MICA show explores characters acquiring human dimensions

Every morning RK Laxman’s "common man"— the average Indian man with a blank blinking face—strikes a new chord with you as he freezes the crucial moment of a current happening. The cherubic Amul girl cooess "utterly butterly delicious" in your ears as you apply the ‘Taste of India" on your bread. So real are these and other fictitious characters created by the media that they almost cease to be fiction.

Exhibition "Characters—less or more," organised as a parting gift to graduating students of Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) on the fourth convocation ceremony held on Monday, profiled an array of fictitious characters who have gone beyond providing entertainment in acquiring human dimensions.

Occupying the centrestage were Tintin, the globe-trotting teenaged investigative reporter who taught for generations to stand up for truth and justice, Sherlock Holmes, the unique private detective whose business was "to know what others don’t", Raymond’s ‘complete man", the forever young squeaky Mickey Mouse, the Malboro man, Calvin and Hobbes, ‘Gattu," the Asian Paint’s colourful boy, and a host of others who breathe life and live with us everyday.

An exhibition coinciding with the convocation function is a traditional feature at MICA as an exercise "to put up a face in public that captures the essence of the institute." It was completed in two weeks’ time, an offbeat with the genesis being the desire to stray away from directly reflecting on advertising and creatively and express a viewpoint on communications, says MICA faculty trainee Suraj Kishore.

And it was creative. All characters displayed at the show were "faceless". However, skillfully profiled with the aid of visual and audio elements, their recognition came instantaneously

For instance, a pair of dark glasses, bunch of carrots and a length of satin ribbon were enough to conjure up image of the popular "desi" detective Karamchand and his assistant Kitty Similarly two hands dripping blood backed by masculine "Yeh haath mujhe de Thakur" reminded one of "Gabbar," dreaded villain of the movies of seventies.

Rarest insights were provided by means of a sketch that outlined the complete life history of fiction characters.

The fact that coffee was Sherlock Holmes’ greatest weakness and he fell in love twice but never married is an instance of the detailed study that went into sketching the life of these characters.

Compiled from Times of India - Ahmedabad.