Visual Art and Culture

Mondeger Cafe        Since my college days, as a fan of Mario Miranda, I have been following his cartoons till today. Introduced through The Illustrated Weekly of India to the Indian audience in 70s, Mario Miranda and R.K.Laxman both became familiar names within a short period. Both the cartoonists were totally different in their perception and approach to their respective works. Mario liked to capture the life of affluent and westernised people and unmask their reality beneath that show off, whereas Laxman liked to capture the feelings, aspirations and predicaments of a Mondegar Cafe common Indian man in different situations.   Both were equally good in sensitising the situation and bring out the best — both were equally famous.                                                           ...

On the way to Butan, we visited Kolkata for a couple of days in the month of Feb,2005. When we reached Culcutta, it was almost evening.   Our guest house was quite close to Howrah Bridge, and we could see the bridge through the room’s window in awe. From distance, it looked beautiful and majestic and with lot of commotion around it. For Kolkata, I have a strange fascination for multiple reasons. Since my school and college days, I have developed a taste for many Bengali writers — started with Sharatchhndra Chatterjee and moved to Nirad Chowdary — started with Rabindranath Tagore’s paintings and moved to Shantiniketan’s murals — from Bengali cotton sari to Bengal Dothi — from Rasgoola to fried fish in sesame oil in Bengal Club. After refreshing ourselves with tea and snacks at guest house, we set out to have a better and closer look at the life around. The towering look of the bridge across the Hoogli River was very romantic at the dusk, with sunrays adding golden touch to ...

                            The life of world famous artist Van Gogh has been a great source of inspiration to filmmakers and novelists.   As an artist I have read and reread the book based on his life Lust for Life many times. The more one reads this book, the more one becomes sentimental and emotional and gets attached to the character . His passion, dedication, love for nature, romance with colours and canvass ­— all interest and engross readers immensely with no end. From generations to generations, his life lived frenziedly has inspired many producers and directors to make films with multiple viewpoints. During his life time, he neither earned enough money to support himself and to lead a lavish life style, nor was he recognised for his outstanding brilliant works, which speak volumes till toady. A sudden tragic end to his life, at the age of 36, left his experimentation into the art field half-way...