HT’s This is It! creator and renowned cartoonist dies
Political satirist and cartoonist Sudhir Dar passed away at age 87 after a cardiac arrest
NEW DELHI: Renowned cartoonist Sudhir Dar passed away on Tuesday following a cardiac arrest. He was 87. An awardwinning cartoonist, Dar worked in an era that saw some of the best cartoonists in India, from RK Laxman and Abu Abraham to Rajinder Puri, OV Vijayan and Mario Miranda.
Dar, who was born in Allahabad in 1932, started his career as an editorial cartoonist in The Statesman in 1961 and went on to work in the Hindustan Times for many years, starting 1967.
At HT, Dar drew political cartoons, including the pocket cartoons that appeared on the front page, This is It! that offered humorous insights on national and international events of the day. He later joined The Pioneer.
A resident of Gurugram, Dar’s cartoons have appeared in several international publications, including Washington Post and New York Times, among others. A product of the Mad Magazine era, Dar was influenced by American and British cartoonists. Mad Magazine, where his cartoons also appeared, described him as a ‘Tasty Indian Nut’.
In a 2001 interview, Dar spoke about his trade: “Your success in the field really depends on your mental make-up, and how you see life … you have got to look at the odd things of life and create images which are unique in themselves, to surprise readers every morning.”
Even though he was a political cartoonist, he was not a political animal. In a piece in Outlook, Dar’s contemporary Rajinder Puri wrote: “[Dar] is not a political animal. His attitude to politics is somewhat akin to what I imagine would have been the attitude of Bertie Wooster. Dar’s forte was humour. Pure humour of the zany kind.”
“Dar is a self-taught draughtsman without the visible influence of any other artist,” Puri had added.
‘The Mad, Mad World of elections’, and ‘The Mad, Mad World of Cricket’ are his notable books. As an illustrator, he worked on ‘Kashmiri Cooking’ a book by his father, Krishna Prasad Dar. He also drew cartoons for ‘Journey Through the Universe’ by Jayant Narlikar.
Even after retirement, Dar maintained a Twitter account where he offered up comments about the goings-on of the day.
He said that social media platform was a cartoonists’ paradise as it was a “great place 2 study ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR!”
YOU HAVE GOT TO LOOK AT THE ODD THINGS OF LIFE AND CREATE IMAGES WHICH ARE UNIQUE IN THEMSELVES TO SURPRISE READERS