Remembering the Genius of R. K. Laxman
Ajit Rao |
REMEMBERING the GENIUS of R. K. LAXMAN
An Illustrated talk by AJIT RAO.
What we are dealing with here, is the graphic art of humour of one man, sitting in one small room, with just a brush, ink and paper in his armoury and day after day for six long decades presenting his views on the politics of one of the world’s greatest democracies in the country’s most highly circulated newspaper. R K Laxman was undoubtedly the most popular cartoonist in the country. Rather than take an ideological stance, Laxman preferred to rely on his common sense of wisdom to capture the spirit of his times and this he put across with great skill. It was precisely this clarity that had helped him find the right wave-length and endear himself to such a large cross-section of the reading public. Laxman’s greatest contribution to India’s heritage is the Common Man. But that was a small part of his work. This talk aspires to spend an evening celebrating this national treasure – the multi-faceted art of R K Laxman and get a glimpse behind the persona of this genius mind.
AJIT RAO- Brief Profile
Ajit Rao’s fascination with the cartoon image led him to explore various genres of this art of graphic humour. Ajit’s creative repertoire ranges from newspaper cartoons and caricature to three-dimensional caricature portraits, comic book illustrations, folk toy design, the folk art of puppetry and cartoon animation film making. Ajit has had the opportunity to get to know and interact with some of the leading lights in the world of cartoon art such as Mario, R K Laxman, Anant Pai and Ram Mohan. At present, Ajit, a qualified architect, has set up a studio in Lonavala named Samaskaara which is exploring ways of bringing diverse media of communication to the service of various aspects of Indian cultural expressions.
