At this point of time when I am aggressively championing the
cause of pursuing our personal passion, I am reminded of a poignant scene from
my all time favorite movie ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. The writer character of
Farhan Akhtar is questioned by the artist character of Naseeruddin Shah, “Son,
what do you do for a living?” Farhan replies cheekily, “I’m a writer, a
copywriter with an ad agency and I write ads”. Unimpressed and visibly
discomforted by his reply, Naseeruddin Shah overlaps, “What do you write for
yourself?” The writer character of Farhan Akhtar is left speechless.
So here we are, talking about passion and yet being
incessantly unable or helpless to pursue it.
This is not a debate nor an opinion but a conversation of my
experience; I wish to share while writing about ‘Kalanubhuti’. Somewhere
between November 21 and 23; in a distant corner of Thane city, seven women took
the reins of an artistic prologue in their control. The quiet venue of Kala
Bhavan served as an ideal turf for these seven friends, hailing from the same
housing society to put up a show with an intriguing title – Kalanubhuti; An Artistic
Experience.
Asmita Patil, Madhurie D Pandit, Malabika Bose, Parita
Chauhan Rathor, Reeta Thakur, Rekha Singh and Tripti Khandelwal formed the core of ‘Kalanubhuti’;
a first of many sorts. Of the seven wonderful women, I’ve known Asmita,
Madhurie (Maddie) and Rekha for a considerably long span of time. My friendship
with Maddie began with her time refining iPhone photo updates. I crowned her my
most favorite iPhone-o-grapher. So significant was her impact on my mind that
it didn’t take me much time to seek release from the entrapment of an android
world and dig my teeth into the first Apple gadget of my life. During Upvan Art
festival held in Thane last year; Maddie had put up a stall of her Warli centric
creations and Asmita was sharing an equal space, by putting up her own
paintings. I instantly connected with her too. From that moment, a creative
exchange of imaginations started taking place between the three of us. And then
came by Rekha Singh, whom I prefer to refer as Rekhaji. Her towering
personality and the visible calm on her face, invokes in me a very different
feeling. All three of them had been in constant conversation with me. And I
knew very well, something grand was in the offing. And then finally Kalanubhuti
happened.
Asmita, Maddie and Rekha invited me to their first ever
exhibition of paintings. All this while, ever since I had met them; they had
been putting their brush on their canvases. I as an ardent follower of theirs have
been admiring all their facebook updates; also writing long essays of
appreciation in the comment box. But all that hard work and inbuilt talent made
Kalanubhuti; a truly memorable experience.
I being a follower of my own weekend agendas travelled to
Kala Bhavan and was sure of leaving the venue in not less than 90 minutes.
Maddie was at her supreme best, dressed in a spotless white salwar kameez. She
ushered me in and treated me like a celebrity (which I am absolutely not).
Asmita joined in, casting that magical spell of her undisputedly lovely smile.
Rekhaji was not far behind and called up my name to waive at me. It was all
upon Maddie who started taking me through the exhibition. The first collection
I came across was that of Malabika Bose. The surname already hinted of her
being a Bengali. And her name was nonetheless rooted in the rich cultural premise
of Bengal. I fell in love with her Buddha. She had experimented with her
version of Buddha. She chose to combine his calm composure with the red color
of passion. Others might have gone that way many a times. But I having not
noticed them was left awestruck by Malabika’s representation of the Buddha.
Even though Malabika was nowhere to be seen, Maddie accompanied and I went on discovering
the paintings. Another striking feature of Malabika’s creation was Maa Durga
blending into Maa Kali. In most of the Bengali households, it is nothing less
than folklore when the senior family members settle down to discuss Gods and
Goddesses. Many a times, I have come across them speaking about how Maa Durga
and Maa Kali shouldn’t be placed beside each other. But an artist of Malabika’s
caliber chose to defy that norm and what offered, was nothing less than
magical. By the way, I did meet Malabika in the end and realized her mannerisms
resembled that of Moushumi Chatterjee’s; my favorite Indian actress from the
golden era of Hindi and Bengali cinema.
