Gautam Benegal, the National award-winning cartoonist, writer, artist and animation filmmaker, died on Friday in Mumbai after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest.
He was 56.
Born in 1965 in Kolkata, Benegal had settled in Mumbai after graduating from Jadavpur University specialising in Comparative Literature. Later, he also trained in classical animation and went to the National Institute of Design. He subsequently went on to make several animation films and won the National Award for Best Non-Feature Animated Film in 2008 for The Prince and the Crown of Stone.
Filmmaker Satyajit Ray had invited 16-year-old Benegal to publish his illustrations and articles in his children’s magazine Sandesh. Since then, his work regularly appeared in Sandesh, and subsequently, other publications as well.
As a freelance painter, journalist and cartoonist, Benegal had also been associated with DNA and Times Of India. His 2011 book of short stories for teenagers titled 1/7 Bondel Road, that included his own illustrations, received wide critical acclaim.
In 2012, Benegal held an exhibition in Bombay’s Cool Chef Café with the theme ‘Irani Cafes – the vanishing old world charm of Bombay. He also exhibited his paintings at Carpe Diem, Majorda in 2013 on “the memorable and timeless spaces of Bombay and the people who make up those spaces” titled ‘Continuum – The Enduring Spaces of Bombay’.
Benegal specialised in satirical takes on Indian politics through his cartoons and was a known critic of the current government.
Benegal was also popularly known for his cartoon series A1 Chicken Sope. Describing the origin of the cartoon to the Hindustan Times, he had said, “Around 2006, I was the cartoonist for a popular city supplement; at that time there was a bird flu scare and people had stopped eating chicken and the poultry business was suffering. A minister smuggled in a tandoori chicken leg into the Lok Sabha and started eating it to prove it was perfectly safe. There was huge furore and I drew a cartoon of a chicken shop where one chicken boasts to another showing the headlines, ‘Hey guys check this out, my second cousin, twice removed, made it to the Lok Sabha!'”
In 2014, The Green of Bengal and Other Stories, written by Benegal, was published. The book consisted of short stories peopled with characters that brought alive the Calcutta of the late 80s and the early 90s. It featured several characters, including a guest with epic gastric trouble, a besieged political campaigner, a cruel critic, a secret murderer, homophobic ruffians, a reluctant nude model, a talking dog, a frustrated illustrator, and a grandfather who pines for the home he lost. The synopsis also said, “There is nostalgia here, but it is shot through with darkness. A political pulse runs through the whole, informed by Benegal’s own preoccupations with gender and class, his keen interest in people and the workings of their minds.”
Sheerin Gandhy, the owner of Chemould where Benegal exhibited his work, had worked closely with the late artist. She penned a Facebook post on the artist’s demise. “In 2018, I invited Gautam Benegal to exhibit his drawings of Chicken Sope in the gallery. His deft lines, his wit, his wry humour felt like an appropriate response to the regime and time we were living in,” she wrote, adding, “The person I encountered on Facebook was almost the same as the real one, except the real one was extremely kind, and had a much more human touch to him than the more brusque person that came across virtually.”
Gandhy further said, “Gautam and his commentary and writing are essential in today’s India, and for that, I know a whole lot of us are going to miss him more than we can imagine – but I feel grateful for our brief but wonderful friendship. To his wife, son and other close relatives – sincere condolences and to all his Facebook friends who will miss him deeply, I know how you feel today. Go in peace GB… you enriched our lives!”
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Others who paid tribute to Benegal on social media included cartoonist Satish Acharya, journalist Patralekha Chatterjee, filmmaker Rakesh Sharma, writer Mita Sengupta, CPI(M) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, sports producer Joy Bhattacharjya, and his friend and artist Kaizaad Kotwal, among several others,
Benegal is survived by his wife and son.