on which the cartoons were originally Published, if provided would have made reading experience much better, What's fun is that the strips are very much relatable to today's scenario, The best cartoonist of our country, best of his work and then this comes, the very best of the best cartoonist, How can one rate it less than the best of the rating!
Pure humor, amazing creativity and wonderful satire! Need one have to say more its laxman.
its cartoon. it cannot be anything else but pure art n humor!a collectible Excellent caricatures! Loved this book : Very Creative, still relevant. . and very funny. Loved this book for its humorously subtle observations in a common man's life, One could relate to almost every aspect in the book, Its also a reminder of how politics,religion and society have changed so little since they were observed by the great cartoonist!!! The most jarring feeling is the way the Common Man watches the scenes bewildered and resigned.
I am aware of the fact that I have been in such situations, It feels useless to reason in these situations,
The satirist cartoons will make most Indians relate to them, There is one change that I do see the electricity is not going away with the sight of the first cloud, I see a lot more girls willing to study, and women, driven by the desire for financial independence, We still have a long way to go but the feeling of things better than a few gives hope, Brilliant cartoons! excellent lines with a dose of subtle political humor! A must read for all R, K Laxman fan. I never had the privilege of reading the daily political cartoons of the excellent R K Laxman when I was a kid, simply because my family never subscribed to Times of India newspaper which published Laxman's cartoons, and that delayed my introduction to his Common Man.
I still remember my first Common man: A simple penciled cartoon of a family staring blankly at an empty wall, with the caption running along the lines "The television is in the repair shop, and the family just don't know what else to do".
I read that one aboutyears ago, and it stayed with me ever since,
Thispage collection containssingle paneled cartoons Laxman drew during his long career, His satirical panels presented here hits hard on the evergreen hypocrisy of politicians, unfulfilled election promises, bribes, natural disasters, damaged roads, cricket, child labor and everything under the sun that ails an Indian common man!
In my opinion, naming this collection as The very best of the common man is misleading.
Thesepanels only scratch the surface of Common man's legendary run, and some of the panels presented here repeat itself like old wine in a new bottle.
I would've loved to see a more diverse collection, Also, I thought it would be interesting to know which year each individual cartoons were originally published, but that information was missing too,
Nevertheless, This small book contains the bold legacy of India through the eyes Laxman's common man, which reminds us to look at everyday affairs without prejudice and manipulations, the two factors which populate our current day media.
For those who have missed the best capture of political atrocities on the daily, this is simply the best, All of the cartoons are timeless and can be related till date, Minor editsOctober.
Offhand I can think of few brothers as extraordinarily successful in their fields, and certainly as widely admired, as RK Narayan and his younger sibling RK Laxman.
Perhaps the Attenboroughs come close, David and Richard, Or in earlier times, Lawrence and Gerald Durrell,
The beloved Indian author, RK Narayan, had many of his works illustrated by his cartoonist brother, RK Laxman, to great effect, witness the Indian Thought edition of RKN's memoir sitelinkMy Days.
ThisPenguin compilation features the Common Man, Laxman's creation which
he integrated into his editorial cartoons for The Times of India to signify puzzlement, mute acceptance or resigned understanding.
His metier was Indian politics and its practitioners, often grandiloquent in their promises but under preforming in deed, My favourite Laxman cartoons are typified by one depicting a rural scene where the Common Man looks on, hands thrust in pockets, as an enthusiastic peasant speaks to visiting officials.
He says:
Oh yes, this village has improved a lot, sir it's almost like a big city now no water, no electricity here either!Two quibbles: no dates on the cartoons, which would have helped contextualise them and the short introductory comments to help explain the cartoon not by Laxman, are mostly unnecessary.
Oh, the common man is one of the country's most well known cartoon strips, This book, a collection of some of the best, covers themes from election campaigns to corruption, It's as relevant today as it was when it was published, Amazing. Politics!
Said to be the second oldest profession in the world, bearing a close resemblance to the first, politics has always been subjected to searing scrutiny and bitter ridicule.
