March 15, 2008
Ramu; Cheriya manushyanum Valiya lokavum; G Aravindan
Hai all,
Yesterday, my thoughts were on MOCO. Today, its on "Ramu".
I have a friend Ramu. He is just 1 year old, and my neighbor. A cute smart "sundaran" ofcourse !
But I am now talking not about baby Ramu, but about "Ramu", the great character created by the genius G Aravindan.
Sri. G Aravindan, the famous Malayalam film maker/director, was not only a film maker; he was well known as a Cartoonist, even before he entered film making.
My family was fans of the "Mathrubhoomi Weekly". During 60s and early 70s, when I was a school student, our main attraction in Mathrubhoomi were (1) Ramu and (2) Novels, translated from English or Bengali. I remember the days when "Dracula", the horror novel's malayalam version, was being serialied !
Ramu was the focal character in the cartoon serialised, on the last page of Mathrubhoomi weekly. Ramu's creator, Sri. G. Aravindan, was from our town , and a friend/ class mate of my uncle. This too prompted us to closely watch and study the cartoon serial. Moreover, my second uncle, who was a voracious reader, used to explain the intricacies and meanings of what Sri. Aravindan conveyed through his character Ramu.
The series was titled " Cheriya manushyanum Valiya lokavum" { Small man and big world }.
In 1978, a local book publisher at Trivandrum, compiled the serial cartoons ( but was not complete) and published as a book. I have a copy of that collection with me. Today, I traced that gem from my library( I pity myself, my library is in a very bad shape. No order, not protected, and NOT in good shape ! I must act immediately to safe guard my gems !!).
I would like to show you a few specimen pages, and some pictures. That's those pictures above.
Any comments ?
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2 comments:
These are the only cartoons of Aravindan that Google managed to find on the web.. isn't it pathetic that no one even remembers anything about this wonderful work ? (I used to always rate Aravindan as a better cartoonist than a film maker - wonder how many would agree with me though :) )
It would be nice if you could scan a few of the good ones from Cheriya manushanum Valiya lokavum and put it up here so that the new generation can at least get a sampling of Ramu and Guruji.. (Someone "borrowed" my copy a decade or more ago and my attempt to get another copy has been in vain - the book seems to be out of print)
ive written something on the strip. This was presented at the new narrative coference on comics at the university of Toronto, Canada.
http://smalltalkzone.blogspot.com/
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