Artist Narayan Debnath Draws 'Batul the Great' Perfectly for a Mental Function Test, Wows Doctors

Legendary artist-illustrator Narayan Debnath, who created the famous comic characters of ‘Bantul the Great’, ‘Nonte Fonte’, ‘Handa Bhonda' in Bengali, was conferred with the Padma Shri this year. Debnath, who's characters have attained cult status in Bengali households in West Bengal and even outside, was recently hospitalized with age-related health issues and has been on supportive medication.

Debnath was diagnosed with age-induced neurological and respiratory issues and is being treated for these conditions. Interestingly, in order to test his mental functioning abilities, his doctors came up with a unique method. They asked him to recreate any one of his creations that would help to ascertain his 'Higher Mental Function'.

And Debnath did not disappoint. Given a pen and paper, Debnath and came up with an exact drawing of his ever-smiling superhero character of 'Batul the Great' an even wrote a message and even signed it in impeccable handwriting, all at the age of 96!

A user shared the same on his Twitter handle and commented how the illustrator-artist's genius has in no way been diminished.

Social media users fell in love with the painting and commented how it took them back to their childhood as the perfect strokes by Debnath reminded them of their love for the iconic pop-culture character they grew up reading.

Debnath has been admitted to Kolkata's Belle Vue clinic since Friday. His characters Handa Bhonda has been in circulation since 1962 for the monthly Bengali children’s magazine Shuktara. Debnath himself is the only comics-artist in India to have a D.Litt degree.

At 96, the nonagenarian has been the flagbearer of Bengali pop culture for more than five decades and despite his works mainly aimed at the children, there has often been a note of social and nationalistic idealism behind these memorable characters.

Several of Debanth's characters have been reimagined as animated characters.