MUMBAI, MAY 27: Marmik, the cartoon weekly launched 37 years ago by Balasaheb Thackeray that gave birth to the Shiv Sena and took its ideology across the length and breadth of Maharashtra, is going in for a major facelift. The idea is to make it more attractive to the new generation of readers and re-emphasise its importance in the Sena scheme of things; this has diminished not a little following the overwhelming identification of Saamna as the party's principal mouthpiece.

The `Marmik Mehfil' organised the week before the last was reportedly as much to underline its abiding role as a house journal of unaltered value as it was to celebrate its completion of 37 years.

Uddhav Thackeray, whose unhappiness with the current character of Marmik reportedly led to a broad consensus on transforming it, Raj Thackeray, who sketches cartoons for the magazine's cover, and party general secretary and printer-publisher Subhash Desai will be involved in the revamp.

Shrikant Thackeray, the Sena supremo's brother and Marmik's assistant editor, told Express Newsline: ``Once Balasaheb and I discuss the matter, it will not take long for it to be revamped.''

Consultant editor Vasant Soparkar said: ``We want to give Marmik a modern look, incorporate new trends and at the same time preserve our own distinctive style of covering socio-political developments.'' According to him, Thackeray has suggested there should be more humour in the magazine, because that is what sets it apart from other publications.

The new-look Marmik would not be a carbon copy of Saamna, Soparkar stressed, adding that the latter has its limitations in countering allegations made by political rivals against the Sena. Marmik, on the other hand, can do a comprehensive job in this regard by elaborating the party's stand on various issues and articulating core concerns in the deepest recesses of the Marathi mind. ``Our effort will also be to win over readers who aren't Sainiks, '' he remarked.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.