|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. F. Husain: Untitled THIS e-book combines the pleasure of reading with the ease of storytelling. Aided by animation, sound and music, you can read the book on your computer or television screen. But this is not all that M.F. Husian:Untitled, produced by Kamna Prasad’s Jiya Prakashan, does. It breaks new ground in art-animation and tells the story of an icon of our times whose work has been subject to much misinterpretation recently. It allows Husain to paint the picture of his life in words and animated sketches.
The e-book is a pictorial narrative of a 94-year-long creative journey of the painter Maqbool becoming the iconic artist M.F. Husain. There are conversations between Maqbool, the artist, and M.F. Husain, the icon, and sometimes a third person narrator who is watching them. An excerpt: "Oh my Maqbool, did you see M.F.? But I know your colours, with which you paint my statues so lovingly; you are a colourful guy who can dye anyone in your colours. And this M.F., he seems a foreigner. Looks like an agent of the East India Company. A marketing whiz. He has created four museums in his name, in four corners of India in just 40 years. But we both like one thing about him `85 foreigners simply looted India, but M.F.—whichever way he is `85 all his ways, all his mistakes are ours." Husain does not crave for completions. He lives in the moment. The chapters and the narrative in this e-book too have no well-defined beginnings or ends. Together they tell the story and paint amazing pictures that give the readers and viewers a peep into the artist’s inner scape. These are mind-maps, drawings and words, defining a stream of consciousness that is unique to Husain. The e-book is unique as it provides a rich audio-visual experience of a book, an autobiography. It seems to allow Husain to tell his story in the way he wants to tell it. It finds inspiration in epic traditions as well as in digital technology and the designing techniques of ‘manga’. It’s an avant-garde narrative of a man who refuses to be confined into categories, who straddles decades with the same ease as he straddles life. It’s the story of a man whose days and dreams are coloured by the textures and tones of India. And who, ironically, lives away from his motherland. Who has not forgotten the taste of the tea he used to drink as a young boy when his grandfather would take him to his friend’s house. Who still manages to dip some bread or roti in his tea and relish it at least once a day, wherever he may be. Yet, the story is told very objectively, like the modern art, just painting vivid pictures with intentional efficiency of detail, urging the reader to draw his own interpretations, his own conclusions. This is a must read/view book.
|
||
|
|
||
Through
this e-book, Husain has laid his heart bare and allowed people to see
him ‘through the eyes of a painter’. His art, language and style
are as deeply seated in India’s syncretic traditions as they are
truly global. His strokes reflect the boldness of modernity while his
themes draw inspiration from tradition. He thinks in frames—visually,
in images. This book animates his images. His language is telegraphic.
He converses with you yet the observation of life is keen.