MAHENDRA MISTRY; A Painter-cum-Photographer

Tushar Bhatt

On the Ganesh Chaturthi Day, it is customary to spare some time in the day to go for Ganpati Bapa’s Darshan. Next time in Ah-medabad look around for the paintings-cum-photographs of the God with the elephant head ,created by Mahendra Mistry.The vi-brant canvases,featuring both oil paintings and water colours, will especially be thrilling.
The 43-year-old Mahendra, whose stern face made to look even sterner by thick moustaches, is an artist of sensitivity in several art forms, ranging from wood carving to photography. And, sometimes, when not content with the restrictions of frame, he indulges into writing short stories too.But, his fascination and devotion to Ga-nesh is not a passing fad."I had put up a one-man show some five years ago of line drawings of Ganesh.I have been meticulously photographing rare idols of my favourite God. The elephant-headed god's bulky shape, his intellect, his rhythm, his throbbing personality are all reflected in ample measure in our mythological literature. What I am presenting in this show is in a way continuum of this age-old Indian fascination."
He had some years ago put up an exhibition featuring 32 photo-graphs in 12 inches x 10 inches size, eight oil paintings and 14 wa-ter colours. One of the most attractive pieces to many would be one with Ved Vyas dictating Mahabharat to Ganesh.The tubby form of Ganesh is in striking contrast with the tall,lean figure of the Rishi,with a flowing beard and a huge jata on the head,all in fault-less grey.
Another equally enchanting one is that of Ganesh doing a pradakshina of his parents,Shiv and Parvati. In the distance is shown his brother, Kartikeya,flying away on a peacock to make seven rounds of the planet.Both brothers had a competition on who can do rounds of the planet faster. The intelligent Ganesh, whose vehicle is a mouse and whose bulk would preclude him from hav-ing any chance of winning against the air-borne Kartikeya, rea-soned that the parents embodied the entire world. He went round them seven times to clinch the victory. Mahenera shows Ganesh taking purposeful long strides as his parent watch, succeeding in conveying the rapid speed and a sense of eventual vic-tory,underlined by what appears like a current of air whirling round the parents as a result of their fat son's walk around.
The photographs, colour prints done from slides, too emphasise abstract colours and try to create an artistic symbolism.The artist in Mahendra appears to have a statement to make in both the paint-ings and photographs,making the effort visually enjoyable.

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