For instance, I can’t interpret paintings. I only see broad strokes, splash of colors & respond to their overall appeal. Whenever I’ve visited museums/galleries/exhibitions, I've walked past most exhibits, stopping briefly to exclaim “Ahh! Oh! So nice!” But, even a visually & artistically challenged person like me, has felt a strange connection. I invariably find myself standing still before a set of work that’s immediately arresting both for its simplicity & its grandeur. And when I peer closer to read the name of the painter, it’d unfailingly, yes unfailingly, turn out to be Raja Ravi Varma. It’s incredible. There is something about his work that touches my heart. The portraits are so “alive” even after 100 years. I can’t move away from them. I stand & soak in the experience. I admire him, although I hardly understand the technicalities of color/stroke/canvass/ lighting.
Rahet Fateh Ali Khan’s voice has a similar effect on me. Why do his renditions make me yearn for more? Is it true that the test for a singer is if he can touch your soul? “Dil toh bachcha hai jee” is magical. So are S.D Burman’s compositions. They take me to another world. And I sway to Michael Jackson’s tunes every single time I listen to them. Why do certain poems make me cry? Why does listening to Akon always puts me in a happy space? Why do certain lines of a book stay on? I’m still not over Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte lived to write that one book & passed away soon after. Why does Jagjit Singh never fails to speak to my sad, weary, world-beaten soul? (I don’t listen to him when I’m happy!) Why is Shakespeare relevant even today?
Mesmerizing are the movies of Puttanna Kanagal. I can watch Ranganayaki, Edakallu Guddada Mele, & Manasa Sarovara without blinking my eyes. He dealt with the concept of the “fallen lady” almost 3 decades ago & showed the sexual frustration of a wife whose military husband is physically handicapped. Or the romance of a son with his biological mother! He was ahead of his times & it was truly the golden era of Kannada movies. These subjects were handled delicately, gracefully & intelligently. The other director who made an equally outstanding contribution to film-making is K. Balachander. I adore him.It is said humans crave for kids because that is our only claim to immortality. It is a feeble attempt to beat death & to live on through them. I don’t think it works. It works only 1 or maximum 2 generations before or ahead of us. But artists, well, they live forever; only their bodies die, their soul lives on through the work they leave behind. It is hardly a death if a person continues to live amongst us, through his music, his voice, his captures or the written word. They don’t need progeny to transcend their existence. Does that explain their sometimes eccentric choices & aversion to set social standards? Their lives are fluid, unpredictable & beating to their own tunes. (I do know it can also be filled with great strife, pain & isolation). We mortals conform, obey, adhere because social acceptance is an intrinsic part of who we are, it defines us, it is our identity. Creative people have a purpose & meaning in life higher & beyond our understanding of the material world. Mera kya? Kamaana, khana, peena, udana, kat gayi zindagi yuhi dopal mein!
I humbly bow to all these geniuses.
I feel artists – sculptors, painters, musicians, dancers & directors – are the special children of God created with more love & passion than that He reserves for making lesser mortals like me. And in my next life, I want to be an artist. Because I want to LIVE ON.
