Puthukodi Kottuthodi Shankaran Kutty, popularly known as 'Kutty', was a prominent political cartoonist in India. During a career spanning more than fifty years, he enthralled millions across India with his cartoons. This is a collection of some of his works, preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Kutty, pictured here with his loving wife, Gouri Kutty (1936-2023)
Cartoonist Kutty (P.K.S. Kutty) was born Puthukkodi Kottuthodi Sankaran Kutty on September 4, 1921, in
the town of Ottapalam. Ottapalam is a town in the Malabar region of the State of Kerala, in India.
He had his early education in the local Ottapalam High School. From a very young age he was attracted to
political cartoons that were available in the limited print media of that period. He has vivid memories of
making copies of the cartoons for the amusement of his friends. After graduating from high school he left his
hometown to attend college at Malabar Christian College in the city of Calicut (Kozhikode).
While in college Kutty had the opportunity to meet Professor M. R. Nair who is considered to be one of the
greatest Malayali humorists. Besides Malayalam, Professor Nair was a great scholar in English and Sanskrit
too. His humorous pieces in Malayalam were of a very high standard. His pen name was Sanjayan – a name
highly respected, and remembered with affection by millions, to this day.
Sanjayan discovered Kutty. In 1940, when Professor M.R. Nair started a periodical dedicated to humor called
Viswaroopam, Kutty got his first chance to get his cartoons published. He was paid for it too! His first
cartoon, drawn as a professional, appeared in that periodical in August of 1940.
Later, as luck would have it, Kutty came to the attention of the great civil servant Rao Sahib V.P. Menon. Mr.
Menon was a senior official in the British Imperial Secretariat in India’s Capital, New Delhi. He also happened
to be a relative of Kutty’s father. Mr. V.P. Menon spoke to Mr. Shankara Pillai, popularly known as Shankar,
the great cartoonist and the father of professional cartooning art in India, about Kutty, and suggested that
Mr. Shankar train Kutty under him. Shankar was then the cartoonist for the English daily, the Hindustan
Times. Luckily for Kutty, Shankar was looking for a trainee at that time. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who later
became India’s first Prime Minister, was an ardent fan of cartooning, and Shankar in particular. Nehru had
asked Shankar to find a cartoonist for his then newly-started English daily newspaper, The National Herald.
Shankar assured V.P. Menon that he would gladly do what had been asked of him. V.P. Menon asked Kutty
to relocate to New Delhi. Kutty reached New Delhi on January 3, 1941. Shankar trained him for 6 months
and sent him to Lucknow to be the staff cartoonist at The National Herald. Thus began Kutty’s long and
illustrious career in journalism.
Following the start of the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942, and due to the intensifying repressive policies of the
British colonial government, The National Herald was shut down. Kutty moved to Madras (today known as
Chennai). At the end of World War II, and after conditions had become normal for political cartooning, Kutty
joined the Free Press Journal newspaper of Bombay (today known as Mumbai). During this entire period
Kutty’s relationship with Shankar continued. Their traditional ‘Guru-Shishya’ (teacher-student) relationship
had endured the turmoil in their profession.
In 1946 Shankar wanted Kutty to go to New Delhi and join a new daily newspaper group that Shankar had
planned to launch. Shankar wanted Kutty to be the cartoonist for his evening paper. Thus, in 1946 Kutty left
Bombay and returned to New Delhi. From then, and until the year 1997, Kutty lived in New Delhi, and worked
from there, for various periodicals of India.
In 1948 the humor magazine, Shankar’s Weekly, was started. Kutty was an integral part of that weekly.
Kutty’s connection with Shankar, his Guru, continued until Shankar’s death in the winter of 1989.
During his long career Kutty worked for various newspapers. In 1951 he joined the Ananda Bazar Group of
Calcutta (now known as Kolkata). While he was with the Ananda Bazar Group, his work appeared in the
widely circulated newspapers Ananda Bazar Patrika (in Bengali) and Hindustan Standard (in English), and
in Desh the famous Bengali-language literary weekly.
He remained as the lead cartoonist for the Ananda Bazar group until the year 1986. In 1987 he joined
another Bengali-language newspaper, AajKaal, and drew for that paper until 1997. Kutty’s work was also
syndicated, first in the Hindustan Times newspaper, and later in The Indian Express. Kutty also used to
draw for various Malayalam-language periodicals published by his friends.
Kutty considered the hallmark of his career was in drawing for Bengali-language newspapers. Although he
could not read or write, or even speak, the Bengali language, his cartoons became so popular that he
became, and still remains, a household name all over the Bengali-speaking world.
Interestingly, in May of 2005, a rumor of Kutty’s death started to circulate in Calcutta. His former colleagues
at Aajkaal contacted him and were able to confirm that it was merely a rumor. They published the denial of
that rumor, alongside a cartoon drawn by Kutty himself. This led to requests for more cartoons from his fans.
Kutty did draw a few more cartoons that were published in AajKaal, but due to deteriorating eye-sight he was
not able to continue.
Cartoonist Kutty passed away on October 22, 2011 at the age of 90.