Its very rare to be a witness in the creation of beautiful art, and I was lucky to be on the sidelines and watch as this happened.
So, I am in the company wide Jamboree that I had spoken about earlier (much much earlier, when this blog was created here), and one of the 200 attendees is Subodh Poddar, a film maker, creative director and also artist.
Subodh is a friendly soul and mixes and mingles with everyone and has a natural flair for getting along with pretty much everyone in the group. I have never met him before, and we just do some small talk. Subodh stands out in his Kurta and I think he also wore a ‘Jhola’ (satchel) around him those days. Most of the senior folk here had worked with him during their trainee stints, and there are quite a few stories about how Subodh would be able to manage any situation however tense the shoot and get things done.
Its a two day jamboree with only half a day dedicated to actual work, and the remaining part for sight seeing and general tours (yes, the good old days). Subodh and I happen to sit on the same desk, and I ask him if he’d come to Sri Lanka before, and he tells me he’s a frequent visitor here and loves the place. He’s shot many films here in the past for various advertising films.
He starts narrating one story about how he had to shoot an ad film where he was chatting with the artistes/ talents who landed up for the ad showing housewives. One of the talents complained she didnt like portraying the character of a Suhasini (also called Shawasini/ subhasini) which essentially means a married woman - a non-widow who can partake in religious rituals, and is therefore invited for functions. It is a practice and belief prevalent across the south asian region that inviting suhasinis to have a meal after you do some devotional function, and give them gifts will also help perpetuate your husband’s life. So this talent mentioned to Subodh that normally only the poorer or lower middle class women would join in for this function as they wanted gifts and a meal, and were seen to be ‘needy’.
Subodh decided to change the perception and spoke to the Director of photography to change the depiction and he says its one of the most successful films he’s made and proud of as after that there was a lot more respect for this ritual and those participating in it, and the brand managed to bring about its own gentle social revolution in its own way.
I don’t see Subodh much after that, and we have all broken into different groups each pursuing different tours and places/ activities. I am standing near the seminar hall that overlooks a vast lobby where some private event is taking place. And this happens to be a wedding in the local Srilankan custom and they have invited the drummers and performers of the wedding music - all of them in colorful gear that stands out.
As I am watching I can see Subodh down watching these performers from the sidelines and he opens his satchel and opens his large notebook with art paper and is furiously drawing. One of the performers looks at him and complies by standing and performing the music in a manner that Subodh can get a better view.
I move on, and the wedding takes place and I have forgotten about it.
The jamboree gets over and we have all bundled up at the airport for a midnight flight. Subodh and a few folks including me are among the first to get to our gates, while the others are still busy with their duty free shopping. And I start chatting up with Subodh who is carrying his art notebook with him carefully and ask him if I can see it.
Subodh is delighted and opens this gingerly telling me the paint is still drying up and he gently separates the different paintings, and it is a delight to watch - as he seems to bring the music performers back to life with a few strokes of his pencil and paint brushes - the sheer energy, rhythm, the passion and their involvement is visible. I am discussing this with subodh and he tells me he cant contain himself when inspiration strikes which is what happened when he saw the wedding. He simply had to sit down and draw this and do as fast as he could, and then he rushed back to his room opened his box of paints and brushes (which always travel with him) and painted them as fast as he could remember.
He then tells me he’s done this live during dances with both Indian and International dancers on stage and it is like a jugal-bandhi, and the videos are on youtube, which I chance upon.
But then since I was lucky to witness this in real life, its an unbeatable experience and something to savor and marvel at - and glad I had a chance to see a master perform his creative tasks from the spark of inspireation to putting this on paper and bring it to life.
its quite something and I hope everyone gets to watch this too and be inspired by that.
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