Participants Exposition Charlie Chaplin Mumbai 2015

Caricature by Rethish K R

| Director R Sarath | Compiled & Curated by Cartoonist Sudheer Nath | | Coordinated by K Lakshmipriya Menon | Design & layout by Rajesh Chalode |

Charlie Chaplin Lines Charlie Chaplin is more than an actor, much more than a filmmaker; Chaplin is a phenomenon that catapulted the film industry into heady heights and helped it transcend the realm of industry to that of sublime art.

Decades after his exit, the eternal sunshine of Chaplin's work illuminates the world of film. Generations of filmmakers have been inspired by his work even as aesthetes have relished his creations, which are beyond time and locale.

Chaplin's work spanned eight decades. The young boy who started as a stage actor ended his career as the first auteur. He handled scripting, direction, production, editing, acting and even music composition for his films.

Starting out in the silent era he continued working till the final years of his life when technology had progressed beyond belief. Every film was pursued with religious fervour and investment of precious time and resources, which elevated his work beyond the ordinary, creating a benchmark for others.

As with Shakespeare, Chaplin is a man for all times. The laughter that was set off during the first screening of his plays rings even today wherever his films are screened. The laughter that serves as a canvas for pathos is a brilliant contribution of the master craftsman. The fine balance of joy and sorrow has mesmerised filmmakers and audiences ever since.

Another feature of Chaplin's that filmmakers of today should model themselves on is his courage to comment on political and social issues at the risk of being marginalised. His movies carry many fitting social commentaries that are well camouflaged by slapstick. Laughter and pathos, slapstick and intelligent social comment are all rolled seamlessly into reams of film that are always relevant to audiences everywhere. Chaplin is timeless, Chaplin never ceases to amaze even a century after his birth; Chaplin is relevant because human sentiments are universal and eternal. I always wonder: Why does Chaplin still matter, even after a century?

Chaplin was an unconventional perfectionist whose meticulousness was wholly focused on creating and sustaining an emotional pitch. Always with his reaction is a slow, half-embarrassed smile, which he covers up with his hand and so creates a sense of emotional continuity that makes technical continuity irrelevant. There are only a few attempts from masters to attain perfection eternally.

Chaplin's greatness has been etched in my mind from childhood and, therefore, I could not desist from paying a tribute in celluloid to him. Buddha and Chaplin Smile is my Malayalam film created to commemorate this centennial year of his acting career. Besides this, I was very happy to initiate this forum for all Chaplin lovers in India and also being a part of this invaluable exhibition of Chaplin cartoons, caricatures and other artworks. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Laura Chaplin, who extends all help to my endeavours regarding this forum.

R Sarath Chairman, Chaplin India Forum EVRA 448, TC 16/312, Eswaravilasam Road, Vazhuthacaud Thycadu P O, Thiruvananthapuram-695014 www.filmdirectorsarath.com

Laughter's Great Dictator “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” – Mark Twain There is only one known genius who adapted the essence of the cited adage to his real life as well as to his reel life. It is no one but Chaplin, the very surname that brings laughter even to modern-day children. Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in East Street, London, on 16th April 1889. His parents were musicians. At the age of five, he appeared on the stage as a substitute for his mother, who had to walk off the stage after her voice became cracked.

Thereafter, he played different roles in life: newspaper boy, printer, toy-maker, glass blower and doctors' boy to support his family comprising a mentally ailing divorcee mother and an older half-brother. As he observes in his Autobiography, "I never lost sight of my ultimate aim to become an actor."

At age 10, he joined a dance troupe as a professional and became "a bright and vigorous child actor." When he joined films at 25, he had already mastered every aspect of an iconic comic performer as underscored by his own words, "My lips never know my problem, they just always smile." The rest is history: The growth of Chaplin from the master actor to the actor-cum-master director, certified by films like Easy Street, The Immigrant, Shoulder Arms, The Kid, A Woman of Paris, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights, Modern Times, The Great Dictator, Monsieur Verdoux, and Limelight.

"The Little Tramp", arguably among the world's best-known fictional characters, universalized the hat and cane and boots and baggy pants of his boyhood. The cornerstone of Chaplin's art is satire. He laughed at every sociopolitical situation during his lifetime by laughing at himself. He dared even to lampoon Adolf Hitler in his film The Great Dictator, the one and only talkie that Chaplin ever made. Imitation is considered the highest form of flattery.

There were many actors in the Indian film industry who imitated Chaplin's mannerisms and earned plaudits from film enthusiasts. Perhaps no one did so better than Raj Kapoor, particularly in the film Mera Nam Joker in which he laughs at the world while laughing at himself. Another Indian actor, who immortalised Chaplin is Kamal Hassan in his Tamil film Punnagai Mannan (King of Smiles), which was later dubbed into Telugu (Dance Master) and Hindi (Cha Cha Charlee).

The world is celebrating 2015 as CHARLIE CHAPLIN YEAR to commemorate the legend of satire in filmdom on his 125th year of birth as well as the 100th year of his screen appearance. As creators of laugh lines, let us join the venture by compiling this book of cartoons and caricatures on Chaplin as a tribute to the master.

We were flooded with more than 500 contributions from budding, amateurs to seniors, professionals, but only some of them could be accommodated in the exhibition. I extend my gratitude to all those cartoonists who duly responded to my request and contributed cartoon.

