Sensitivity to surroundings, sharp wit, sound judgement and powerful observation has instilled creativity in R.K. Laxman, also as a writer. His sharp wit bears the stamp of a dyed-in-the-wool humour. Even the minute incident cannot miss his eye. He watches strangers either in the lobby of a hotel or at the airport, amused by the animated conversation that these people have with each other. Hotels and airports are just examples. He had the habit of strolling around any market place, crowded parks, by lanes, streets etc to catch a glimpse of happenings and situations around. In this bargain even, the helpers as in household maids, servant boys, drivers, peons, office boys and name any have not escaped his eye.
While there is no denying that he is a thorough professional, yet he cannot be framed within the narrow boundaries of his profession nor can he be dismissed of as just a cartoonist. He is an intellect with a keen interest in human nature and thus had this hunger to write about his observation and describe the oddities in men and women placed in various positions. His receptive, razor sharp mind had absorbed literally everything of his fellow beings and recreated them in his writings during his leisure time depicting humans as the most interesting of Nature’s creations.
Laxman says, ‘’ I don’t look at the world the way everyone does. I enjoy watching and observing people from my cosy corner wondering where streams and streams of human population is heading and for what. It makes me depict them the way I do.’’ Thus, emerged one of his literary works, which is based on episodic stories on ‘’Servants of India’’. A few of them are a work of fiction and a few which Laxman experienced himself. All the stories are character based. Every character has a certain idiosyncrasies and that is where it becomes interesting. Laxman has used his trademark wit to fictionalise these characters and has given a gripping twist to the story. Every story evolves from the character of each servant and takes form according to their characteristics with a lot of inherent drama in all situations.
Working class in India forms a majority of the population. They offer their services and earn their livelihood. R.K.Laxman found this world to be interesting, vulnerable and also eccentric at times. We thought it would be interesting to bring to life the characters in ‘Servants of India’. As we digged more into his unpublished material on the same subject, we decided to compile it and make it into a Web Series, the biggest digital Platforms in today’s times and also a lucrative platform for perpetuity of content. By this the viewers would get to know about R.K.Laxman also as an author. This web series would be the first series , based on his written work on which we wish to bring out a Motion Picture. There is definitely a lot of scope and collectively put together it can be entertaining as Laxman’s IP holds a strong content. It would be a good family story, punched with humour and the viewers could very well relate to it, such a situation might have occurred in their own lives or with their friends.