Banking on Art

For actor Farooq Sheikh,coming to Lucknow is “always a delight” as he says he has a number of friends in the city. On Monday,one of them invited him to inaugurate an exhibition of her paintings at a rather unlikely venue—the premises of Punjab National Bank’s ‘GenNext’ branch situated on Ashok Mark in what once used to be the UPTRON building. The paintings in the four-day exhibition titled ‘Lucknow Ek Nazar’ are by Vandana Sehgal,a UP Technical University professor of architecture,who happens to be a valued customer of the bank. “It took me about a month to complete this series of paintings all inspired by the city,” said Sehgal.

“It is distressing to see that we are doing to Lucknow exactly what we have done to Hyderabad,Bangalore and Mumbai…where is that leisurely pace,that endearing style of presenting even a gilori of paan like it was a wedding gift,” said Sheikh,who acted in Umrao Jaan,the classic film shot and based on a story set in Awadh.

“But it is heartening to see an effort like this,a bank’s artistic overture to keep its patrons happy,” continued the actor,who recently completed shooting for ‘Listen,Amaya’,a film about “two middle-aged persons falling in love” in which he is paired with Deepti Naval,his co-star of the 1984 rom-com Chashme Buddoor. The latter is being remade by David Dhawan. “If I had to change anything in the original,it would be the way I lip-synced to the songs. I looked like a donkey,” he smiles. He has been here ealier to present Tumhari Amrita on stage and regrets the lack of interest for theater among citizens,unwilling to pay for a show. On the other hand,his show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai is caught in a war of rights between channels. “But I keep myself suitably busy,” he said.

Paintings of the artist are on display 12 to 8PM daily till February 11