Pran Kumar Sharma

Pran Kumar Sharma (born August 15, 1938), better known as Pran, is one of the most successful Indian cartoonists.

Pran graduated with a Master of Arts (Political Science) degree. He then completed a four-year course in Fine Arts from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai.

Pran began his career in 1960 as a cartoonist for the Delhi-based newspaper Milap with comic strip Daabu. In 1969, he sketched Chacha Chaudhary for the Hindi magazine Lotpot, which made him famous. Pran has also created other cartoon characters like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman, Channie Chachi and others, which are regularly published in Indian magazines.

Maurice Horn, the editor of World Encyclopedia of comics, has described him as "Walt Disney of India" in World Encyclopedia of comics.

Pran received a Lifetime Achievement Award 2001, from Indian Institute of Cartoonists. He was also included in People of the year 1995 by Limca Book of Records for popularizing comics in India.

Pran's most popular comic series is "Chacha Chaudhary". Chacha Chaudhary is a typical aged Indian with a white mustache and wears a red turban. Chacha is always accompanied by Sabu, an extraterrestrial being from planet Jupiter. Sabu, however, looks just like a human but is muscular and enormous in size, nearly thrice as tall as the normal man. Needless to say, Sabu is tremendously strong too.

Chacha Chaudhary drives an old run-down truck he calls Dag-Dag and has a dog named Rocket. Sabu travels with Chacha sitting atop the truck.

The storyline of Chacha Chaudhary comics always involves him and Sabu confronting criminals and petty thieves. Chacha Chaudhary is also portrayed as a sharp wit. In places where Chacha exhibits his superior intelligence, there is a small asterisk in the call-out balloon linked to a footnote that goes "* Chacha Chaudhary's brain works faster than a computer".

Sabu's arch enemy is a dacoit-turned-immortal-giant called Raaka. Raaka was a dacoit who once, after committing a robbery, hides in a house to escape the police. There, he chances upon a bottle containing a potion concocted by a physician. He drinks it and faints. On waking up, he finds himself transformed into a burly superhuman sized giant. A little while later, he goes on a rampage destroying everything in his path and tormenting people.

He is confronted by a battalion of army tanks which opens fire. A cannonball bores right through him, yet, he doesn't die. Raaka is surprised at that and discovers that the potion he drank had made him immortal too.

Egged on by his new found invincibility, Raaka terrorizes the public, till at last, he comes face-to-face with Chacha Chaudhary and Sabu. Both are startled at Raaka's power and wonder from where he had cropped up all of a sudden.

Nevertheless, Sabu battles with Raaka and manages to subdue him. Thenceforth, Raaka has been a constant, albeit occasional feature in Chacha Chaudhary comics. Each time, owing to Raaka's immortality, Sabu doesn't kill him. Instead, Raaka is temporarily constrained by making him unconscious and drowned in the sea or sealed in a cave.

External links

• http://pran.in/