Capturing movements on canvas

Devotional Works

Debalina Ghosh enthralled the audience with her soulful music, as Subodh Poddar created magic on canvas, with his wonderful depiction of each song.

The paintings depicted the mood of the song and were done in less then ten minutes and were a testimony of Subodh Poddar’s mastery over his craft.

Padabali’s are devotional pieces in Vaishnava style and describe the love story of Radha and Krishna. Tagore was deeply inspired by Padabali’s, which were written in Maithili language and composed by him from the age of 16 onwards.

The evening began with Sundari Radhe, a mellifluous song describing the beauty of Radha. It was written by poet Govindadasa and the music was composed by Rabindranath Tagore.

Debalina’s melodious voice perfectly suited the wonderful lyrics and it was a true delight to watch Poddar get to work  creating a masterpiece in minutes. It was followed by Bhora badar, Tagore’s monsoon melody that had a lasting impression on the audience.

Debalina emoted multiple emotions and her voice suited the songs which depicted longing and pain which Radha felt when she was not with Krishna.  The evening had eight Padabali’s, each of them supported by a painting.

The main highlight of the evening was the last Padabali maran re  where Radha wants to accept death and imagines death to be her beloved Krishna.  In the Padabali, Bhanushingher tries to convince Radha that Krishna is greater then death.

Supporting the Padabali was the beautiful painting by Subodh Poddar where fumes with Radha etched in them finally merge to form Krishna. The audiences were taken by
a surprise as they saw Krishna emerge from the painting and were highly appreciative of the piece.

Subodh Poddar, talking about the pieces, said, “This subject has been very dear to me. It
is such a mature poetry and thought. Radha is in all of us and each one of us wants to unite with the Supreme. In the pieces, I tried to get the anxiety she experiences, it was more like my hands were moving fast to reach Krishna, who I depicted in the end.”

When an audience member asked him, how was it that he was able to paint so fast, he said, “I am an artist from college and we had to give close to twenty sketches in a day. I would usually sit in a railway compartment and try to capture the activity around me. This soon developed and now I paint as people dance in front of me.”

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