Images of Raj: An amusing, acerbic look at life & legends

Amidst these heady compliments, Raj with wife Sharmila in tow, attempts to remain modest. "Ever since we became part of the government this section (cartooning) was sort of closed down, so I decided revive it," he explains the rationale behind his exhibition. Burningthe proverbial midnight oil through December and most of January, Thackeray has put on display 108 caricatures of friends, foes and, of course, family. Uncle Bal – idol, mentor and inspiration features as muse, saint, philosopher…and no, he is never portrayed tugging on to the familiar remote control.

Predictably, Thackeray’s world-view is Mumbaicentric. Business tycoons and politicos from the metropolis feature prominently in the exhibition. JRD Tata with a prototype aircraft in Air-India’s colours shares gallery space with the Ambanis, all three of them. The Sena’s bete noir Chhagan Bhujbal is a big miss, but Sharad Pawar’s bulky presence is unmistakeable. Still he is luckier than fellow Congressman Shankarrao Chavan who is eponymously portrayed clad in tiger skin with a snake or two entwined around his neck. P V Narasimha Rao is struggling under the weight of a suitcase stuffed with cash even as former prime minister V P Singh is caricatured begging on a street corner, tattered fez inhand.

Surprisingly newspaper editors who are the target of much venom from the elder Thackeray get off lightly at the hands of the nephew. Loksatta editor Arun Tikekar and Maharashtra Times editor Kumar Ketkar couldn’t have hoped for better pen and ink portraits. His uncle’s one-time protege Chief Minister Manohar Joshi nervously walks a tight rope even as an ally from the BJP, Pramod Mahajan in khaki chaddis and trademark toothy grin in place exercises ominously with a lathi.

The exhibition has drawn Shiv Sena loyalists and money bags. A giant portrait of Mahatma Gandhi walking into the sunset, a giant red swastika rising out of the blue and Adolf Hitler marching triumphantly sold out shortly after the exhibition opened on Republic Day. Thackeray who insists that he drew the portraits on the spur of the moment refuses to divulge the name of the buyers. Like in the case of the elder Thackeray the politics dominates the artist in Raj. Only music composer Bappi Lahiri as a green bull frog in sunglasses orWalt Disney with his toon characters prancing all over him are indicators of art’s loss and politics’ gain.