He was known as 'Cartoonman', a name he carried on his Facebook profile. Ibrahim Badusha, who died of post COVID-19 pneumonia on the morning of June 2, was one of the most popular cartoonists and caricaturists in Kerala. He was 37 years old. Badusha was former Vice chairman of the Kerala Cartoon Academy and political cartoonist at Puzha.com. He has been, for the last several months, drawing awareness cartoons on COVID-19. A month ago, when the Kerala Assembly election results were being announced, Badusha took to Facebook to publish caricatures of winning candidates.
He had last put out tributes for politician KR Gouri Amma and actor Madambu Kunjukuttan who died in May. Mathrubhumi reports that Badusha who had tested negative for the coronavirus later developed pneumonia and was under treatment at the Aluva district hospital.
Sajjive Balakrishnan, popular one-minute caricaturist, whom Badusha called his 'Guru', put out a touching tribute. "I have not made him draw a single drawing. He has not shown me many pictures. I also reminded him often that my hastily-drawn one-minute drawings are full of anatomical mistakes. Yet he called me his guru," Sajjive wrote on Facebook.
"I have not seen another man who has spoken about cartoons with such passion. Badusha's contributions were mainly for children. He was the hero of alphabet cartooning in Kerala. There were fans in Kerala and abroad for his alphabet cartoons," Sajjive wrote.
In 2019, Badusha travelled to different parts of Kerala as part of a fundraiser campaign for the Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund (CMDRF). This was immediately after the floods in 2019. He and a number of other cartoonists had come together to form the Cartoon Club to raise awareness on donating to the CMDRF.
Badusha leaves behind his wife Fasina and three little children, Fanan, Aisha and Aman.