Friends sorry for being so late in posting.I am thankful to my visitors who kept on visiting and kept on missing me. Due to prevailing adverse conditions i was keeping a eye on recent (mis)happenings and was a silent spectator of the situation. Anyway cautiously here i am back again with the two comics and few covers of the comics which i recently brought with me. The first is Motu-Patlu comic,Motu-Patlu, a brain child of Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj were quite funny due to their stupidness and hilarious situations. More information about Motu-Patlu is provided hereby Arun in his own words.Here is goes,for which all thanks and credit goes to him.
1.Introduction:- “Whom do you consider the longest running Indian comic character?”. When somebody asked me this question my spontaneous answer was “Motu-Patlu”. They started their journey in Lot-Pot in the early 70s and they are still appearing in it, though quite different from their old days.
2.Debut:- Motu-Patlu debuted in Lot-Pot in its old version and they were the brain child of Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj the celebrated cartoonist from India and one of the first exponents of this developing art in India. Their adventures, or rather misadventures, along-with their associates Dr. Jhatka and Master Ghasita Ram were the main attraction of Lot-Pot and the editors of Lot-Pot had given them full 10 pages whereas Chacha Choudhary, considered to be most popular comic character of India, was given only 3 pages. Those were the peak days of Motu-Patlu and they became the household names of Hindi heartland. Then abruptly the old Lot-Pot stopped and a new version was launched after some time and this time also Motu-Patlu were there but not by Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj but other lesser known artists and these features of Motu-Patlu looks not even the shadow of earlier Motu-Patlu as created by Bhardwaj but still they carried on and is carrying till today. So technically my argument is right that they are longest running cartoon characters of India from the early 70s till 2009 though it does not sound good to the hard-core fans of Bhardwaj.
3.Bhardwaj’s Motu-Patlu outside Lot-Pot:- Bhardwaj after coming out of Lot-Pot took his Motu-Patlu to Diamond Comics & Diwana. Diamond Comics published his features already published in Lot-Pot in comic form and he also created some new comics for them whereas in Diwana it appeared as a feature.
4.Other artists of Motu-Patlu:- After departure of Bhardawaj from Lot-Pot the editors deputed some other artists for creating feature of Motu-Patlu. Most of the post-Bhardwaj features of Motu-Patlu in Lot-Pot were created by Harvind Makkad. Other artists were Manik, T.R. Sippi and Vinod etc. I consider Manik to be the best among non-Bhardwaj Motu-Patlu artists. His Motu-Patlu covers for Lot-Pot are a delight to eyes.
I do not know whether I am correct or not but I am under the impression that one Diamond Comics featuring Motu-Patlu was also created by cartoonist Pran(of Chacha Choudhary fame) i.e. Motu-Patlu in Asiad. I may be wrong.
The reasons for my belief:-
1.In comics created by Pran Diamons Comics used to publish his brief life-sketch on the back.
2. In that particular comic (Motu-Patlu in Asiad) I had seen that sketch on the cover back though I do not remember now whether I had seen name of Pran on the top of front cover of the comic. (Name of Pran is published on the top of front cover (just above the title) of the comics created by him.
3.Cartoonist Pran in those days ( in the early 80s) had created comics of characters which are not created by him. I have two comics of Chacha-Bhatija created by cartoonist Pran.
Unfortunately, I do not have that comic with me now and I had read it in my early childhood. If somebody has definite knowledge about the same I request him/her to share it with us.
5.The difference between Bhardwaj Motu-Patlu and others’ Motu-Patlu:- They are miles apart both from the story point of view as well as in their appearance.
The Motu-Patlu of Bhardwaj were adventuress due looking for always doing something new in life. The comedy borns when they adventures turns in misadventures. They are silly not fool. They are brave as well and ready to take any job come their way. Their stories appeal to children and adults alike whereas others’s Motu-Patlu(except that of Manik to some extent) are fool, coward and good-for-nothing. Their stories appeal only to children and adults do not find it interesting enough. Most the stories of Manik are based on the confrontation between the good deeds of Motu-Patlu and bad ideas of Master Ghasita Ram.
