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Placid Osama and Other Stories

In Gurupada Chitrakars version of the Titanic,Rose is a brown-skinned brunette in pearls instead of the heart of the ocean,and Jack is a heavily-built young man.

In Gurupada Chitrakars version of the Titanic,Rose is a brown-skinned brunette in pearls instead of the heart of the ocean,and Jack is a heavily-built young man. Chitrakars Osama Bin Laden painted on a scroll has a serene persona while his men are angry looking rakshasas who breathe fire. This alternate universe is a part of Chitrakars imagination,painted in Bengali Patachitra Chitrakar,who hails from a village called Naya in West Bengal,is a nomadic patua painter and has been painting since he was a child. Now he travels to remote villages in east India and recites stories with the help of his Patachitra paintings.

On Monday,the National award-winning artist was spotted sitting cross-legged on the floor,surrounded by dozens of paper scrolls at the Shri Ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra,in Delhi. Chitrakar speaks of his artwork in broken Hindi,I tell stories that impact the rural crowd, he says. In the Capital to be a part of an ongoing exhibition on Rabindranath Tagores children stories,Chitrakar unravels a scroll that displays the story of a young man,who moves into a big city and gets into drugs. Other works on display include paintings based on Tagores stories.

The artwork is on display at Art Heritage Gallery,Tansen Marg,New Delhi,till June 6. Contact: 23718833.

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