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” – Charlie Chaplin Cartoonist Sudheer Nath Secretary, Chaplin India Forum 125, Bagbhan Apts; Sector-28, Rohini, Delhi-110042 / India cartoonistsudheer@gmail.com

A unique, major exhibition of

cartoons caricatures featuring and

Charlie

Chaplin

200

by

cartoonists

A unique, major exhibition of

cartoons caricatures featuring and

Charlie

Chaplin

200

by

cartoonists

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

Abdul Salim Abdulameer Roih Abhijith P S Ajesh Ajo Kaitharam Ajoy Kumar D Akhil Sabu Alexander Dubovsky Alexandrov Valeri Andrea Pecchia Aneesh Thomson Anjan Sathish Anoop Radhakrishnan Anushka Mohan # Anwar Arturo Rosas Arunraj N R Arushi Bandhu # Ba Bilig Badusha Bagga Singh Balachandran (Balu) Balakrishnan K Anat Basheer Kizhisseri Bharat Jagtap Bharat Manoj Cai Waidong Chander Shekhar Chander T C Chari Chen Sun Chen Xiao Bo # Chernyshev Nick Chernyshev Paul

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

60.

61.

62.

63.

64.

65.

66.

67.

68.

69.

Deva Devan # Dina Abdelgawad Dinraj Dipin P Dwijith C V Eklavya # Elbridy Ibrahem Elhour Riham Elizabeth Antony Emad Salehi Fu Bo Ning # Gao Bo Han # Gireesh Vengara Gopal V Gornovaya Natasha Guibao Gai Gujjar B G Gursharanjit Singh Hakkim K P Handren Khoshnaw Hao Qing # Hari G Hari Krishna Harikumar Harishchandra Himesh Goel # Induchoodan # James Manalody Jayadev Babu D Jayantho Banerjee Jayaraj Vellur Jayaram Jayesh Kumar P R Jayraj T G Jeevan Shetty

70. Jia Rui Jun 71. Jithesh S 72. John Arts Kalabhavan 73. Joseph Karaparambil 74. Jyoti Ranjan Raut 75. Kalesh 76. Karthika Kattanam 77. Kazanevsky Vladimir 78. Keerthi Preshanthn # 79. Keshav 80. Kfir Weizman 81. Krishna Kishore Valluri 82. Krishnan P V 83. Leena Swamy 84. Li Yingchuan 85. Liu Yu Xuan # 86. liu Ze Cen # 87. lv Hong Qun 88. Madhusudan Menon 89. Madoos 90. Mahboob Raja 91. Makhmudjon 92. Manoj Chopra 93. Manoj Kureel 94. Manoj Sinha 95. Manoj Mathasseril 96. Manu Venkitesh # 97. Marina Bondarenko 98. Mika Azizi (Mika) 99. Mohan Shivanand 100. Mohana Chandran M S 101. Mohan S 102. Monica Gupta 103. Mrityunjay Chiluveru 104. Naganath

105. Narsim 106. Naushad 107. Neeraj Babu # 108. Nipin Narayanan 109. Nirjhar Som 110. Nishanth Thachambalath 111. Omar Seddek Mostafa 112. Ovidiu Serb 113. Panduranga Rao 114. Paresh Nath 115. Parvatha Sekhar P 116. Pascal Kirchmair 117. Petry & Horia 118. Phu Nguyen 119. Ponnappa 120. Prabhakar Wairkar 121. Prakash Shetty 122. Prasannan Anikkad 123. Prashant Kulkarni 124. Prashanth A V 125. Priyanka Goswami 126. Ragesh V R 127. Raghupathi Sringeri 128. Rakesh R Sharma 129. Ramachandra Babu 130. Ranjith Panayara 131. Rejeendra Kumar C 132. Remadevi S 133. Rethish K R 134. Rishi Sankar 135. Roberto Castillo Rodríguez 136. Rohnit Phore 137. Ryas Madavana 138. Saadet Demir Yalçýn 139. Sadeesh Kavilakath

140. Sageer 141. Sajjiv B 142. Salim Kumar 143. Salvya S Raj 144. Sanchi Bahl # 145. Sandhra K P # 146. Santhosh Ottapalam 147. Santhosh T S 148. Sarath A S 149. Sava Babic 150. Seeri M K 151. Shahram Shirzadi 152. Shakir Eravakkad 153. Shameem Alanallur 154. Shankar Pamarthy 155. Shiju George 156. Shyamal Banerjee 157. Sivadas Vasu 158. Smitha Nair 159. Sourav # 160. Sravya # 161. Subhash K K 162. Subeesh P S 163. Subith P B 164. Sudheer Nath N B 165. Sujith T K 166. Sukumar 167. Sun Shen Ying 168. Sunil Nayana 169. Suresh Davinchi 170. Swathi Jaikumar K 171. Thomas Antony 172. Triambak Sharma 173. TVG Menon

174. Uday Shankar 175. Unnikrishnan 176. Valery Momot 177. Varchaswi 178. Varghese Punalur 179. Vasilyev Tamara 180. Veda Babu # 181. Venkatesh Jakkula 182. Vijilal 183. Vinayak Babu # 184. Virendra Gupta 185. Vishal V Shenoy # 186. Vitaly Bondar 187. Walter Alvarez 188. Wang Jia Yi # 189. Wei Jia Ning # 190. Wesam Khalil 191. Wessam Jammoul 192. Wu Pan Xi Qi # 193. Yan Mu Yao # 194. Yang Jia lai # 195. Yathish L Shettigar 196. Yesudasan 197. Zach Trenholm 198. Zhang A He # 199. Zhang Xin Hua 200. Zhu Zizun Shankar R K Laxman and Bal Thackeray (172 professionals & amateurs, 28 budding cartoonists) # - Children's

Recollect Flavour, taste life!