling, often controversial universe of Indian adult web comics, Velamma stands as a peculiar artifact. Created by the now-defunct Kirtu Comics, the series is ostensibly a family drama drenched in voyeurism, societal hypocrisy, and sexual awakening. Yet, buried within its melodramatic panels, Episode 25—titled "Babu the Bully" —serves as a surprisingly sharp, if uncomfortable, microcosm of how patriarchal power dynamics are maintained, challenged, and tragically normalized within the Indian joint family system. The comic uses visual storytelling to emphasize this

By placing this narrative in the middle of a pornographic series, the creators force a kind of cognitive dissonance. Are we aroused by this? Are we meant to be? The answer is no. Episode 25 deliberately alienates its audience, reminding them that the bodies they objectify belong to people trapped in systems of quiet violence. Velamma Episode 25 – Babu the Bully is not great literature. It is crude, uneven, and mired in the same problematic gazes it sometimes critiques. But it is interesting because it refuses to offer catharsis. Babu does not get his comeuppance. The women do not escape. The family continues, bruised and bargaining. They have already left the conversation