Our own common man

Did you ever know there was another ‘common’ man apart from R K Laxman’s famous one? It was drawn by none other than the late B V Ramamurthy, a renowned cartoonist and artist. A cartoon exhibition titled, The World of Ramamurthy, is showcasing 37 political cartoons and 11 oil paintings by Ramamurthy. For many, he was the first who portrayed the ‘common man’. Mr Citizen, drawn by Murthy (as his friends called him), went on for 33 long years. He first appeared in the 1958 column, As You Like It.

According to VG Narendra, founder of the Indian Cartoon Gallery, “Both RK Laxman and Murthy started drawing the common man at the same time, almost the same day. And both the ‘common men’ were from Mysore.” Needless to say, both were highly popular. As Narendra recalls, “One day, Murthy told me, he took out the Mysore peta from his Mr Citizen and drew him with a bald head. The next day the readers started calling newspaper office and demanded that he restore the peta back where it belonged. The editor had to call Murthy and ask him to do the needful.”

But was it Laxman or Murthy who first drew the common man? It is debatable.

“I am not sure,” says Narendra. “Though Murthy was a man of few words, we would talk very freely. He had wit and humour and would call himself ‘3 Thi’ – a clever pun in Kannada. His cartoons showed the every day trials of the common man and the political developments of the times.”

Ramamurthy was first ‘discovered’ by his journalist-friend ‘Kidi’ Sheshappa and was soon drawing cartoons for his friend’s paper. He went on to draw cartoons for several newspapers and was awarded the Sandesha Award in 1998. He died of cardiac arrest at the age of 70. 

The World of Ramamurthy is on at the Indian Cartoon Gallery till July 14.