Goa. The original Hippie destination of India. Crazily creative state that produced many a famous personality, but none perhaps, as famous and well-loved as artist Mario Miranda. To call him a ‘just a cartoonist’ would be belittling his work. What he created was passionate, prolific, profound art.
Early Life and Beginnings
Mario was born in Portuguese occupied Daman on 2nd May 1926. From an early age, he showed an interest in drawing that was further encouraged by his mother. As he grew older, his parents enrolled him for architecture but he lost interest and instead started a career in advertising. He later gave that up as well and dedicated himself to cartooning. It is worth noting that Mario had ‘no formal education in cartooning’ to begin with!!! He started with contributing to the Current magazine. The Times of India, at first, rejected him but later took him on board. Mario thus got a huge nationwide audience, regularly contributing to the Femina, the Economic Times and the Illustrated Weekly. And we, the audience, had the good fortune of savouring his delectable artworks. He was later invited to the US, where he had the opportunity to work with the famous Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts.
His contemporaries
Parallel to Mario in those days, there was another titan of Indian cartooning history. RK Laxman, who represented the common Indian man with his beautifully simplistic, often socio-political and deeply poignant cartoons. The people of India could relate to his experiences in their day to day life. Drawn with elegant almost calligraphic strokes and spartan minimalism, RK Laxman had created a niche for himself with the audience. Mario, on the other hand, added the perfect counter balance with his wildly elaborate, meticulously detailed, bold and deliberate style. While he made also made sharp social commentary much like Laxam, Mario is better remembered for the quirky characters and the vibrant ambience he created.
His style
Ink and nib, was Mario’s preferred technique of illustration. In all his pictures, we find ink dabs and stippled dots across the frame, lines hatched adding texture, density and depth, bold polka dots and dense, yet visually balanced blacks with plenty of enclosed whites, rendering the pictures so beautifully tactile that you wanted to touch the paper to feel the beauty.
His strokes were firm, continuous and always had closure. There were rarely any open ends. Sometimes, quirkily so. Where lips and teeth merged to form a mouth, and trouser hems blended with feet. Distinct and unapologetically bold, there was no inhibition in portraying cleavage, or bellowing skirts accentuated with curved, little pen strokes to create the notion of motion. He was Goan, and proudly so. The good life and candour sprang forth from his pictures. His illustrations told many stories in one frame. In addition to a central ‘theme’, there was always a little something else happening around, in the background. Characters peeping into the frame and teasing the audience, mischievously ‘photo-bombing’ as we would say in today’s terms. The little dogs, cats, fish, birds. Every little bit lovingly detailed.
He created memorable characters, like Miss Fonseca and Miss Nimbupani. His drawings largely focused on his native Goa and Mumbai, exposing the little details of everyday life in these places to the wider audience across India and the world.
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Versatility:
Children from Maharashtra and Goa in the 1980s and early 90s, studying in schools following the state syllabus, might recollect his illustrations in the Balbharati text books. He has also illustrated story books for children through the India Book house, and numerous books on Goan life and culture. Additionally, he also painted the famous murals on the walls of Café Mondegar in Mumbai. His murals adorn numerous buildings in Goa including the Municipal market, and replicas of his works can be found on the walls of Madgaon railway station. Mario loved to travel and held solo exhibitions in over 22 countries including the US, France, Australia and Japan. He was invited to Mauritius and Spain to illustrate their cultures. He was also awarded the highest civilian award by the King of Spain as well as a Portuguese National Knighthood by the president of Portugal, in addition to our very own Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and posthumously Padma Vibhushan. Later in life, he also explored paintings in water colour.
Legacy:
Mario left us on 11 December 2011 at the age of 85 leaving behind a formidable body of work. He had spent his retired life in his ancestral home in Goa with his family and pets. As with all geniuses, as much we as soak his prolific works, we still lament the loss of an artist who was productive right up to the very end. As an audience, we will never be done going through each and every work of his, and will continue to fall in love with him over and over again.
Content Courtesy- Malavika S P
