Celebrating Amitabh Bachchan on canvas

A visual artist from Chennai, Parvathi Nayar has created her own tribute to B-Town’s own ‘angry young man’ in her painting Rasa (Nine Links). This work revolves around his movie Zanjeer, which catapulted Amitabh to public attention and made him an icon. This creation is on hand drawn graphite and mixed media on wood, emulating symbols and scenes from the movie, highlighting nine rasas or emotions. “The movie shows the hero at his flawed best, who sometimes needs the help of others to make him who he is. I picked elements that would represent emotions to recreate the narrative of the movie on canvas,” says Parvathi.

The eponymous ‘chain’ of the movie’s title is a direct reference to a particular object in the film — the origins of a young man’s recurring nightmare, whose roots can be traced back to intense childhood trauma, of watching his parents being murdered at a young age, she explains. The imagery in the art portrays actor Jaya Bachchan as love, a blue horse in terror, a flaming lamp and green leaves as elements of peace and calm, moments of drama as a boy peering from a cupboard, and of course Amitabh’s eyes to depict anger, Parvathi adds. I chose nine colours according to the shastras of the navratna combined with hand drawn graphics illustrating scenes from the movie like Amitabh’s body on the railway track,” she says.

Her special creation will be displayed as part of B- Seventy, an artistic celebration of actor Amitabh Bachchan’s 70th birthday celebration. The unique art show has been jointly conceptualised by Jaya and adman Piyush Pandey featuring 70 contemporary Indian artists, who have been asked to create works on, around or inspired by Bachchan. Among them are Akbar Padamsee, Anjolie Ela Menon,  Badri Narayan, Gieve Patel, Manu Parekh, Paresh Maity, Jayasri Burman, Arzan Khambatta, Satish Gupta, Sujata Bajaj, Praneet Soi and others.

Artist Satish Gujral whose painting of the actor is titled, A Man of Destiny, reveals about his fascination for the actor and says, “Watching Amitabh on screen has always made a deep impression on my mind. The impression has been one of a person who did not just play act the character but was able to sink into its pores. Having lost my own power of hearing, watching him play the character of a teacher of deaf, mute and blind girl was something I simply cannot forget (Black).”

About his painting of the actor titled Ek Raasta Hai Zindagi, artist Farhad Hussain adds, “This painting displays Amitabh Bachchan's various roles, acting activities and his looks over the years. All the figures manifest his glorious episodes —  as a great, matchless actor and a good human being. Depicting the magnanimity of his acting (and life) in one painting is impossible.”

The art work would be displayed in Nehru Centre, Mumbai at an exclusive exhibition and will also be a part of an exclusive coffee table book. “Each piece of art that you will see in this book, is a tribute to Mr Bachchan by some of the great artists of India. Every piece of art carries a little bit of their heart, unfurling another layer of the multi-layered personality of the star,” says Piyush.