Looking back, together with the Kerala Cartoon Academy, UTHRATAPPACHIL, the 12 hour nonstop live caricaturing yajna conducted at the Thrikkakkara Temple, Ernakulam has been the singlemost satisfying venture undertaken by both of us. Immense thanks to my senior cartoonist friend, TVG Menon -Vasily Vascillowich Chettov as he reminds me in his mails that he really is - who posted this greatly presentable video on the YouTube ! Sudheernath, the then KCA Secretary floored everyone with his compulsive organising capacity. I am still awe-struck !
The Kerala Cartoon Academy has never been able to garner this many cartoonists and PR resources at short notice in the 29 years of its existence. This video is a celebration of all that the KCA has been standing for. Equally, this was KCA's tribute to a cartoonist who unlike most others was too lazy to take interest in getting his works published and opted to be a silent though slow worker, instead. Thanks KCA !
The ceremonial lighting of the traditional lamp (Nilavilakku), cartoonist's more talented playback singer wife in solemn prayer in the brightlit background, the resonating Panchavaadyam and the mirth and expectant bustle of the caricature seekers and devotees, one elephant to other elephants, all caparisoned in grandeur, the expanse of the stage set to liberal measurements said for the music dramas and the long patient queue winding down from the dias - all those were great blessings that would grace only very few artists in this world. Nowhere else, this kind of celebration of an art form other than the temple arts inside a temple premise would have taken place.
Each caricature elicited peels of laughter from men and women of all temparament, might be only for a few seconds. Men and women, many of them, laughed for the first time in their life looking at themselves. There was no rancour, no bad blood. After each caricature nudged to the subject in thanks, I regretted the extra flourish of the black marker pen or the lack of it, as I have, eversince and everbefore, been doing. But, all not artfully but sportively compromised to the compulsive faltering of lines happening during fast live caricaturing. One 92 year old lady, Ananthalakshmy Ammal , a classical vocalist who was there to sing before the deity blessed me many times and danced in the centre stage like a pro ! A young farmer from Muvattupuzha whom I drew in the morning waited till 8pm just to put a simple garland around my (non-existent :() neck ! I thank them all. My fellow cartoonists, most of them junior to me in age, constantly saw to that there was minimal lag in seating one subject after the previous one lifted oneself up. At the end, the tally was 651 caricatures in 12 hours, @ 66.36 seconds per caricature.
Once again, I thank all my friends, the 651 subjects, the supporters and the grace of all the powers that stay beyond me, far away from my ignorances. The KCA or me may never be able to do a show like this. This kind of thing is once in a lifetime for a cartoonist.
Truly, once-in-a-lifetime !
The Kerala Cartoon Academy has never been able to garner this many cartoonists and PR resources at short notice in the 29 years of its existence. This video is a celebration of all that the KCA has been standing for. Equally, this was KCA's tribute to a cartoonist who unlike most others was too lazy to take interest in getting his works published and opted to be a silent though slow worker, instead. Thanks KCA !
The ceremonial lighting of the traditional lamp (Nilavilakku), cartoonist's more talented playback singer wife in solemn prayer in the brightlit background, the resonating Panchavaadyam and the mirth and expectant bustle of the caricature seekers and devotees, one elephant to other elephants, all caparisoned in grandeur, the expanse of the stage set to liberal measurements said for the music dramas and the long patient queue winding down from the dias - all those were great blessings that would grace only very few artists in this world. Nowhere else, this kind of celebration of an art form other than the temple arts inside a temple premise would have taken place.
Each caricature elicited peels of laughter from men and women of all temparament, might be only for a few seconds. Men and women, many of them, laughed for the first time in their life looking at themselves. There was no rancour, no bad blood. After each caricature nudged to the subject in thanks, I regretted the extra flourish of the black marker pen or the lack of it, as I have, eversince and everbefore, been doing. But, all not artfully but sportively compromised to the compulsive faltering of lines happening during fast live caricaturing. One 92 year old lady, Ananthalakshmy Ammal , a classical vocalist who was there to sing before the deity blessed me many times and danced in the centre stage like a pro ! A young farmer from Muvattupuzha whom I drew in the morning waited till 8pm just to put a simple garland around my (non-existent :() neck ! I thank them all. My fellow cartoonists, most of them junior to me in age, constantly saw to that there was minimal lag in seating one subject after the previous one lifted oneself up. At the end, the tally was 651 caricatures in 12 hours, @ 66.36 seconds per caricature.
Once again, I thank all my friends, the 651 subjects, the supporters and the grace of all the powers that stay beyond me, far away from my ignorances. The KCA or me may never be able to do a show like this. This kind of thing is once in a lifetime for a cartoonist.
Truly, once-in-a-lifetime !
