A CARTOONIST WITH MASTER STROKES

 

The image is from an old magazine which I found while cleaning a cupboard where many collection of our family members were stored.

There were many cutting from old newspapers and books with colourful drawings depicting a normal life and routines in those days.

This drawings were called as GOPULU Drawings.  He had a great sense of humour & this style is exclusively to him. Among the many awards that Gopulu won during his long career was the Kalaimamani Award by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1991 and the lifetime achievement award in 2001 from the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Cartoonists.

He was a noted cartoonist S. Gopalan fondly known as Gopulu, who captured the flavour of everyday life of his period in his illustrations for Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan was a familiar name in many households. People of all age groups enjoyed his work. While Gopulu was not averse to the use of technology and devices by the young illustrators to draw cartoons and illustrations, he himself preferred using his hand to create his drawings till the end.

Born in the temple town of Tanjore in 1924, he studied at the Kumbakonam School of Art. In 1941, He met the legendary artist Mali of Ananda Vikatan, who commissioned a number of paintings by Gopulu for the magazine‘s Deepavali specials. He also used him as a freelance artist. Gopulu formally joined Ananda Vikatan as a cartoonist in 1948. 

Gopulu’s creativity encompassed jokes, cartoons and illustrations which were social, historical and mythological in nature. His series of silent jokes (cartoons without captions) appeared regularly in Ananda Vikatan from 1951 to 1968, delighting readers week after week.

As an advertising man, he designed logos for Sun TV and Kunkumam magazine. And, of course, the emblem of the little man with a briefcase in one hand for the Madras-based Shriram Chits was his creation and is still being used by the Shriram Group. His association with Shriram Group continued for over three decades.

Gopulu’s illustrations for hundreds of articles and serials in Vikatan lent a lot more of life to the writings of stalwarts like Kalki, Devan, Kothamangalam Subbu, Saavi and Jayakanthan. Gopulu found a permanent place in the hearts of the readers.