I had seen Mario’s work in
many magazines and books, but the ones displayed here is something a Mario fan
should not miss. I went about practically clicking each and every caricature,
sometimes laughing aloud at the humor depicted so wonderfully in the cartoons.
These are from his dairies before he became famous as a cartoonist. His
detailing of the finer points in the everyday life of a Goan is remarkable. He
started getting into trouble at school for sketching catholic priests in his
cartoons.
The sermon from the pulpit
with generous showers. (the pulpit is no more functional but you can still see
them in the old churches)
He was probably one of the
first Indian cartoonists to use crow quill.
In one of his interviews to
Gauri Gharpure, he mentioned “What is
life just sitting at the desk? You must travel a lot when you are young. That
is very important.”
He is one guy who did not have
any formal education in this field but his knowledge of anatomy was great and
that was the reason why his cartoons always stood out.
His Miss Nimbupani and Miss Fonseca
were a regular feature in some of the magazines of yesteryear.
His drawings now adorn many
places, one of them being the Goa railway station (Madgaon)
I had clicked one of his creations in Hotel
Mondegar (in Mumbai) about 7 years ago and uploaded on Flickr.
.jpg)
Coming back to the ones in the
Fort, a detailed description of him at the entrance:
These are drawings of a typical
bachelor’s room (both male and female)
If you just look at a part of
it (any part) you will find all those little things that are bound to be there
in a bachelor’s apartment.
Then we have the city types
and the village types:
The emigrant is from Bombay and hence Bomboicar
If you look at the body stance
of each of the characters in the picture below you will understand what I mean
by “knowledge of anatomy”
And the language of Mr Johnson
and Mr Bandorkar.
Mr Johnson: “A trifle more elegance in the rhythmical
motions of your lower limbs Bandorkar”
Mr Bandorkar: “Arey? Vat you saying man, why phor such
much language?”
He is one of those Indians who
got all the three national awards: Padmashree, Padma Bhushan and Padma
Vibhushan.
A self portrait:
What I have put up here is
just about 10% of the pictures that I clicked. So ye Mario fans don’t miss this
place.
A typical adieu by Amul
