It’s Raining Art

Delhi-based street artist Harsh Raman’s installation in Mumbai is a tribute to the monsoon and comes with a Bollywood twist.

The monsoons may have just begun in the city, but it’s already stirring creative juices. Delhi-based street artist Harsh Raman had been thinking of debuting in Mumbai with a mural for a while and when he saw the torrential rains on Monday, he couldn’t help but create an ode to it.

The artist has made an installation which takes inspiration from the iconic scene from Shree 420 that has Nargis and Raj Kapoor looking lovingly at each other. The piece has half a real umbrella nailed to a wall near Rizvi College, with a black-and-white paste-up of the two actors under it. Around this he has let fluorescent colours run down the wall. “I think in most cities, people hate the rain. Bombay has this romanticism associated with the season,” says Raman.

“The piece is meant to put a smile on people’s faces. I wanted to remind people that in this dog-eat-dog world, there are still some things, like the beautiful monsoons, that you don’t need money to enjoy.”