KOCHI: Only those in the age group of 40 years and above may remember the joy that comic-strip Kapish, the clever monkey whose tail possessed superpowers, brought them. Alas, Kapish who lived in the jungle of Kadu along with his friends Baboocha the bear, Bundila the elephant, Pintu the fawn, and others, faded away into memories after 2000.
There’s good news for the Kapish fans. The comic strip is making a comeback, courtesy of PPD (Pai Publishers and Distributers).“The move follows popular demand made by his fans,” said R Gopalakrishnan, former editor of ‘Poompatta,’ a children’s comic magazine in which Kapish made his debut in Malayalam.
“That was in 1978. Before that Kapish, who was brought to life by Anant Pai or Uncle Pai as he was famously known, was published in English and Hindi. I think that was in 1965,” he said. The comic strip was so famous that I remember children in those days waiting for the comic magazine to hit the stands, he added. Later on, after Poompatta ceased publication in 1989, Kapish reappeared in ‘Balarama’ and continued there till early 2000.
“Many even have collections of the magazine,” he said. Kapish had even captured the attention of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer who addressed him as Comrade Kapish. But what paved the way for Kapish’s rebirth? “We have a Facebook page called Poompatta Magazine which has as members people who were ardent fans of the comic book. It was seen that many times during various conversations, Kapish came up most frequently,” said Gopalakrishnan.
People always enquired as to whether it is possible to bring back Kapish, said Mohammed Thattacheri, one of the administrators of the FB page which has around 35,000 followers. Thattacheri, a retired government official, said, “Though we would have liked to bring back Kapish, copyright was a problem that posed a major hurdle. Anant Pai had sold the copyright to Colorchips, a company that makes animation films.”
According to him, the discussion about the need to bring back Kapish gained momentum when an idea to bring out a souvenir of Poompatta magazine was mooted. “But we didn’t know how to go about it. Even as we were despairing, we got a shot of luck. Ajai Pai of PAICO and artist Mohandas, who originally drew Kapish, approached Colorchips. Things progressed and Colorchips agreed to give PAICO the copyrights to publish Kapish in Malayalam while they retained it for versions in English and other languages,” said Mohammed.
And now, Kapish is coming back, said Gopalakrishnan, who is on the editorial board for the comic book. “The new comic book being brought out will be keeping the original colour of the comic strip. It was decided to keep the original colour due to the nostalgia that it generates,” he said.
Mohammed said, “The one task that posed difficulty was collecting the drawings. Most of it had been destroyed. So the comic strip, especially the ones that were published by PAICO, were sourced from collectors and other places.” According to Gopalakrishnan, these were then scanned and used to publish the new magazine. “This is the first book. PAICO plans to come out with another in around three months’ time. Artist Mohandas, who brought to life Kapish, and other characters through his illustrations, is very much involved in the redrawing and illustration works of the book,” he said.
The book was released on Chingam 1.