The difference of appearance can be understood only when you see illustrations of both of them. In words it is difficult to explain but I can say that Bhardwaj’s Motu-Patlu are stout and handsome in comparison of others Motu-Patlu where they are shown as loose-bodied.
6.Bhardwaj apart from Motu-Patlu:- Bhardwaj created some other comic characters for publications like Diwana, Raj Comics & Manoj Comics, etc. but never tested so much success as he tested with Motu-Patlu. In 90s he returned to Lot-Pot and created some other characters but apart from Sheikh Chilli rest of the his characters were short-lived and disappeared very soon. It is surprising that why editors of Lot-Pot did not give Motu-Patlu again to Bhardwaj. Subsequently, though he created some features of Motu-Patlu but to the disappointment of his fans he changed the appearance of Motu-Patlu on the lines of others and his new stories also misses the punches for which he is known in the 70s.
7.Publications of Motu-Patlu:- I have come across the following publishers who published Motu-Patlu stories:-
(i) Lot-Pot.
(ii) Diamond Comics(including Comic World/Digest/Pitara, Ankur/ Paltoo/Pikloo series and Diamond Comics Digest).
(iii) Diwana.
(iv) Pitara Comics. (Short-lived comics publication. A sister concern of Lot-Pot.)
8.Gang of Motu-Patlu:- Apart from Motu-Patlu there are some characters in their stories. Among them Dr. Jhatka & Master Ghasita Ram were as popular as Motu-Patlu themselves and they appeared in most of their stories. From my memory I am preparing the list of gang of Motu-Patlu:-
1. Motu
2. Patlu
3. Dr. Jhatka
4. Master Ghasita Ram
5. Chela Ram
6. Papita Ram
7. Nayan Sukh
8. Dhela Ram
9. Chhella Ram
10. Akalmand Ullo (Wise(silly) owl). He speaks like humans.
There are two characters more whose name I am not able to remember now.
9. Trivia:-
(i) As Bhardwaji used to write his name in a stylish manner as a child I was not able to read his name and used to read it as “Narayani”. It was only a year back when I got some old Lot-Pots and Diamond Comics that I was able to figure out his real name.
(ii) Papita Ram never appeared in Bhardwaj’s features. He appeared only in others’ features. Similarly, Chela Ram appeared in Bhardwaj’s features exclusively except once when he appeared in a Pitara Comics.
(iii) In Ankur/Paltoo/Pikloo series of Diamond Comics Bhardwaj created some features exclusively showing Master Ghasita Ram. They were based on his misadventures in class. There were some stories in which Chela Ram was shown as detective and whole of those stories were based on Chela Ram and Motu-Patlu appeared only as a token in those stories in some panels on one or two pages. Diamond Comics also published some puzzles featuring Motu-Patlu & Gang.
(iv) Drawing of some of the Motu-Patlu features in Diamond comics seems different to me than the style of drawing of Bhardwaj like some Chela Ram defective stories or comic like Motu-Patlu in Maut ki Ghati. I wonder whether they are created by some other artist.
(v) In earlier/old issues of Lot-Pot they carried features like “Pathko Ke Sawal Aur Master Ghasita Ram/Dr. Jhatka ke jabab.
(vi) Motu-Patlu and Co. appeared in some of the Sheikh Chilli stories and Sheikh Chilli appeared in some of Motu-Patlu stories.
(Story & Illustrations:Kripa Shankar Bhardwaj)
Super Commando Dhruv fame Anupam Sinha started his career with Chitra Bharti comics where he created his first Hero "Private Detective Kapil" which was quite popular then. Here is one such comic of Kapil where he solves mysteries with his sharp mind.
(Story & Illustrations:Anupam Sinha)
Few more vintage covers of Manoj Chitra Katha and other comics.
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