This is by far the best time to be in Delhi. The weather is just perfect, lots of interesting art events are timed for the season and the festivals cast their special glow over everything, making it almost magical.
I can live with the pre-Diwali traffic jams that will soon start as people rush around distributing gifts — as long as they are in my direction! All performing artistes are making a beeline for the city like homing pigeons in keeping with the city’s cultural capital status. The Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) is back.
What is easily the largest cultural event of the city in terms of sheer numbers — with its the multi venues, the number of artistes, the varied arts and the duration — has got off to a spectacular start.
Aptly titled “Shared Culture: The Sufi Lineage”, the show started on a high note with a scintillating performance by qawwals from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, and the whirling dervish from Turkey amidst the mystical ruins of the Purana Qila on a moonlit night. What a treat for the senses!
The brainchild of my dear friend Bharatanatyam dancer Prathibha Prahlad, the DIAF is in its sixth year. I recall Prathibha had burst this idea at a girlie lunch over six years ago and while we all agreed that Delhi should have its own festival a la Edinburgh and Avignon and other places across the world, she took the idea forward and actually made it happen. When I see her going through all the nail biting, I tell her she is mad to go through it, but I am still glad she is!
Just when one was beginning to forget that painting is also about aesthetics and beauty, arrives a series of works that reassure that there are artists who have their hearts in the right place. Imagery replete with shringar rasa or love as its sthai bhava or prime emotion are such a rarity in this age of the vibhatsa or revulsion that it is as beautiful as getting drenched by a spray of fine raindrops in romantic Mandu or watching the Vishnukamal blossom in the moonlight.
Like Indian spiritual thought from the Bhakti period, artist Biplab Biswas’ romance too is entwined with the beloved as much as the Divine. Krishna in myriad moods is a recurring figure in his present show Thank God for Love at Pearl Art Gallery. Krishna as the divine lover who woos Radha with as much passion as he captures the devotion of Meera with an attached detachment is amazing for its balance. The unopened lotus is a recurring motif as it awaits its turn quietly before being offered to Badri Narayan or Lord Vishnu. In one work Biplab’s blue Krishna and green Rama are imbued in a single form that is inseparable from the other — both metaphorically and physically. And the metaphors of pristine beauty, the lotus awaits as does the peacock.
Ostensibly voluptuous, sensual and of course gorgeous women are sprawled over Biplab’s canvases with the romance of the Bengal school firmly in place. The romantic in him sifts through a stack of kaleidoscopic images that are part of a thinking and deeply emotional being like piles of mindscapes. He allows the layers to unfold with patience to see the image that emerges. The comfort of the Indian philosophical mindset that believes in peaceful co-existence too finds place in his imagery. Peacocks, cows, bulls, doves, robins and pigeons are in complete harmony with both man and God as are varying birds balanced on the flute of the Lord as mesmerised by Krishna’s song as their own.
Three works of this series are as much a part of it and yet stand out for their very contemporary thought. The manifestation is still stylised nonetheless. In one work a woman sits surrounded by kites. Her exposed bosom blushes at its own nakedness as she looks at the kites — perhaps wanting to soar in the skies in complete freedom? One wonders what holds her down? Another work sees her riding the cows as she flees from three male chasers. Her saree and hair are askew, her necklace thread broken as she turns back to see if they are closing in on her. Yet another work has the rather sensuous, ghungroo wearing woman set amid paintbrushes, a rather prominent geometrical compass and unopened lotuses. Perhaps the compass is a metaphoric tool to draw the round world? Do the ghungroos hold her down? Or at another level do they liberate her? Like a good book, the rest is left to the imagination and interpretation of the viewer.
There is an open-endedness to Biplab’s narratives, where he doesn’t impose his viewpoint and perspective, but allows many levels to waft onto the canvas like waves of thoughts that are all part of an experiential interplay. The colours are vibrant and harmonious and the figures sinuous, supple and replete with an inherent elegance. Their grace makes you want to linger longer and walk a little further with them. And then some more…

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghu-vanshi@yahoo.com