On the road to the Naraina Vihar residence of cartoonist Pran, one wonders whether Chacha Chaudhary will be standing round the corner with Rocket by his side, will Billoo be practising his strokes in a bylane and will Shrimatiji open the gate? But the cloud soon bursts because Delhi is no longer the same as it exists in Pran’s world. Grappling with goose bumps as one is asked to wait in a small room full of Pran’s characters, one figures that one may have moved on to complex narratives but the simple characters with sharp wit are still alive in fertile brain of this old man who retains his sharp sense of humour. “Why will Sabu get married, when Chachi is there to feed him,” he thunders when one asks him for how long he is going to keep his boy from Jupiter a bachelor.
Recently bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th Annual Comic Con India Awards 2014, Pran Kumar Sharma had a degree in Political Science but he steered clear of political cartoons because he says there were better political cartoonists than him in the 1960s. “Shankar, R.K. Laxman, Sudhir Dhar…they were well settled in their art form. At that time there were no Indian characters in comics. Newspapers used to carry strips of Phantom, Superman, Dennis The Menace and Blondie. I decided to make an Indian character with local subjects, something Indian readers could relate to,” says Pran adding he used to get Rs.7 to 10 for each strip.
If Laxman made the common man comment on politics, Pran picked a common man to take on the evil. “All my characters are taken from middle class. I didn’t base him on any one particular person. You could find a Chacha Chaudhary roaming in Chandni Chowk or Dariba Kalan area. He is not muscular like Superman or flying over rooftops like Spiderman. Even his dog Rocket is a street mongrel.” Nobody knows Chacha’s name? “There is no need. The two words rhyme well together.” But where is Chajju Chaudhary, his twin brother? “Oh! I created him for a few episodes. He will not come again. Even I had forgotten about him till he became a 20 lakh question in Kaun Banega Crorepati,” his eyes light up.
With age one started questioning his reasoning, his ability to break stereotypes. Chaudhary is considered to be all brawn but Pran gave him a super brain. Sabu is from the planet of learning but his ignorance is legendary. Pran doesn’t have any clear answers. “I wanted to be different.” Perhaps too much logic clouds one’s imagination.
Interestingly, there was no Sabu for the first few years. “When I started the problems of India were ordinary but gradually we started facing threats of terrorism, bomb blasts and hijacks. I thought that if I don’t keep pace with time I will be left behind. Chacha is too small to take on these obstacles. It will no longer look natural. Then I introduced a muscular man and weaved a story around him. But I kept them grounded.”
For many years Sabu wore very little and Pran says it was in tune with the times when the wrestlers were often seen in a langot (loin cloth). “However, when I got a few complaints and the fact that the comics were meant for family reading, I changed his attire to tight jeans.” Economic liberalisation had its effect on his characters as well. “The middle class of 90s was different from the middle class of the 70s. I had to bring in a vehicle at Chacha Chaudhary’s house but with Sabu you can’t have an ordinary car. But I didn’t want anything flashy. So I created a situation where Chacha got a truck of second Work War vintage.”
However, before Chacha Chaudhary, there was Shrimatiji, whom Pran created way back 1968. “It started from Sarita magazine. It was created around husband-wife jokes, issues of homework and limited salary. But my base was always humour. I always wanted to make people laugh and when the reader opened the mouth to laugh I pushed in the message.” Like Pinki doesn’t want to take tuition from a teacher, who believes in corporal punishment and learning by rote. She asks him questions of general knowledge like the role of haemoglobin.
Talking of reinvention, Pran says the first attempt was made when the strips took the form of compilation courtesy Diamond Comics. “In the early 80s when it came into the market, it was sold out within in a week.” The demand took a down turn in the 90s. “When animation came into our homes through television, the demand of printed comics waned. Then Sahara group offered to adapt Chacha Chaudhary into a television series. When the series appeared on television the sale of printed version increased again. They outsourced the series to a production company and it could not do justice to the character.” Now he has signed a deal to turn Chacha into a feature film. “The idea is to launch the merchandise as well. It is taking time and at this age I am also not too keen. We are far from the appeal of Japanese manga but things have definitely improved for Indian comics. It can be understood from the proliferation of publishers.”
At 75, Pran is still sketching without any tremble in the fingers. “I have people who make use of the Photoshop to fill colours but as far as sketching and writing is concerned I want to do it myself,” he gets started and the photo journalist goes clicking.
Date with the other Chacha
“I remember one day I cycled my way to Teen Murti House with drawing board placed on the carrier. I must be around 25 then. The guard stopped me and asked if I had an appointment. I said I don’t want a job or licence; I just want to draw a caricature of Pandit Nehru. He went inside and after a few minutes asked me to come inside. Nehruji was in a conversation with Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant. Soon I was called inside and I started drawing. I made a pigeon on his shoulder. Nehruji smiled and asked there is no pigeon here. I said I see you as an angel of world peace. He replied, ‘It is very easy to be an angel but it is very difficult to be a good human being.’ He was a true statesman. Statesmen don’t take every issue to the public,” comments Pran looking longingly at the caricature hanging on the wall. “I made caricatures of many politicians. It was my hobby.”
