|
New Delhi: He is a
highly acclaimed art director in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu movies,
decorated with a Padma Shri. But with more than 10,000 works to
his credit, painting remains Chennai-based Thota Tharrani's first
love.
It is a passion he picked up at age six when he first drew a
Buddha. By the age of 12, he had achieved the distinction of
contributing a number of drawings towards the Madras Art Club,
winning accolades.
"My painting is my life. That is my passion. There is nothing like
doing a drawing," Thota Tharrani, 61, told IANS as his first solo
exhibition of paintings opened in the capital this week.
From when he drew his first Buddha, Thota Tharrani has drawn an
envious more than 10,000 drawings and paintings. Of these, he
says, only 500 to 1,000 are left with him.
He has no clear idea what happened to the others although he
recalls, with a tinge of sorrow, that some were quietly retained
by the very galleries that hosted his shows.
He adds that many also got damaged over the years because he could
not store them properly.
There was another reason too.
His family home also hosted about 40 dogs, 20-30 fowls, 20 ducks,
10-15 cows and a monkey! Each had a name, all of them were his
mother's pets and they had the right to explore the house. Then
there were rats, constantly chased by cats, which always had
problems with the dogs. The animals and birds contributed to the
damage.
Thota Tharrani's water colours, oil paintings, acrylics and
serigraphs on display at the week-long exhibition here cover some
of his best works, images from Rajasthan, a state he fell in love
with in the early 1970s.
For a long time, life wasn't easy for Thota Tharrani, more so
since his parents did not approve of his passion for art. He would
be grateful when he got paper and colours used by others to work
on.
There were days he slogged, sleeping only while travelling in
buses. "For 40 years I suffered," he said.
Today too he is struggling but only "to find time for my first
love".
Thota Tharrani took to movies a long time ago with one aim: he
would get to travel and thus get exposed to new regions which he
could capture on canvas.
Thanks to his talent and hard work, he quickly made a mark in the
film industry, becoming a set designer and art director in more
than 100 films, primarily in the southern industry.
He thrice won the National Film Award for Best Art Direction: in
1989 ("Nayagan"), 1997 ("Indian") and 2007 ("Sivaji"). He won the
Padma Shri in 2001.
As his friends say, none of this went to his head. He has remained
down to earth, with no desire, by his own admission, to embrace
"name and fame".
He is among the few artists who have not restricted themselves to
any particular technique or medium. He has worked with paper
collages, wooden montages, printing and photography. He is also
into sculptures.
Movie offers keep pouring in. But his heart is elsewhere. "I love
my drawing and painting," he says.
(M.R. Narayan Swamy can be contacted at narayan.swamy@ians.in)
|
Comments
|
Quick links