Travels in a lotus pond

A new documentary on A Ramachandran offers rare insights into his journey and evolution as an artist.

In one of the segments of his biographical documentary film, artist A Ramachandran calls himself a happy old man who no longer relates to his own paintings of the 1960s and 70s.

At this juncture one realises how effectively Lotus Pond: The World of Ramachandran has summarised, and not merely condensed, the artist's important years into just 55 minutes.

K Bikram Singh, a renowned filmmaker (who even has a documentary on Satyajit Ray to his credit), took one-and-a-half years to complete this film with the assistance of Sudhesh Unniraman.

But why a documentary on an artist who lives in, as Ramachandran puts it, "my little paradise"? Singh says, "I met Ramachandran in the mid-eighties, an era when artists were human, and not the temperamental demi-gods that they are today."

What made it easier was that Ramachandran didn't claim to be "a born artist". "That," adds Singh, "made it easier for me to connect with him."

What helped were the director's own thoughts that merged well with those of the artist. In the documentary, Ramachandran reflects on how critics have often called him a modernist and not a revolutionist, forgetting conveniently that a "modernist is also born out of understanding of his own deep culture".

Singh, in the course of our interview, affirms, "Anything modern comes from a reference point of something traditional. While the West can refer to the Industrial Revolution for their understanding of arts, in the Indian context we cannot relate to that simply because we haven't experienced any Industrial Revolution. Our point of reference will come from our own traditions."

The documentary, made under Singh's Cine Arts India banner, travels not just to Santiniketan where Ramachandran studied art, but also to his village in Kerala where, as we get to know, he didn't walk "but hung about like a monkey and followed his mother" as they visited the Krishnaswamy temple in his village, Attingal. It was here, as a child, that Ramachandran stared in fascination at the 16th century murals that covered the outer walls of the temple.

Later, in Santiniketan, he would study the art of murals, and as R Siva Kumar, professor, art history, Santiniketan, mentions in the documentary, "...assimilate things from larger traditions and use them for modern art".

Lotus Pond: The World of Ramachandran is a telling account of the artist's transition and his work over the years. While in his initial days, after a sheltered childhood, Ramachandran was exposed to the "misery of life, devastation, sheer nakedness of cruelty and social injustices", leading him to execute works like "Descent from the Cross" (etching), "Anatomy Lessons" and "Audience"; in 1974, after the first nuclear test in Pokhran, he worked on his "Nuclear Ragini" series that gradually translated into the "Nayika" series. Ramachandran's art of the sixties and early seventies was fuelled by the world he saw then "" full of hatred and madness.

Ramachandran's second love affair (his first was with his artist wife, Chameli) with Rajasthan took him in the midst of Bhil tribes and later to Nagda, a place in Udaipur, where he got the inspiration for his "Lotus Pond" works and the beautiful tribal women.

His works then included the apsara Urvashi and the lotus pond eventually became her habitat. And why did he paint himself all the time?

The documentary reveals Ramachandran's thoughts: "Artists first develop ego and then the talent." The artist wanted to be in the vast panorama of his own paintings and even though his mane continued to grow in the paintings, he was always a miniature, a counterpoint to the beauty of the women depicted in his paintings.

"When I got a chance to see the film, I was sure of marketing it," says Rishi Chauhan, whose Dreamscapes Viewfinder has brought out 1,300 limited-edition copies of Lotus Pond: The World of Ramachandran in DVD format.

Priced at Rs 900, the DVDs are available at select book stores like Bahri Sons, Oxford Book Store and Teksons in Delhi. "We will launch these in Mumbai too," he says. While Dhoomimal Art Gallery has also kept DVDs of the documentary, Chauhan reveals, "Ninety per cent of the art galleries scoffed and refused to keep the DVDs. Most thought there was no need to make and sell them."

While Singh, who has made 41 films on Indian art and artists, is ready with his next offering, a book on M F Husain, he feels Indian art is passing through dangerous times.

"Artists," he feels, "have converted themselves into brands and this has had a cascading effect on younger artists. Genuine interest in art needs to step up, especially as it has moved from public spaces to private art galleries."

The creative vocabulary of Singh and Ramachandran has, over the years, merged into a beautiful language. And it is this language that has, through the documentary, reached the masses at large. A fabulous offering, it's a must for those who know Ramachandran's art, and for those who want to know Ramachandran's art.