Then politician, now painter

Though not his first exhibition — he has already participated in several group shows and solo exhibits in London and New Delhi — Singh is as excited as a debutante. Though he started painting full-time after doctors advised chemotherapy for his drawn out ailment in 1994, his brush has never lost touch, come elections orillness. Even after a kidney failure in 1996, he has continued to alternate his passion with a day at the hospital for dialysis.

So, after four decades of not-so-savoury politics what has been the creative evolution’ of the last five years like? “Well, people now address me as painter, former prime minister’, and not the other way round,” said Singh in an exclusive interview to Express Newsline. “That says a lot, as I don’t have to fold my hands any longer. I hold a brush with them instead. That sounds more sensible.”

And when asked a hopelessly presaged and obligatory question about the inspiration, he retorted: “Do you know what will you dream of tonight?”

With his flights of fancy, Singh seems to have bid a final goodbye to politics. Though ordinary people shape a majority of his works, he denies making any political statement. “Otherwise I would be making posters. Instead I am like a poet and a painter who is contributing to a social change,” said Singh whose poems from his bookEk Tukda Dharti, Ek Tukda Aakash are being translated into an audio cassette.

Drawn to art right from his student days, Singh initially did realistic works. “I wanted to assay if I could paint in a classical style. Then I moved on to the abstract and the impressionistic with a hint of the realist in me.” Quite a few of these works were part of the show in London last year, and among M F Husain, an art professor and the curator of the gallery, all of them got chosen. These days his eyes seem to interview your persona — light playing hide and seek with your face, the glint in the eyes. And as the shutterbug focuses, he is equally interested in the lighting and the flasbulb. That’s because he is concentrating on faces. Not that he has stopped noticing details like an ugly wire marring Mumbai’s skyline.

Besides the faces, Singh’s favourite is Toad’s Dream’ where mushrooms are more prominent than the toad. “It is understood differently by everyone but appreciated only by women. That’s because theyprobably perceive better,” said Singh, adding that the only other painting he gave title to was an ant he drew on a huge sheet of paper and called it I Am’. One painting he doesn’t like much and has already promised someone is that of a shirt hanging on a chair. “An image was haunting me for years — a kurta on a chair, looking tuckered out. Instead, a shirt came out of that memory. And it looked silken. So the idea of it looking drowsy was lost,” he mused.

Having drawn guidance from Deenanath Parthy, Kundu, Paresh Maitry and Samir Mondal, Singh feels watching them paint has helped him. “It’s difficult to analyse the process but I have certainly gained confidence. But it’s like cooking. Recipes can’t teach you how to’,” he said, explaining that techniques tell you how images have been dealt with. “But you can’t go on technique forever. The basic art content has to be there. It is like an ornament, but if you are not in good health, the accessory will not look good on you,” he added, denying thathis art has borne the brunt of his failing health.