4 min readJan 25, 2026 10:28 PM IST
First published on: Jan 25, 2026 at 09:35 PM IST
Written by Swasti Jain
Walk into the exhibition and you encounter Rangila Maro Dholna, painted in Gujarati and French, translated as “my colourful lover”. Sanskrit mantras about happiness hide in French quotes asking: where exactly does joy live? Bengali poetry pays homage to Tagore and Victor Hugo, marrying two poets across continents through translation and art. Gurmukhi letterforms echo Le Corbusier’s architectural vision while embedding Punjabi values of equality.
These visions can be seen in Scripted Dialogues—A Calligraphic Conversation, a part of Alliance Française, India’s cultural initiative, at The Ravi Paranjape Studio in Pune through January 27. The exhibition is meticulously curated by Padmaja Srivastava from Alliance Française, Bhopal.
The inauguration ceremony on January 24th saw the presence of Amélie Weigel, Alliance Française, Pune’s Director, calligrapher Sanjeev Joshi, and several enthusiasts of calligraphy and French.
Two lineages, centuries apart
Indian calligraphy spread when traders, monks, and missionaries dispersed the Indic script across Central Asia and Southeast Asia. One of the earliest scripts that evolved from the Indus Valley writing was the Brahmi script. It became the foundation for nearly every major script on the subcontinent, like Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil, and others. France’s calligraphic history is rooted in the Latin alphabet rather than indigenous scripts. Beginning in the medieval period, French calligraphy was almost exclusively the domain of monasteries.
As Europe emerged from the medieval period, French calligraphy evolved. The Gothic script and eventually the Ronde, remained in official use until the 20th century. It was always a script of power and institution, refined and standardised.
At this Pune exhibition, these two lineages speak to each other. The exhibition spans eight artists and 23 calligraphies, each engaging with seven scripts and eight languages. They blend Indic and French influences, exploring cultural narratives, poetic fragments, philosophy, history, architecture, and design through different schools of Indian calligraphy.
Devanagari, the script most closely associated with Sanskrit, Hindi, and Marathi, becomes the playground for artists like Sudeep Gandhi, Nikheel Aphale, and Achyut Palav. Palav, a Padma Shri recipient, has become synonymous with a modernized Devanagari practice that honours tradition while breaking its rules. Suresh Waghmore’s practice with Kannada represents a more contemporary shade. Historically used across the Deccan plateau, his work employs experimental approaches through freestyle and traditional variants that feel simultaneously ancient and urgent.
Combining Hindi and Urdu scripts, Qamar Dagar represents a particularly nuanced school shaped by the Mughal influence on Indian writing. The tradition descends from Persian and Arabic calligraphic practices.
Similarly, Gurumukhi (the script of Punjabi and Sikh), Tamil, and Bengali calligraphies bring additional regional perspectives through artists like Tarun Girdhir, Rupak Neogy, and Sanjeev Kumar. On the backdrop of Republic Day, these works show that India’s greatest strength lies in allowing the cultures to converse, collide, and create anew.
When Sanjeev Joshi, an architect by profession and a serious hobbyist of calligraphy, speaks about his work, he insists, “These are paintings first.” “They’re deliberately abstract, even illegible. But that’s the point. They ask you to experience, not just read.” Calligraphy, Joshi argues, has been wrongly classified as commercial art for too long.
“It’s a fine art, and to a fair extent, a performing art too,” he says, implying that the act of creation is itself the experience. Joshi also conducted a calligraphy workshop at the exhibition, where participants were taught the basics of Devanagari and Roman scripts.
‘Scripted Dialogues—A Calligraphic Conversation’ in Pune brings Indian and French calligraphic traditions into a shared artistic space through 23 works by eight artists. (Express Photo) 
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