Especially in a highly populated country like India, politicians have been offering a lot of free entertainment to the public, next only to cinema and cricket.
Stupid statements, senseless actions, scams, and scandals you ask for it and the Indian politicians only feel obliged to deliver it for your pleasure,
Cartoonists are that rare breed of people who make the caricatured images of theirs speak more than a thousand acerbic words mocking the actions of the politicians.
Especially those cartons that appear daily in the newspapers seem like the oasis amidst all the chaotic news articles, R. K. Laxman is the doyen of the cartoonist profession in India, Having had a prolific career that spanned more than half a century, he is one cartoonist who can really claim to have seen it all and drawn it all.
This book contains some hundred plus cartoons of Laxman that have withstood the test of time, A mere glimpse at the cartoons and you will realize that our politicians have remained as pretentious, as egoistic, and as dumb as ever, Indulgence in boastful talks, broken promises, opportunistic behaviors have all been the bane of Indian politicians always, Hence some of the satiric jibes that Mr, Laxman had aimed at the politicians of old remain relevant enough for our leaders of these days as well,
Leaders that visit their constitutions only during election campaigns, who dont think twice before throwing senseless percentages and figures without showing any real progress on ground, the servile acolytes who need to flatter their bosses even during their visits to places hit by natural disasters Laxman has drawn them all, keeping his Common Man a lovable bald old man as a silent observer.
Just a complaint though, The cartoons have all been published on one side while the opposite side is used for a caption of only a line or two, Either they have opted to present the book so due to the poor, thin quality of the paper that could have made the images on different pages look overlapping and thus messy.
Or, they could have done so to make this book appear in a decent size, But this seems to be a blatant wastage that the publishers could have very much avoided,
As for the content, a thoroughly enjoyable book and a collectors treasure! Can summarize in one word, . timeless!! this was my first read of a cartoonist's book, it was a wonderful experience, the cartoons were so specific and natural that it strikes a chord with the reader, the cartoons were based on the common problems we face living in a developing country like India, this was beautifully captured with the image of the common man in the background of every drawing, I picked up this book in Delhi airport to kill time and completed it in one hour, This is a selection of great works of noted political cartoonistspolitoonists Late R, K. Laxman. I must confess I am a fan of his work and his cartoons were the first thing I read in the Times of India,
Coming back to the book,its left leaning but is awesome, The main targets are politicians,bureaucracy and education system and are relevant even today, Its a book for all readers,
Since,I don't think I have it in me to criticise R, K. Laxman,I am giving it five The evergreen classic Laxman, The beauty of his work is that he can bring out the complexities and the satire in our everyday life so vividly by use of a single picture.
A great artist and a political commentator His work from evenyears back is still relevant amp fresh in today's India, Loved it. Very funny collection of RK Laxman's cartoon, . Handpicked creations of R. K. Laxman
This books is collection of all the common man cartoons : it reminds you of each of those mornings when you use to turn the pages to find a corner by RK Lakshman.
. And which use to bring a smile on those faces with a cartoons of suffering common man, . . Its a collection. . And must to have one Mind blowing, And just as applicable today as it was a decade or more back, R K Laxman was a genius, And I am a nobody to have any sorts of rights to review it or comment on it, Hence I wont even try, The Very Best Of The Common Man is a tribute to one of India's bestloved cartoonists, R, K. Laxman. It presents a collection of some of Laxman's cartoons based on The Common Man, a character that appeared in Laxman's daily cartoon strip titled You Said It for the Times of India publication.
The Common Man, an average man representing the hopes and fears of the masses in India, remains one of the best characters in the history of Indian cartooning and illustration.
He is depicted as a silent witness to all the sociopolitical happenings that are presented in the cartoons,
Through the Common Man cartoons, Laxman explores every aspect of living in contemporary India, From political instability to economic crises, from the deeply entrenched corruption to the woes of householders, Laxman portrays exactly what it means to live and experience the real India.
The book presents some of the best cartoons featuring The Common Man in all his mute glory,
This edition of The Very Best Of The Common Man was published inby Penguin India, .