The craft of art

Manpriya Singh

Artistic doesn’t quite sum up the lives they have led. Interesting is more like it! With heaps of creative satisfaction thrown in! As Punjab Arts Council honours accomplished people from different walks of life, we steal a minute or two with each of them.

Nature love

Paramjit Singh

His frequent visits to Chandigarh suggest that there must be some connection with the city. In fact, when we got in touch with Amritsar-born and Delhi-based artist Paramjit Singh, he had just finished a walk amidst nature, which he has always loved to capture in his paintings and drawings. “But I don’t do spots. Be it Europe or Chandigarh or the nearby hills, I observe, find interesting bits in nature, let it sink in and then reproduce not just what I saw but what it conveyed,” shares the artist, renowned for his interpretation of landscapes. Having taught for nearly three decades in the Department of Fine Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, it’s a significant part of life spent creating and teaching art.

Cinema scope

Preeti Sapru

For anyone who has known Punjabi cinema much before the current crop of singers invaded it, they have known her. So when you come across Preeti Sapru, yesteryear actress, all you want to ask is…What has kept her away and what has kept her busy all this while? She laughs, “I had two daughters growing up whom I didn’t want to leave. But yes, now I plan to come back soon and there are many offers; right from Bollywood filmmakers from Shaad Ali, Karan Johar to Balaji…to Punjabi films.” On the anvil is a production house too.

While talking of all things Punjabi, films can’t be far behind! She notes, while admitting to having watched a couple of recent films, “Recently there is a trend of singers becoming actors. Among the younger lot, I think Jimmy Shergill is a fine actor,” she signs off.

True inspiration

Uma Gurbaksh Singh

The fact that she is the first female actress of Punjabi theatre is an intimidating introduction. How she got that role is yet another epic story! Back in 1938, very few Punjabi plays were being written and even fewer being staged. Playwright Gurbaksh Singh wished to get his play Raj Kumari Latika staged and was not willing to let the role of a girl be performed by a boy, so he immediately decided that his eldest daughter Uma would take up the role. The play was a great success. But this gave to people a point to talk about…that a girl had acted in a play.

Culturally rich and progressive background ensured that Uma Gurbaksh Singh engaged in literary, musical and theatrical activities, moving onto to write some short stories for children as well.

Verse wise

Surjit Patar

The city and this region is well-versed with his academic achievements. The fact that among his works of poetry are Hawa Vich Likhe Harf (Words written in the Air), Birkh Arz Kare (Thus Spake the Tree), Hanere Vich Sulagdi Varnmala (Words Smouldering in the Dark), Lafzaan Di Dargah (Shrine of Words), Patjhar Di Pazeb (Anklet of Autumn) and Surzameen (Music Land) is well-known.

But very few know that Surjit Patar, an alumnus of Punjabi University, Patiala — who has translated into Punjabi tragedies of Federico Garcia Lorca, the play Nag Mandala by Girish Karnad, and poems of Bertolt Brecht and Pablo Neruda — developed a deep love for poetry right in his childhood.

Great vision

Prof Kirpal Singh Kasel

Kirpal Singh Kasel lost his sight at 80. For anybody else, it would have been the end of everything. Not for Prof Kirpal Singh Kasel, the poet and the littérateur, who has won several awards. One of his recent books, spread over 1,125 pages, Atma Dee Kavita (Poetry of the soul), is translated poetry of Professor Puran Singh, the legendary Punjabi romantic and mystic poet. What replaced his sight were the insights that he captures through his prose and poetry.

Sculpting success

Avtarjeet Singh Dhanjal

England-based sculptor of Indian origin is in no mood for introductory questions like… how does it feel to be honoured? It obviously feels good. He laughs over the obvious and discounts it. But what does get him to talk is his work, his projects and the city that he visits almost annually, because, “Chandigarh was the starting point in my life.” The multi-media artist also minces no words while sharing his impressions of an exhibition he saw in the city lately. “It was a little disappointed because I feel the new generation is starved of ideas and inspiration. When I was a student, I used to go to libraries and spend my time there,” shares the artist, currently working on projects, busy with reading and forever in pursuit of new thoughts and ideas in sculpture. Is the younger generation listening?

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