KOCHI: M Dileef’s latest Guinness pursuit involves creating the world’s largest handwritten Quran. His dream is to write the holy text that runs a kilometre long. He has already completed 300 metres, the work in progress was recently displayed at Trivandrum Press Club. Ivory paper, wood, calligraphy and lamination sheet were the components used by Dileef to create the work. One of Dileef’s aims is to promote calligraphy through his project.
“The Indian calligraphy artist is dying. They are not getting the recognition that artists from abroad enjoy,” said Dileef.
Dileef’s installations are not just about breaking records. Instead, they highlight a social cause or issue. “Another message that I want to spread through my work is that Quran does not belong to a particular community. Quran speaks about art, science and literature. Furthermore, it details the solution to man’s problems, the relation between man and nature, gender equality and freedom of women,” said the caricature artist.
Dileef’s other passion lies in sketching political cartoons. His love for caricatures dates back to his high school days. “I used to draw cartoon sketches of my teachers back then,’’ said Dileef. However, forging a career as a cartoonist was not easy for Dileef. He had to struggle a lot during the initial stage. “When I started doing cartoons, digitalisation has not yet started and people in Kerala were not familiar with art and couldn’t afford it.
But that attitude is changing now as Malayalis are ready to spend as much as Rs 5 lakhs for a well-made painting,” added Dileef. His cartoons found place in many prominent international publications. A cartoon showing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lack of response to the killings in Palestine’ ranks among Dileef’s best.
Dileef also owns a chain of galleries named ‘Dileef Art Gallery’ in cities such as Bengaluru, Kochi, Coimbatore, Madurai, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Qatar. “The art galleries house about 100 artists who specialise in murals, abstract art, illustrations, cartoons and doodling”, said Dileef.
People around the world can get their live caricatures done through the online portal of the artist, www.guinnessdileef.com. Dileef’s next focus is on completing the remaining of the Quran which he plans to exhibit in the UK, UAE and Turkey. Some of Dilleef’s other achievements include making the largest badminton racquet in 2016 and drawing the largest caricature in the world. The Mahatma Gandhi caricature created by him is around 3333 square feet. He was also the recipient of the Kerala Cartoon Academy’s caricature award in 1997.