Nostalgia on canvas

From James Bond’s charm, Amitabh Bachchan’s stardom to Madhubala’s grace, the ongoing exhibition Bond To Bachchan’ pays homage to the icons with pop-art

- PRIYAMVADA RANA

SOVIET filmmaker Dziga Vertov referred to film drama as “the opium of the people”. He believed that dramatic

fiction films distract people from reality. It rings true in a country like India, where larger-than-life characters are a window to live distant dreams and forget the hardships of life. Bringing the magic of the silver screen, the ongoing exhibition ‘Bond to Bachchan’ portrays the intersection of pop culture, art and cinema through 21 artworks by 15 renowned artists including Shri Kumar Adhikari, Shampa Sirkar Das, Vivek Nimbolkar and Puja Kshatriya, amongst others. Curated by Georgina Maddox, the exhibition runs parallel to India Art Fair (IAF) and a part of it will be on display at IAF. At the packed exhibit, Maddox tells TMS how the theme piques curiosity, “Art and cinema are actually intrinsic to each other but they tend to be compartmentalised as high art and pop culture. The notion of bringing these two extremities together was to revel in the interconnected nature of the two mediums and bring to the fore the contrasts and contradictions of popular culture.”

Film icons shine