In the late 1990s, Kanji’s Caricature ((কাঞ্জি’স ক্যারিকেচার) – which made a debut in the increasingly unhumourous ecosystem of dry current affairs broadsheets and magazines – seemed the periodical which would provide a platform for young cartoonists, who were finding it increasingly difficult to subsist on their art. Newspapers were stingy with editorial cartoons and many had stopped them altogether. Magazines like Ocholpotra, Sochitra Bharat and Shanibarer Chithi were long gone and both young and veteran cartoonists were at a disadvantage. Raja Kanjilal’s Kanji’s Caricature was good news for this dwindling tribe of practitioners, who drew for the magazine happily. It was also good news for cartoon admiring readership, which was small but passionate. The intrepid Kanji’s Caricature which had Debasish Deb, Anup Ray, Chandi Lahiri, Naren Ray (Sufi) and Amal Chakraborty as contributors seemed a promise but like Tekka a decade before, it remained a flash in the pan and fizzled out after a couple of issues.
