50 Great Indian Cartoonists | Gopulu

50 Great Indian Cartoonists | Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee

Gopulu, the 'artoonist'

S. Gopalan (known widely in his pen-name Gopulu), the famous Tamil cartoonist likes to call himself ‘artoonist’. Facile with both hands, Gopulu has charmed readers with his illustrations for six decades.

Gopulu was born at the temple city Tanjore (Tamil Nadu) on 18 June 1924 and spent his early years there. Tanjore is considered as the cultural capital of South India. The city and its culture had a profound influence on his life and art.  He studied at the Kumbakonam School of Art. The exposure to several beautiful temples and sculptures in and around Thanjavur and Kumbakonam was the beginning of his long and eventful career.

In 1941, he came to Chennai looking for a job in Ananda Vikatan. There, he met the legendary cartoonist 'Mali[1]', who commissioned a number of paintings for the magazine's Deepavali special. It was not till December 1944, however, that Mali offered Gopulu a job at the magazine. Mali was also the one who gave Gopulu his pen-name. Though Mali was known as a social cartoonist, Gopulu's heart yearned for variety. His creativity encompassed jokes, cartoons and illustrations, which were social, historical and mythological in nature. He did a series of pantomime jokes for 17 years in Ananda Vikatan from 1951 to 1968. He worked in several genres: cartoons, illustrations, even painting. This continued for decades in Ananda Vikatan as well as in other journals. In the course of the next twenty plus years, till 1968, Gopulu did political cartoons, cover designs and illustrated columns for the magazine.

Gopulu believed that a cartoonist should essentially be a humanist, a humourist and a critic. He should reflect society through his works. However, during his stint in Ananda Vikatan, some of his cartoons did hurt politicians. One of the former Chief Ministers even went to the extent of making a complaint to the then editor of the magazine.  After that Gopulu stopped doing political cartoons. As he said in an interview: “What I realised is that the political class in the country is not prepared to view cartoons as cartoons nor relish satire''.

Loss to the cartooning genre was a gain for the fine art and illustration genre. As an illustrator, Gopulu worked on popular serials such as Thillana Mohanambal and Washingtonil Thirumanam. He is known for his work with the writer Devan for whom he illustrated the serial Thuppariyum Sambu in comics form. Devan's bumbling detective is remembered in the form in which Gopulu first drew him. Gopulu also travelled with the writer Saavi in 1953-54, to Ajanta, Ellora, Delhi, Jaipur, Calcutta for a travel series.

In 1972, along with Mrs. G. Vimala he started an Advertising Agency “Adwave Advertisements Ltd”.  He designed the logo of the Tamil magazine Kungumam, and that of Sun TV too. The emblem of Shriram Chits — the little boy with his raised hand, is also Gopulu's creation. In 1994, just as suddenly as he had quit his job in Vikatan, he quit advertising and began to freelance for journals like Kalki, Amudhasurabhi, Vikatan and Kungumam.

Gopulu has a great sense of humour. He even jokes about the stroke that he had in 2002. "Maybe it was my obsession with strokes that led to my brush with a stroke!" he says.

 But it was his art that helped him to recover. The stroke left his right hand paralysed. But the artist in him wouldn't give up. So even while in hospital, he sat propped up against the pillows, and taught himself to draw with his left hand! He was 78 at the time! Gradually, he regained the use of his right hand too. Thus he became an ambidextrous artist!

Gopulu is very modern in his outlook relating to the use of devices to draw cartoons and illustrations. He says: “in the present era of cyberspace, an artist should make use of the latest tools, which will provide a new dimension to his/her works. `But, the basics remain the same''.

Awards and Honours

Sri Gopulu was confirmed with an award ‘Kalaimamani' by the Government of Tamil Nadu on 1991. He was conferred M.A. Chidambaram Chettiar Trust Award in 1994, ‘Chitra Kalarathna' award on 1995, and Kalaignar's Murasoli Trust Award on 2000.   In 2001 he was honoured with the lifetime achievement award by the Bangalore based Indian Institute of Cartoonists.

His contribution

Gopulu has influenced and impacted the art of cartooning and illustration in Tamil Nadu in no uncertain term. Generations of Tamil youth have grown reading the comics created by Gopulu. His illustrations, drawn several decades ago for ``Thillana Mohanambal'' and ``Washingtonil Thirumanam'', the popular serials featured in the Tamil weekly, Ananda Vikatan, are still fresh in the memory of many.

To promote young artists, Mr. Gopulu associated himself with the establishment of `Gnana Bharathi' awards, which are given to persons from different fields of creative activity.

S. Gopulu breathed his last on 29th April 2015.

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[1] T. R. Mahalingam (pen-name 'Mali') was a pioneering illustrator and cartoonist from Tamil Nadu in the pre-independence era. He is known to be the Tamil Press's first caricaturist.