Tucked between printing presses at Mohatta Bhavan in Worli, a 'Dont park outside this gate' sign welcomes visitors to 'aPaulogy', which claims to be Mumbai's first gallery dedicated to cartoons. Opening its doors to the city on December 14, the gallery showcases Mumbai in its 70s and early 80s as witnessed by celebrated Bangalore-based cartoonist Paul Fernandes.
With 'Mcapau' burger joints and 'Multi Chainese restaurant,' Paul covers most of South Bombay's eccentricities, along with famous monuments and traffic cops in half pants. "We could play hockey on the roads and even gully cricket, the city had more space to walk then. We can't think of strolling or cycling in the city now. This is our way of reminding the youngsters that there was a laid back way of life here and people took it easy. Children's lives in the city have changed completely," said Paul, who has painted famous cinemas as it was the easiest form of entertainment back then with a balcony ticket costing Rs1.60.
As most cartoons cover South Bombay, when will the suburbs get a chance to be iconised? "It's an early stage and I have 3 drawings in the works for Bandra, Juhu airport and Juhu beach. If the gallery receives good response, we will take another step," said Paul, who believes that the city has space for every thought and will only go forward.
As a breed, cartoonists seem to be vanishing, but Paul is hopeful as the gallery in Bangalore sees one cartoon exhibition a month. "Cartooning is not an easy way of earning a living. The earlier years are difficult and there's no one to tell you if your work is good enough. You will not survive if you are not good enough and it is difficult to set a benchmark as you are your own judge," he said.
He is in Mumbai till December 15 and Shyam Ganatra, the owner of the space, will take care of it thereon. "Our objective is to create a space for the youth to come and discuss about topics, promote art and culture, have workshops or maybe just read a book. The youngsters today are focused and independent, but they can take it easy here and know that there is no need to rush anywhere. We want to expose them to another world," said
Ganatra, who recounts watching Usha Utthup perform at 'Talk of the Town' back in the 80's where Pizzeria stands today.
The cartoons are available in various mediums from paper, canvas, metal, glass to veneer. On being asked if the city still has the variety of people and exciting characters, Paul said that Mumbai still remains eclectic, even though the difference between communities and children has begun to blur.
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