Parita Chauhan Rathor’s creation of two faces almost made me embark
on a time travel; they made me imagine the evolution of mankind, arrival of
life on earth, creation of man and woman, etc. Tripti Khandelwal and Reeta
Thakur had their own interpretations of the world. What I remember of them both
was their observation. Take for instance that one family photograph of Reeta
Thakur, which she had not painted but developed by dashing the canvas with
multiple strokes of a thin brush or a ball pen; I guess and wish to be
corrected, if I am wrong. To me what seemed like a culmination of full stops
was actually a masterpiece that might have taken multiple patient hours to
translate into reality. Tripti and Reeta took their turns to welcome me into
their world of imagination. What I was seeing of their creation was gradually
seeping into my thought process. Another image which still remains fresh in my
mind is the silhouettes of three motionless cyclists on a bridge; far somewhere
in Burma. Set against a backdrop of a quiet evening, the creation spoke more of
destination, journeys, cluelessness and more.
My walk had just started. Four amazing artists had already
got me thinking as to how we have not been paying much attention towards
pursuing our personal passion. And there she was, patiently noticing, waiting
for me to arrive at her own personal space. Asmita, dressed in a black top,
appeared completely in contrast of her vibrant creations. Was this a deliberate
attempt? I don’t think so. Because Asmita’s vision for the art, she has been
doing so far, is par excellence. Be it her Lord Ganesha, the misty staircases running
into a pond, the colorful blinds, the Gondhalis, Radha Krishna or Lord Shiva. I
would like to specially mention Lord Shiva in here. We have seen the Rudra
avatar. We have seen the Nataraj. But Asmita made me see the Lord in a
different light. The rage had transformed into calm. The flames of his temper
were aglow in the background. But the Lord was seated. Asmita presented him in
the most vibrant manner, we could have always unimagined about. Only a genius
thinker can do something so unthinkable.
I was yet to recover from what Asmita had done to my mind
when Maddie flashed. Is it her persona? Is it her restlessness? Is it her flair
for life? Is it her love for art? Something is always intense about this friend
of mine. When she is around, everything is animated. When she is conversing,
thoughts imbibe a kinetic energy. When she is quiet, her eyes are still in
rapid motion. I would like to call her a Royal Enfield with the soul of a
Harley Davidson. Speaking of her art, I will say it has not been a simple
journey of choices. A lot of observation has gone into the evolution of
Madhurie to today’s Maddie. Besides Buddha being the common thing in many of
her artworks, Maddie categorically looks at other forms too. All of us might
have come across ocean surfers. But we haven’t paid much attention to the wave
they cut through. Maddie noticed that and transferred the same on a canvas of
hers. The result made me blink twice, feel nice and think wise. So delighted I
was to also see some of her collections that revolve around her timeless
fascination with Warli art. As I said, Maddie is a phenomenon of sorts with a
robust attitude to keep creating. How do I wish, I could have been as good as
her? Or else I wouldn’t have jumped at a portrait she had created observing a Pinterest
post of mine. To be honest, her re-creation of the same is five times better
than the original; perfect to the core and precise from the fore.
After reeling through all the excitement that Kalanubhuti
had left me rich with, it was time to settle down. Rekha had displayed her
creations in a very concept driven way that had a calming effect on me. I had
been following these paintings of her from a long time. The locked doors, the
open windows, the partly hidden courtyards, the broken locks and the bricked
lanes; held on to their own. At Kalanubhuti she brought them altogether and
stapled them around calm display of Gautam Buddha’s face. Before I could speak,
she had explained to me in detail the flow of her art. My mind took a pause and
found a spiritual space to ease. That spiritual pace was once again Rekha’s
creation of Lord Ganesha. The Elephant God’s eye looked upon me and answered
many unsaid prayers of mine. Rekha signed off with a cult powered image of Lord
Shiva; indulged in his own oblivion of being a divine entity. Very much close
to the character sketching of Shiva done by Amish Tripathi in his Shiva
Triology - 1) The Immortals of Meluha,
2) The Secret of the Nagas and 3) The Oath of the Vayuputras. The pride with
which Rekha spoke about every creation of hers, made me rethink about the
stance I wish to take about pursuing my own personal passion.
Kalanubhuti made me reschedule my agenda of that evening of
November 22. Between 4 pm and 6.30 pm, I was lost in this lovely world of
artists; interacting with them, joking with them, writing for them, posing with
them. I stayed on till late. The seven folds of Kalanubhuti are these seven
women, who defied all odds to arrive at such an even point in their lives. I refuse
to believe that they don’t have their own share of problems and concerns to
tend to. But they definitely possess the determination to follow their heart.
Hoping to see more of them and a whole lot of their work, I
wish multiple sequels to an experience as enchanting as ‘Kalanubhuti’.
-vociferous
