R K Laxman Museum, Pune

Museum of India’s most popular cartoonists

Also see: FAM Trip of Pune

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman (1921 – 2015), or simply R K Laxman was a well-known cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his famous creation The Common Man. R K Laxman Museum is located in Balwadi, Pune contains almost 35,000 of his sketches.

Statue of Common Man at the entrance of R K Laxman Museum, Pune

This museum cum art gallery is a project of Pune Municipal Corporation. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March 2022. The museum tells the story of Laxman and his career. The story of how his pen and brush along with his sense of humor have turned him into a legend.

Creator and his creation, R K Laxman Museum, Pune

R K Laxman
As life unfolds the constant search is for that needle in the haystack of confusion called life. It is sad that our lives has thus come to be regulated by clockwork robbing them of all the excitement of fresh sights and new experiences.

A statue of Common Man welcomes visitors at the R K Laxman Museum. Laxman’s archive is huge and it is difficult to accommodate it in the galleries of the museum.

The inner side of the boundary wall of the museum complex has also been converted into a gallery, exhibiting several of Laxman’s sketches.

The sketches are divided into a couple of galleries, including Laxman’s cartoons on Maharashtra Police and on his immortal creation The Common Man. Police have always been a favourite subject for many a cartoonist and Laxman was no exception.

Gallery on the outer wall, R K Laxman Museum, Pune

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Laxman got the opportunity to do huge volumes of cartoons on the Maharashtra Police. His cartoons were endowed with wit and humor without malice. A true tribute to the men in uniform.

A portion of the collection of Laxman’s cartoon on the Maharashtra Police

The wall gallery contains a different assortment of Laxman’s cartoons covering a wide range of topics and personalities. They include Mahatma Gandhi, Narendra Modi and even Yuri Gagarin. 

An assortment of cartoons on the wall gallery, R K Laxman Museum

But the prime attraction of the wall gallery is The Common Man. It starts with the evolution of The Common Man. For over a half of a century, the Common Man has represented the hopes, aspirations, troubles and perhaps even foibles of the average Indian.

The Common Man

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Ritu Gairola Khanduri, anthropologist
Clad in a dhoti and a plaid jacket, the puzzled Common Man is no dupe: his sharp observations miss no detail of the political circus.

R K Laxman

The Common Man

The Common Man appeared as a daily comic stripe named “You said it” in The Times of India. It started in 1951.

A full-length self-portrait of R K Laxman at the museum gate welcomes visitors into the museum.

Inside a full-length portrait of the Common Man, in folded arms, introduces the visitors to the museum and archive of R K Laxman.

The welcome of the Common Man
A grand welcome to the R K Laxman Museum. I am your host and I will give you a visual experience of this museum and tell you the story of the man you created me. You will get to see his work from childhood in different form and also glimpses of his personal life which you might not have seen or heard before. It is going to be an enlightening and entertaining journey and nostalgic memories for many. So get ready to enjoy the world of humour, amazement and entertainment.

Galleries inside the R K Laxman Museum

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After the grand welcome by India’s most well-known cartoon character, a flight of stairs leads to the first floor housing the different galleries.

Personal life of R K Laxman

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Laxman’s sketches and his photos from personal life are arranged in different galleries spread over the top two floors. The museum also has two audio-visual halls.

A portion of the caricature gallery, R K Laxman Museum

Important galleries of R K Laxman Museum:

• Personal Life: This section deals with the personal life of R K Laxman. His childhood and his relationship with his elder brother and famous writer R K Narayan. Laxman’s career began with the illustrations for his elder brother’s books.
• Precursor: A precursor is defined as something that led to the creation of something similar but new. This section contains a lot of Laxman’s unpublished works.
• Caricature: Caricature is defined as a picture or description of somebody that makes his/her appearance or behavior funnier and more extreme than it really is. In this section, Laxman has made caricatures of eminent personalities whom he had admired and met.

A portion of the hall of fame gallery, R K Laxman Museum

• Hall of Fame: This is a section portraying famous cartoonists from around the globe. It consists of a photograph of the cartoonist along with one of his well-known cartoons.
• Ganesha: The Hindu deity of prosperity has always been a favourite for many an artist and Laxman is no exception. He has sketched Ganesh in innumerable forms.
• Sketches for Children: This section relates to Laxman cartoons meant for children. Many of Laxman cartoon has the humor to attract children.
• Crows: Crows have been and an integral element of Laxman’s sketches. He has always found them intelligent and mischievous. Laxaman has spent a large part of his life observing and studying them. He could even identify them individually and even had names for them. The crow gallery consists not only of a framed collage of sketches but models of crows. The models show the crows busy in all sorts of activities.

The museum also has two audio-visual rooms carrying out two different shows. There is no specific timing and the show operates if there are 5 or more visitors.

The first is a documentary on R K Laxman. The second is an audio-visual complete with models and links R K Laxman’s Common Man with the town of Malgudi, the immortal creation of his elder brother R K Narayan.

Crow gallery, R K Laxman Museuem

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The audio-visual hall also exhibits a Laxaman’s last sketch. It was drawn on 20 December 2014 . It is a note to his son Arunan, who works for ISRO.

Model of Malgudi town R K Laxman Museum, Pune

It is about India’s Mars Mission. It marks the hundred days of Mangalyaan on Martian orbit. It shows the common man carrying the national flag towards the red planet.

R K Laxman’s last sketch

After his death, his daughter-in-law Usha Laxman took up the mammoth work of compiling the entire work, which spaned over seven decades.

It was no easy work compiling over 35,000 illustrations and after the compilation was complete it was decided to put up the work for public display in a museum.

Thus the R K Laxman Museum was conceived and it was finally inaugurated by Narendra Modi in March 2022.

No wonder the Common Man will live forever. His family continues with its tradition of cartooning and has plans for a new character.

Laxman’s granddaughter Rimanika Laxman has picked by the brush and pen and continues with the family legacy.

But it is not the Common Man but the Common Women who will be taking the legacy forward.

The new character will show the perspective of a woman in society and the cartoon strip will tackle gender issues. The series will be titled, Common Man and Common Woman.

Quick facts about R K Laxman Museum:

• Located in Balwadi, Pune (Google map location)
• Presently the R K Laxman Museum is not open to the public. It is likely to be opened somewhere in July 2022. The timing and ticket prices are yet to be decided

Left to right: Common Women, Common Man and Final farewell to R K Laxman

Note:

• This tour was part of a Familiarization (FAM) tour organized by Indian Tourism, Mumbai office.
• The tour was held on the occasion of the inauguration of the official website of the R K Laxman Museum. The website was inaugurated at the R K Laxman Museum complex on 3 June 2022