Making a caricature in just about a minute is a tall order. That too, when it comes to making a caricature of a stranger. But that was what cartoonist Sajjive managed to pull off.
During the Onam rush at Thrikkakara Temple in 2010, he drew 651 caricatures in 12 hours and this feat has now been included in Limca Book of Records for 2012 as the fastest instance of full body caricaturing (as he had averaged 66.35 seconds for each caricature).
“Senior cartoonists have acknowledged that doing caricature requires time. Even the fastest known caricaturist takes more than a minute, though he draws only the face.
In contrast, Sajjive did full body caricatures, most of them he had not seen before,” said Sudheernath, who was the secretary of the Kerala Cartoon Academy in 2010.
The academy had organised the event, called Utradapaachil, back then. The Limca Book of Records was intimated about the event and the academy was told that the artist has to work for at least 12 hours to make it to the book. Mr. Sajjiv worked from 7.40 a.m. to 7.40 p.m., with known social personalities coming in every three hours as official witnesses.
“But for some minor lapses that occurred on our part, Sajjive could have managed to bring down the average to less than a minute. We are now planning to correct that and make him improve the timing at another show in Delhi later this year,” said Mr. Sudheernath.
Sajjive, an Income Tax Officer in the city and secretary of the academy, is all game to take on the challenge. Inspired by the blog maintained by artist Jason Polan, Mr. Sajjive started on this project. His blog (www.1minutecaricatures.blogspot.com) also attempts to capture this spirit.
