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{{other people||T. R. Mahalingam (disambiguation){{!}}T. R. Mahalingam}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
'''T. R. Mahalingam''', better known by his pen-name '''Mali''', was an illustrator and cartoonist from Tamil Nadu, India, in the pre-independence era.<ref name=coffee>{{cite book|last=Vēṅkaṭācalapati|first=Ā. Irā|title=In those days there was no coffee: writings in cultural history|year=2006|publisher=Yoda Press|url=https://books.google.com/?id=tk-KZmcUEvAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22%C4%80.+Ir%C4%81+V%C4%93%E1%B9%85ka%E1%B9%AD%C4%81calapati%22#v=onepage&q&f=false|isbn=9788190227278}}</ref> He was the Tamil Press's first caricaturists, according to Chennai historian S. Muthiah in [[The Hindu]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Muthiah|first=S.|title=The House of Humour|url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2003/10/08/stories/2003100800400300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031106212148/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2003/10/08/stories/2003100800400300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 6, 2003|work=[[The Hindu]]|date=Aug 8, 2003}}</ref> Muthiah has written elsewhere that Mali did as much with his strokes for Vikatan as its celebrated editor [[Kalki Krishnamurthy]] did with his words.

Mali published his drawings in the [[Indian Express]]<ref name=Padmanabhan>{{cite journal|last=Padmanabhan|first=R .A.|title=Vasan, Kalki, Thumilan and Mali|journal=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vyW2AAAAIAAJ the Indian Review]|year=1979|volume=75}}</ref> in the 1930s, and first made his name at the [[Free Press Journal]] 'before being immortalised in the pages of [[Ananda Vikatan]], the first popular Tamil periodical'.<ref name=coffee/> He also did cartoons for the Vikatan group's English-language [[Merry Magazine]], where he became the editor in 1935.<ref>{{cite news|last=Muthiah|first=S.|title=Madras Miscellany|url=http://www.hindu.com/2001/06/18/stories/13181285.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125055835/http://www.hindu.com/2001/06/18/stories/13181285.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 25, 2013|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|date=June 18, 2001}}</ref> He is said to have left the editorial nitty-gritty to his assistant editor, while continuing to illustrate such humorous serials as 'Private Joyful in Madras' (The magazine shut down in c. 1935 or 1936).<ref name=Padmanabhan/>

While it was the writer and poet [[Subramanya Bharathi]] who first introduced cartoons to Tamil journalism, it was [[Ananda Vikatan]] that made them truly popular. As cartoonist and senior artist at Ananda Vikatan, Mali was thus a key influence on a second generation of cartoonists. [[Gopulu]] and [[Silpi]] were illustrators he mentored at Vikatan.

According to Tamil film historian [[Randor Guy]], Mali designed the famous logo for [[Gemini Studios]], which depicts cherubic twin buglers.<ref>{{cite web|last=Guy|first=Randor|title=Round the city's old studios|url=http://madrasmusings.com/Vol%2018%20No%2014/otherstories.html|publisher=Madras Musings}}</ref>

Mali died in c. 1947, according to an obituary in ''The Indian Review''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Natesan|first=G. A.|title=Mali of Ananda Vikatan|journal=The Indian Review|date=Jan–Dec 1947|volume=48|url=https://books.google.com/?id=F64NKay6zNYC&dq=mali&q=mali#search_anchor}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mali}}
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]
[[Category:Indian cartoonists]]
[[Category:Indian illustrators]]


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