The Walt Disney of India (1938 – 2014)
On 5 August 2014, every form of media was abuzz with photos of Chacha Chaudhary. The chacha of course needs no introduction in India. At first glance, it felt that the comic had perhaps run its course and was shutting down. That was jolting enough. It was a few seconds later one realised that the creator of that uncommon Indian man, eminent cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma had passed away. And then reality hit home hard – in that one instance there were three deaths – of the man, his creation and a little bit of every Indian’s childhood.
I must admit, until that precise moment, it never occurred to me that Chacha Chaudhary was not a living person and somebody imagined him out of their extraordinary genius and breathed life into ink. I never considered that there was someone in flesh and blood responsible for getting that mainstay of all my childhood train journeys into my hands. That Chacha, Sabu and Rocket were not really living people. While everyone is aghast with grief, mourning the loss of Chacha Chaudhary’s creator, it will eventually dawn on us that Pran Kumar Sharma, the vanguard and trailblazer for the Indian comic industry is no more. That a nascent enterprise has just lost its founding father. Such was the creation of the man that it dwarfed him from our collective conscious his entire life and continues to, even in death. And that is much said for a career that spanned over five decades.
Born in 1938 at Kasur, near Lahore in what was once British India, Pran graduated with a BA from Gwalior and Master of Arts (Political Science) degree from evening Camp College, Delhi. Ever since, a native of Delhi, he then pursued a five-year course in Fine Arts from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai through distance learning.
In 1960, he began his career with his comic strip Dabboo and since has created 400 characters. Alongside the ensemble of Sabu, Bini Chachi, Billoo and Pinki, he created and authored other characters like Channi Chachi, Shrimatiji and Raman which are regularly published in Indian magazines.
In an era, when Indian comics were mere translations of popular foreign cartoons, Pran possessed the sublime talent to create characters which found resonance with the every Indian. Unlike the musclemen then doing the rounds in comic books, Pran created and raised into a league above and beyond any superhero the typical middle-class Indian. With Chacha becoming his pivot around which characters interacted, he kept true to the cartoonists code and what could easily have become the cartoon version of a sit-com, rose like literature into a depiction of middle class India through the continuing decades with Prans’ own commentary on society running astutely through the wit of his main character.
When there is a nationwide outpouring of loss, with the Prime Minister tweeting his condolence and every colleague, associate and student effusive in spontaneous praise of his life and work, it is easy to know that Pran will forever be remembered as one of the greats to grace our country.
I never had the fortune to meet him. But I believe every creator leaves in his creation at least a little bit of himself. And so, Pran will remain for me the embodiment of all the things we learnt from Chacha Chaudhary – a man with the collective wisdom of the ancients (bestowed the honorific ‘chacha’), the patience and resolve of time (outsmarting goons since 1969), a love of animals (Rocket, the loveable stray dog), one aware of the pitfalls of anger (a volcano erupts on Jupiter whenever Sabu is angry), with unflinching faith in humanity (Chacha
never locked his house) and the towering intellect of a man revealed through a gentle smile as he went about righting his world without gadgets or weapons and never having to hide behind cape or cowl.
RIP Pran. But now, who will outsmart the computer?