Shivram Dattatreya Phadnis: Common man’s cartoonist with an upside view of life enters 100th year
Unlike Laxman, Thackeray, ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy of Chennai and Shankar of New Delhi, Phadnis stayed clear of political themes
Mumbai: Neither have his crooked lines, which brought a smile on readers’ lips for over seven decades, paled nor has he lost the twinkle in his eye.
Renowned cartoonist Shivram Dattatreya Phadnis sat through a function in Pune last week, organised to raise a toast to him as he entered his 100th year on July 29, with an amused look which would have earned him a friendly hug from R K Laxman’s Common Man, said Milind Paranjpe, Phadnis’s long time publisher.
Unlike Laxman, Thackeray, ‘Cho’ Ramaswamy of Chennai and Shankar of New Delhi, Phadnis stayed clear of political themes. Many also think that his appeal remained confined to Maharashtra as he worked only for Marathi magazines—and avoided dailies.
Phadnis nourished the art of cartooning all his life with perseverance and evolved his distinct style. Over the years he was also known to wholeheartedly back young cartoonists such as Mangesh Tendulkar, Vikas Sabnis and Prashant Kulkarni, to name a few.
“Both Laxman and Balasaheb Thackeray became cult figures because they drew cartoons for dailies. They reached every household in the morning and thus remained connected with the millions. On the other hand, Phadnis’s appeal is limited as he contributed cartoons to Marathi literary magazines. However, over the years he crafted his brand and style, which is his own, and abundantly refreshing, vibrant and unique,” said noted critic-writer Meena Waishampayan.
Phadnis became the icon of the Marathi middle class which back in the 1960s was in a flux, trying hard to come to terms with growing urbanisation, alienation, class struggle and loss of values inherited from the freedom struggle. “The Marathi middle class was trying to strike a balance between tradition and modernity. He picked on their follies and foibles gently and subtly,” said Waishampayan. Paranjpe added: “A Phadnis cartoon never bites, it tickles your funny bone. Also, he has an exalted sense of visualisation.”
Experts said Phadnis picked characters and situations from daily life and tweaked them skilfully, blending imagination with consummate craftsmanship. Many think Phadnis shares his worldview with the celebrated humourist P L Deshpande. “Although their genres differed, both were cut from the same cloth. Both targetted the post-World War II middle class and used humour to remind them that life is a breeze,” said noted theatre person Vinod Pawar.
Born in Bhoj, a sleepy village, in Belgaum on July 29, 1925, Phadnis migrated to Kolhapur for higher studies. Paranjpe said Kolhapur, a centre of music, cinema and the fine arts thanks to the benevolent rule of Chhatrapati Shahu’s Maharaj, fired the young artist’s passion for drawing and sketching.
Phadnis shifted to Mumbai in the 1940s to fulfill his long-cherished dream of honing his talent at the iconic Sir J School of Art. While soaking in the creative atmosphere of Mumbai, he participated in a painting competition hosted by ‘Mohini’, a prestigious Pune-based literary magazine. He bagged the first prize—and a year-long assignment to draw the ‘Mohini’ cover. He continued to do it for 67 years, non-stop.
With literary magazines flooding the market in Mumbai, Pune and other cities of Maharashtra, and love for books on the rise in the absence of television and cell phones, Marathi literature came into its own soon after the linguistic state of Maharashtra was created in 1960.
Literary magazines such as ‘Mohini’, ‘Naval’, ‘Mouj’, ‘Hans’, ‘Kirloskar’, ‘Maanoos’ and ‘Sobat’, to name a few, sold like hot cross buns. No less were the contribution of editors and publishers (S P Bhagwat, Anant Antarkar, S G Majgaokar and Mukundrao Kirloskar) who had an eye for the aesthetics.
Phadnis thus had a field day, dabbling in colours and conversing with the canvas. The 1954 ‘Mohini’ cover was selected by CAG for its annual exhibition.
Paranjpe thinks Phadnis’s achievements as illustrator and designer have largely gone unnoticed. He has done covers and illustrations for nearly 600 Marathi books, including ‘Apoorvaiee’, a far east travelogue written by Deshpande, which is a bestseller, and the Bal Bharati text books, he pointed out.
The frail, mild-mannered cartoonist was known to turn into a Spartan soldier on the issue of royalty, said close friends. They recalled how he waged a protracted legal battle to safeguard the rights of painters and artists. He headed Cartoonists’ Combine, an association of cartoonists, for several years, and succeeded in getting art exhibitions exempted from service tax.
Fired by the idea of spreading awareness for visual arts, Phadnis with wife Shakuntala, a doughty woman, in tow, held his cartoon exhibitions in as many as 20 major cities of the country. His cartoons have travelled to Canada and the USA as well, it is learnt. Age has hardly dimmed the grand old man’s lust for life. He goes out for a walk twice a day and answers phone calls. Till recently he did his daily yoga exercises, including the Sheershasan—taking, like a good cartoonist, an upside view of life, smiling.