Chitra Se Nritya Tak: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CHITRA SE NRITYA TAK

"The electrical bioforce of a Kathak dancer reflects itself through different
hastaks and mudras during the performance, which awaken the 'Bhava Samvedana'
of viewers up to the metaphysical level of paintings based on color therapy, and
chosen from the five basic elements..." Still there? That's Chitra Se Nritya Tak
for you.

This dramatically titled exhibition - literally meaning from picture to dance - is a huge series of pictures / pieces based on dancing images. And all that this 'dancer-painter' duo that has conceptualized this attempts to do is to glorify the work with elaborate and complex explanations, while the visual not only fails to support the 'concepts', but also leaves the viewer in a pent-up state of disillusionment.

The exhibition has a lineup of amateur works of colour drawings and water paintings. For the artist Paresh Dutt Tewari, these are 'remedial paintings based on the spiritual elements of dance'. Well, all we can say is that Paresh is basically a dabbler who took to drawing only four years ago, and with excessive enthusiasm and in a rather absurd manner 'conceptualizes' his 'newly' found relation between art and dance.

Swati Modi (the painter's wife) is yet another amateur dancer who inspired Paresh to churn out pictures of the 'spirit of dance'. And so, on the walls is a series of titles of technical and thematic monograms of dance supporting the pictures, such as "Paran" (a hasty drawing of a Kathak dancer), "Panch Tatva Nritya" (yet another blurred picture of a group of five dancers) and Onkar Swarup" (a yellow image of OM). Poorly framed / mounted, these bungled drawings and color spreads are further supported by this dancer's demonstrations in the evening, comprising of bits and pieces of Kathak.

To top it all, the artists, in their invitation, say that "the viewers are supposed to watch them at a glance twice or thrice a day to control the basic instincts, develop purity, create positive state..." A confused lot, no?