Amid flashlights, surrounded by a crowd requesting selfies and autographs, he stood with a half-surprised, half-nervous smile. This is all new to him. “I feel like a film star,” says Bala, glancing at his wife Santhini, who stood near him with a reassuring smile. Only a few days ago was he arrested from his house by the police who came in mufti, dragging him into the van in front of his two little kids and his neighbours. The crime: he drew a cartoon. The controversial cartoon had a burning child surrounded by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy, the Tirunelveli Collector and police chief covering their genitals with currency. It was his angry response to the horrifying self-immolation of a family in front of the Tirunelveli Collectorate after being hunted down by loan sharks. His arrest saw the whole word rallying behind him and Bala securing bail.
The controversial cartoon.
Turning emotional while recalling the tragedy, he says, “The image of the little girl in fire who stood still holding the candy she has been licking will haunt me to my deathbed. It was my child I saw in her. Many found the cartoon intimidating, many others saw pain, but it was anger that prompted me to draw it. It was the expression of my rage.” The cartoon was published on social media and in no time, it went viral with 25 lakh shares and counting. The arrest happened 10 days later. “They could have asked me to come to the police station. I would have gone. Instead, they dragged me out of my home like a criminal in front of all the people I know, in front of my little kids… that’s what hurt me. My three-year-old son is scared of calling bells and door knocks and tells me, ‘Appa, don’t open the door. It’s the police’.
His friends ask him if his Appa is in jail. He doesn’t know if I am a thief or a murderer. Some 10 years later, he might understand that I did no wrong, but the fear and agony the kids face now is painful,” says Bala, who was in Kochi for an interaction in connection with National Press Day. Visiting the exhibition Don’t Scare Me, featuring cartoons depicting the freedom of press, most of them featuring Bala, he is unable to hide his awe, “In Tamil Nadu, we have hardly five cartoonists, including me. It’ a goosebump moment for me. I’m honoured. This kind of respect is something only film stars get in my place.”
It is his first visit to Kerala. “Seeing the people here I know why this is a land of cartoonists, blessed ones. There are different varieties of faces around… I am tempted to draw,” he laughs. Kerala is very different and can never be compared to Tamil Nadu. “The life of people there is intertwined with movies. Politicians and the government always ensure that the people have two things to fight with – DMK-AIADMK, MGR-Sivaji, Jayalalithaa-Karunanidhi, Vijay-Ajith and now, Kamal-Rajini. The people are left with no third choice!” He doesn’t blame the people, “It’s the victory of visual language. Politicians used it to tame people. Unfortunately, even years later, people haven't still got over it and continue to worship reel images. Actors should be responsible and stay away from politics; instead, they rob their people just because they don’t object to it and adore their onscreen persona!”
So, doesn’t he have any political inclinations? “No,” he says. Once, he had been an admirer of Karunanidhi, his movements, ideals and writing. Till 2009. The war with LTTE was going on and one day he saw a photo from the warzone – of a pregnant lady’s mutilated body, little feet of the unborn child protruding from her tummy. “My wife was seven months pregnant with our first child then. The photo shook my trust. Karunanidhi could have prevented that from happening, he didn’t. I have no allegiance to any political party since then,” says Bala.
His artistic inclination began as a child when he traced into oil paper the images from the comic books his mother bought him and reproduced it on white paper. “I used to show it off proudly. But my grandfather saw this and told me that it wasn’t talent at all. Show off what is yours, not what others have made. And he gave me a subject – a conversation between a lion and a fox. Back then, I felt that it was a stupid subject. But now, when I look back, I know that it was my first step to becoming a cartoonist. If he had asked me to draw just a lion and a fox, I would have been an artist.” He started his career as a sub-editor and then the passion took over; at 21, he started drawing cartoons. It’s been 15 years now. He served in the magazine Kumudam for years and when the new political regime came in place, unable to cope up with it, turned into a freelancer and went online. “I have dreams. One is to provide a platform for cartoonists. More of them should come up.”
The land of the oldest classical language, of Thanthai Periyar and Bharathiyar, Tamil Nadu has strayed too far from what it had been once, but Bala hasn’t given up on his hopes. “I am hopeful. It’s not easy; there is a long way to go, but the golden days would be back. There would be oppression, tyranny and all means to silence voices of dissent. But let them try to scare us as much as they can, we will continue to scare them back. The fight will go on.”
