When walls begin to speak

From luxury hotels to homes, Sachin Samson's murals weave Kerala's rituals and stories into India's interiors, blurring the line between architecture and art

- RONNIE KURIAKOSE

WALK into the lobby of Park Hyatt Hyderabad, and your eyes are instantly drawn upwards.

The ceiling blossoms into a painted cosmos: lotus petals unfurl in layers, birds wheel across the blue canopy, and surreal figures emerge among the foliage.

Elsewhere, in Kochi's Port Muziriz, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, the walls tell another tale. Fishermen in charcoal and gold leaf row across waters heavy with memory, their oars glinting as natural light shifts through the day.

These spaces are not merely decorated; they are transformed into narrative environments. At once lush and dreamlike, the mural blurs the line between interior design and storytelling. The hand behind these works belongs to Sachin Samson, a Kochi-born artist who has made murals the medium through which interiors breathe and speak.

"I have always been interested in drawing and painting," Sachin recalls. "Not formally at first. My father, Samson Davis (a Zoology professor), was also an artist. He wasn't a professional, but was part of Kerala Kalapeedam, an art circle founded in Kerala in 1980, where artists like Kaladharan and Bose Krishnamachari would regularly meet. I grew up surrounded by that. I remember sketching elephants I saw at the temple, actors from movies, and even people on the street. A tendency to recreate what I experienced."