The Ghanada Artists
Protul Chandra Bandyopadhyay
The Bengali who autographed his artwork in Devanagari or English.
You mastered the alphabet.
Memorized rhymes.
Moved on to spine-chillers.
His sketches smiled back.
Or scared you silly.
A master of the traditional realistic style, Protul Chandra Bandyopadhyay (1903 – 74) created the first visual model of Ghanada.
In over twenty tales through two and a half decades, Ghanashyam Das’ handlebar moustache stood testimony to the Premendra – Protul partnership.
Ajit Gupta
1956. Ghanashyam Das was already a teen icon. Time then to publish an anthology from stories scattered in the Puja annuals.
The hero defied categorization. ‘Adventure’, ‘Science Fiction’, ‘Mystery’, ‘Humour’ – genres mingled. The brew was served in a wacky ironic matter-of-fact fashion, posing a challenge to the new book designer.
If Protul Chandra spiced and tensed up the understated action scenes to match his own style, Ajit Gupta (1928 – 2013)’s visuals complemented Premendra’s literary USP. Reduced years, kilos, facial fur and flab gave the revamped graphic avatar a chiseled uncertain-aged poker face.
A cool new Ghanada for the post-Independence teens.
Some artists like Balaibandhu Roy pursued the Protul-prototype
(From Left) Protul Chandra & Balaibandhu’s Ghanada [from ‘Suto’ & ‘Dhil’ respectively]
But Ajit Gupta’s graphic is still considered the copybook version.
Premendra Mitra’s own preference was no secret either
Excerpts from Ajit Gupta’s memoir ‘Bhalobashar Adda’ (2007)
This article by Premendra Mitra from ‘Kishore Jnan Bijnan’ (1981) contains a rare reference to the Ghanada illustrations.
Others
Ghanada’s reign (1945 – 87) spanned Bengal’s most decisive four decades of teen fiction.
Illustration styles also evolved with the advent of glossy juvenile journals and new printing techniques.
More than two dozen ace artists gifted Ghanashyam their distinctive touch. Notable names included:
Ahibhushan Malik. Alay Kumar Ghoshal. Alok Dhar. Anup Ray. Balaibandhu Roy. Bimal Das.
Debasish Deb. Dhirenkumar Baul. Dhruba Roy. Dilip Das. Goutam Roy. Narayan Debnath.
Narendra Dutta.Onkarnath Bhattacharya. Prashanta Gupta. Robin Basu. Samir Mondal. Samir Sarkar.
Shailo Narayan Chakraborty. Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya. Subodh Kumar Dasgupta.
Subrata Chowdhury. Sudhir Moitra. Surya Roy. Tushar Chattopadhyay. Uday Deb.
Bulky, bespectacled, bearded, buffoonish – our hero often popped up in bizarre builds!
The various faces of Ghanashyam Das.
Artists: Narendra Dutta, Ahibhushan Malik, Pratul Chandra, Alay Ghoshal, Sudhir Moitra
Ajit Gupta modelled his trademark Ghanada on a certain ‘Nitishbabu’ belonging to Premendra Mitra’s film unit
