Kim Ki-duk is in town for the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) and already the many fans of the Korean auteur are in raptures at finally getting up close and personal with the filmmaker, for long the favourite of IFFK buffs. None more so than caricature artist Ibrahim Badusha a.k.a ‘Cartoon Man’, it seems.
Kim Ki-duk happened to stop by Badhusha’s exhibition of caricatures on display at Hotel Horizon, being held in connection with IFFK’s first ever Film Market. “It was really surreal. I could not believe my eyes when Kim Ki actually walked into the exhibition. I never imagined that I’d get to meet him in person let alone that he would sit for me to do a caricature of him! And that too for 20 minutes when there are hundreds of people thronging the venue just to catch a glimpse of him. I almost went hysterical when he asked if he could also caricature me [the filmmaker himself is an artist]! And he did!” says Badusha, mumbling in his excitement to share the news.
“He told me – via his translator, of course – that he really liked my caricatures. I’m in seventh heaven!” adds the artist, a graduate of the Toonz Academy of Animation.
Badusha says he honed his skills at the Kerala Cartoon Academy. “Caricature soon became a passion and I trained under several legendary cartoonists such as Yesudasan. I learned the intricacies of the art form under Sajeev Balakrishnan and Venu Variyath,” says Badusha. He had put up a caricature stall at a mall in Kochi and he happened to meet actor Ravindhar there.
“Ravindhar is the one who first called me ‘Cartoon man’ and being in charge of the Film Market invited me over to conduct an exhibition at IFFK,” explains Badusha.
Badusha has put up an exhibition of 100 of his caricatures themed on 100 years of Indian cinema. His caricatures range from Dadasaheb Phalke to Shah Rukh Khan and many of the Indian film luminaries in between. “From Malayalam cinema I’ve caricatured Mammootty and Mohanlal besides others such as Malayalam’s oldest National award winner, Premji, and it’s youngest, the late actor Monisha. Since I set up the exhibition I’ve also drawn Shahbana Azmi,” says Badusha.
Badusha’s exhibition is being organised by Film Market and Metromatinee.
