BANGALORE: A cartoon exhibition titled Remembering Bapu, Pran and Vins, a tribute to three Indian legendary cartoonists who passed away during the past few months, opened in the city on Monday.
As many as 72 of their works pulled out from the Indian Institute of Cartoonists archives will be on display and for sale until the 18th of this month at Indian Cartoon Gallery.
The third Indian cartoonist to have his cartoons in the permanent collection of many international cartoon museums, Vijay Narain Seth or Vins, was famous for his political and satirical strips. Pran Kumar Sharma (Pran), was one of the cartoonists to have made comic books popular in households across India, with characters like Chacha Chaudhary and Pinky.
Created in 1971 for the Lopot magazine, Chacha Chaudhary became an instant hit among children and adults alike. Pran realised early on the importance of humour in telling an engaging story and so like him, Chacha Chaudhary solved mysteries with the help of his intelligence and superior wit.
The third cartoonist to be honored at the gallery is Bapu or Sattiraju Lakshmi Narayan, a popular Telugu filmmaker who worked as a political cartoonist in Andhra Patrika.
Indian Institute of Cartoonist trustee Narendra V G says, “We honoured Pran and Bapu with lifetime achievement awards in 2001, and Vins is a household name in Andhra Pradesh known for cartoons without words or captions.”
The highlight pieces, according to him, are Pran’s cartoons of Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinky and Srimatiji. On the cartoonist, he says, “With him, it was a one man show. He’d come up with ideas, depict them and market them too.”
The exhibition will be on till October 18, from 10 am to 6 pm (except on Sunday).