I have a wonderful memory of having met Nargis Dutt, the actress way back in 1980, when I was a sub reporter in the Indian Express and she made that classic statement about Satyajit Ray — “Ray is afte
I have a wonderful memory of having met Nargis Dutt, the actress way back in 1980, when I was a sub reporter in the Indian Express and she made that classic statement about Satyajit Ray — “Ray is after all only a ray, not the sun” and stirred up the proverbial hornet’s nest! I was touched by the magic of her charming simplicity and candidness. Dressed in a powder peach silk saree she looked every inch an elegant film star.
Many years later I happened to meet Sunil Dutt when he was an MP and we were both attending a symposium and an official dinner afterwards at the Ashok Hotel in Delhi. His innate civility and unaffected manner endeared him to everyone who came into his aura and I was no exception. I had a rather serious conversation with him about the Partition and his Shimla sojourn. Incidentally my father too had gone to the Government College in Lahore and it turned out that they knew each other from both Lahore and Shimla. My father too is no more. But memories linger...
The reason for this nostalgic reverie is an invitation I got from the charming couple’s daughter Priya Dutt about a fund raiser she was doing for the Nargis Dutt Foundation on the completion of its 35 glorious years of service in the field of education and health of the necessitous. The fundraiser is in the form of an art exhibition Pigment — Colours with Purpose. All proceeds from this fundraiser would go towards supporting the foundation’s drive in rural development in India and in its cancer care programmes.
The day-long show will take place on June 11 at Hotel Taj Lands End, Bandra, Mumbai. The exhibition promises to be an interesting and eclectic mix of paintings, photographs and sculpture. Artists who are part of the show include Charan Sharma, Ajay De, Manisha Gawade, yours truly, sculptor Arzan Kambhatta, photographers Uddhav Thackeray, Nakul Vengsarkar, Sudharak Olwe, Iqbal Bakshi and India’s ace cinematographer Rajiv Mennon. Nikita Padora, a connoisseur of finely crafted silk rugs from the valley of Kashmir, will showcase her selection of some amazing craftsmanship.
In these 35 years, NDF has equipped over 100 rural hospitals with medical diagnostic equipments, helped thousands of children in education and is now holistically developing a rural village in education, health, women empowerment and to be self-sufficient in electricity and water.
Charan Sharma shows his propensity for Buddhist themes and monks in his paintings which possess eclectic elements like sentimentality, suspense, and magical effects, all in a languid and lyrical mood. Ajay De’s stunning charcoal on paper works are breathtaking. He edits the extraneous and goes into the core with complete command over his idiom and a very refined sensibility. His take is equally profound: “Life has left its impressions, and these are portrayed in my drawings. My colours emanate from nature.”
A similar genre where energetic but precise strokes capture the essence and energy and where colours meets black come from Pune-based artist M Narayan. His creative endeavour is a mix of mediums, charcoal and water colours. Nishant Dange’s dreamy works in charcoal on paper are odes to female beauty. Drawing a fine line between the sensuous and the sensual, Dange’s figures are graceful; yet executed with confident, bold lines.
I was almost surprised to see Prakash Bal Joshi’s works in hues of deep blue for there was some unspoken synergy with my own work in them. As a painter, Prakash is spontaneous and his work is the culmination of deep thought process posing basic fundamental questions regarding his own existence. He switches effortlessly from using a pen to write his inner thoughts and observations to a pencil or a brush to express much more complicated inner turmoil. While mine is a quest for light both within and without, my underwater series are very connected. In this show however, my works relate to spring where colours have a meaning and are always used in a certain context. In this case these colours denote spring which I feel is a state of being and hence eternal.
Underwater moves Ajit S.N. too, as he dives into the oceans trenches with a lens. He takes us into the deepest waters and captures some stunning marine scenes. His lens captures manta ray, one of the world’s biggest mammal, the whale, with seeming ease but it must have been fraught with grave dangers.
The Mumbai cityscape is Manisha Gawade’s latest work especially done for this show where she plays with the light of the golden dawn’s sky reflected in the sea and lighting up some monumental buildings of the Mumbai skyline. Her work form a part of some serious art collections worldwide. The royal family of Oman has several of her works as a part of their palace collection. Her work finds and echo in photographer Karl Kolah who takes the viewer through Mumbai, with a series of his raw images, which he stresses are untouched.
Brinda Millar’s work on the other hand lakes abstraction to even more sophisticated heights. The artist is perhaps trying to show us the healing nature ofcotton before it became an armour for the embattled body. With Brinda, we return to the basics of creativity: like Kabir, she tells us that we must learn to weave our robes with the threads of our own bodies.
Nayanaa Kanodia’s work is enveloped in innocence and her one dimensional child-like imagery is only seemingly simple but with important social undertones. Her works are permanently displayed at Musee International D’Naif Art in Paris. Impressed by the social messages being conveyed in her paintings, a consortium of schools in USA, is using her work as a medium of instruction for their students.
Photographer Saloni Dalal showcases parts of Rooh Yatri, that is a light, a force and everything else that isn’t the body or mind, but only the essence, the soul. “I travel with my mind,” and her pictures depict the same. A self taught photographer, Nakul Vengsarkar, has taken his photography to the next level in a very short time span. He plays with shadows and colour to great impact. Ashish Chopra India is a tapestry of colourful threads. Ashish manages to capture the country when it’s dipped (literally) in colour.
Priya Dutt, the gentle philanthropist needs no introduction, but few know about her artistic facet. She has worked on a few pieces with flora as her leit motif for this show to wonderful impact. Nikita Padora shares a deep proclivity for the fine arts and heritage of Kashmir and has been doing her bit to keep the arts alive for years. She has helped master artisans revive the old designs and textures and to showcase their work internationally.
There are fund raisers and there are fundraisers, some with a genuine desire to help others and many others with dubious intent. And fewer are actually handled professionally. Pigment — Colours with Purpose comes across as a warm and genuine professionally managed attempt to be the harbingers of change and empowerment. And their work over the last 35 years proves it. Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com
