How Bal Thackeray's 'Marmik' magazine looks today

Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray started a magazine to publish his cartoons called 'Marmik,' which translates to 'from the heart.' As most of us from Mumbai would know, he started off as a cartoonist with the Free Press Journal.

But he later felt the need to start his own weekly for which he got his father Prabodhankar Thackeray's support. This is how Marmik was born on 13 August 1960. It was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Yashwantrao Chavan at Dadar's Balmohan Vidya Mandir.

The main aim of Marmik was to publish Thackeray's Vyang Chitra or Satirical Cartoons on the current socio-political scenario in Maharashtra. Along with that, he also used 'Marmik' to propagate his political views and to trigger protests on issues close to him.

'Marmik' turned into a full fledged political weapon, naturally, after he formed his political party Shiv Sena in 1966. Now, the magazine became all the more fiery with political cartoons and views. What started as a satirical cartoon magazine now became a mouthpiece to publish Thackeray's views for and against anyone or anything related to Maharashtra.

Old Marmik dated 1970 when Shiv Sena called for Mumbai Bandh

Much later in 1988 Thackeray started Shiv Sena's Marathi daily newspaper called 'Samana.' But he continued 'Marmik' simultaneously. From here onwards, Thackeray's views and editorials started appearing in 'Samana' more than 'Marmik' as the former was a more ideal place for such write-ups.

Despite 'Samana's popularity, the editions of 'Marmik' were continued non-stop. But somewhere down the line, the popularity of the magazine decreased. This didn't have anything to do with its quality or content but with 'Samana' becoming a stronger mouthpiece for the party.

This one was published when the textile mills in Lalbaug and Parel area were shutting down. 

In the last decade or so, we have witnessed the decline in the sale of magazines which is multiplying with every passing year. Some of them are shut down, naturally. Hence, I thought the same whould have happened with 'Marmik' too.

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However, last month when I was just walking past a newspaper vendor, I just stopped and was pleasantly surprised to see the latest edition of 'Marmik.' I bought it instantly. It costs only Rs 5.

I then realized that a lot of my near and dear ones were also unaware that 'Marmik' is still coming up with newer editions and is very much active. Hence, this blog post.

Here's how 'Marmik' looks today, 60 years after it was launched:

In the edition I got, I could not find too much of political stuff except a dig at India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the state of the economy and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil for his comments on Maharashtra's Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Here's an interesting article on how the names of various places in Mumbai were derived from.

'Marmik' is not devoid of cartoons. Apart from the two political pieces, I could find few political sketches and a section on political one-liners which, obviously, in Shiv Sena's favour.

This is a coverage of the annual fruits and flowers exhibition in the famous Ranibaug of Mumbai.

Apart from these items, 'Marmik' has sections on recipes, devotion, astrology, short stories, experience articles, jokes, etc.

By: Keyur Seta

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