How does one begin to review a set of books of cartoons and sketches by Mario Miranda? Does it suffice to say that he is one of the best Indian cartoonists who ever lived or that his sketches render much more than what a simple photograph could? It definitely is not enough.
For those of us who have grown up with Mario’s cartoons (almost every mainstream newspaper and magazine has featured Mario’s works at some point or the other), they were reflections of society, always humorous but often with an underlying satire, all in Mario’s inimitable style.
Gerard da Cunha, a close family friend of Mario Miranda and his wife Habiba, has published a set of five books of the artist’s cartoons and sketches that have appeared in magazines, books and newspapers over the years. The books titled, Mario’s Goa, Mario’s Bombay, Mario’s Travels, Mario’s Best Cartoons Book I and Mario’s Best Cartoons Book II, have the classic Mario cartoons along with some superb sketches. Also available is Mario de Miranda, a book lavishly illustrated with over 2,000 Mario originals (`2,400)
While most of us know the genius of Mario Miranda through his cartoons of daily life in Mumbai and Goa and characters like the goofy politicians Bundal Dass and Popatlal and the buxom office secretary Ms Fonseca, it’s his sketches that stand out in these books.
One can think of only another sketch artist of Mario’s calibre, and that is Rathin Mitra. But while Mitra’s sketches are perfect to the point that they often look like black and white photographs, Mario always adds an element of mystery, or rather, mystique to his sketches. It might be just a bit of fog in the background with an obscure moon trying to shine through, but that is enough to take the sketch from the domains of the exact to the exotic.
While selecting the cartoons and the sketches, da Cunha has ensured that none of the pieces have been repeated from the earlier collection of the artist’s works, simply called Mario. While the earlier book is quite heavy and cumbersome, not to say expensive, the set of five are light and make perfect gifts at `495 each.
All the books are divided into chapters that give us a glimpse of Mario’s journey as an artist down the years. While his cartoons in the earlier years were more like the ones we would see in international newspapers in those days, as the years went by, Mario own style started coming through. Be it the Goan village vicar or a street scene in Paris, his style, much like R.K. Laxman’s, is immediately recognisable.