Toon factory to the Rescue

A new documentary titled Chitrakatha is a fan-boys account of our childhood comic heroes and a tribute to those who created them.

Theres something strangely endearing about Indias colonial past. Almost like the grandmothers bed-time stories. Cartoonist and comic artist,Aabid Surti,creator of the iconic character,Bahadur,would agree. I was six- years-old when the Second World War was going on and British soldiers,on their way to Burma,would pass over India. They used to take a train from the Bombay docks to the VT station. We neither have those tracks,nor is there any such train now, smiles the 76-year-old in a promo from Chitrakatha: Indian Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels,a documentary on Indian comics,directed by Mumbai-based filmmaker,Alok Sharma.

Surti,with his gang of boys,would run after the train in anticipation of chocolates,biscuits,nuts and coins that the British soldiers tossed at them. One day a man threw a comic book at us. We had never seen something like that before. All the boys pounced on the book, he says. Surti returned home with one page from a Mickey Mouse comic book and decided that this was something he wanted to do and could do for the rest of his life. The result of which was Bahadur,a rural hero in a saffron kurta,who would save villagers from dacoits,much on the lines of Sholay. Surtis account of his tryst with comics,one of the many that shaped the genre in India,forms the crux of Sharmas documentary,Chitrakatha

A comics buff since childhood,Sharma joined the US-based Gotham Comics as an illustrator in 2004. It was at the library he worked in,that Sharma realised the cultural icon status that comics creators enjoyed abroad. In India,the genre dates back to 1961 but except a few people like Pran,Anant Pai and Surti,comics writers and illustrators have mostly lived in anonymity. Besides,there was no authoritative record on Indian Comic book art. Thats when the idea originated to meet all my childhood heroes,the creators and to know the true story of Indian comics from the proverbial horses mouth, says Sharma,who quit his job in 2008 to start making the documentary.

The documentary features three generations of Indian Comic Book artists like Aabid Surti,Anant Pai,Pran,apart from others like Anupam Sinha of Raj Comics,Dilip Kadam,who created comics characters for various publishing houses and Govind Brahmania,who was the cover artist for Bahadur and Shuja among others.

While the narrative,set to a peppy background score,follows a comic book fans account of his childhood heroes,it also explores the sociological contexts which marked the rise,fall and present attempts at revival of the comic book art in India. Anecdotal accounts of the artists history with the art are also a part of the documentary apart from a slew of interviews that have been interspersed with moving panels from the comics.

Western comics always had these muscled,intimidating,larger than life heroes. Indians could possibly never identify with such characters,even if they could gape at them in wonder. Thats how Chacha Chowdhary was born. Frail,scruffy and observant,Chowdhary embodied an average Indian man who knew the oddities of his countrymen well. He was my modern day Chanakya, smiles Pran in Chitrakatha. His creation Chacha Chaudhary entertained people across generations and turned the Western stereotype of a superhero on its head,thanks to a lightheaded side kick Saboo. Stories like these make Chitrakatha a treat for comic book fans.

One of the most unforgettable moments for me was when Uncle Pai (late Anant Pai) went ecstatic talking about the first generation artists,and before we could go ahead with the interview,he just smiled,looked into my eyes and said,Youve done your homework my boy! says Sharma.

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Toon factory to the Rescue

A new documentary titled Chitrakatha is a fan-boys account of our childhood comic heroes and a tribute to those who created them.

A new documentary titled Chitrakatha is a fan-boys account of our childhood comic heroes and a tribute to those who created them.