A museum for Indian graphic art

Swati Rai

From black & white film posters to kitschy match box covers from yore, LPs to Hindi fiction book covers… a lot is inviting tourists to this museum of graphic art at Te Aroha village in Dhanachuli, Uttarakhand.

Chitrashala is an example of how passion for art and beauty can go on to build a superlative collection of memorabilia and rare vintage graphics from India, starting from the turn of the nineteenth century. The museum is home to a unique collection of vintage graphic art, comprising of thousands of oleographs, lithographs and other forms of visual heritage, most of them from the personal collection of its founder Sumant Batra, a lawyer based out of Delhi and an alumnus of DAV College, Chandigarh.

The museum houses popular culture down from the black & white era to Eastman shades. The vast collection has calendar graphics, religious and mythological graphics, film posters, film booklets, etc. Call them kitschy if you want, but there is a slice of history even in the labels of fabrics and firecrackers and match box covers.

The museum has received an overwhelming response from the visitors of this remote town. Of immense entertainment and educational value, not just to a researcher but to every visitor alike, the stunning and curious graphics offer a fascinating glimpse into the vast history of Indian mainstream popular culture and its traditional novelties.

Avid collector Sumant also has a wide collection of old books, magazines and comics, LPs, audio cassettes, typewriters, radios, gramophones, telex and punching machines, lanterns and utensils. However, his heart lies in cinema memorabilia.

Sumant is a passionate believer in sustaining and supporting museums as they are the “most tangible links to our past”. “They are an inherent part of the culture of any country and the cities that host them take great pride in their museums. Museums promote a better understanding of our heritage. In most developed countries, a huge investment is made in museums and they are mostly world-class institutions. Unfortunately, in India, the role and contribution of museums in development of the country is not fully recognised. As a result, the museum culture in India has not developed at the necessary pace. That is why neither do we have good museums nor enough experts to curate them,” he laments.

For his own collection though the future appears bright as Chitrashala is soon going digital. It will be a virtual museum too so that people around the world can view and appreciate the content. “A part of the collection will be uploaded in very high resolution in collaboration with Google Cultural Institute,” shares Sumant.