Brush with destiny

In his first solo show of paintings, Simran Lamba plays with media

A work by Simran Lamba.

Media hype helps. Before you have seen the young Simran Lamba's debut and solo exhibition of paintings called “Genesis”, to be held from July 29 for four days at Visual Arts Gallery, you will see his interviews everywhere. But then, the 27-year-old assures it will be a visual treat for lovers of visual art. The reason is his “experiment with medium”, which has lent a three-dimensional quality to most of his works.

The works vary from figurative to abstract to symbolic and landscapes. And his canvases are treated with coal tar, molten led, wire, sand, glass, nuts, parts of generators and metal sheets. “I have created a unique texture in each one,” says the artist who has been sketching since his school days.

What could be interesting to see is his own interpretation of Nataraj and Kali. His Nataraj in molten coal tar is a modern dancing woman donning colourful attire. While she dances, her movements multiply and she seems like a butterfly. The Nataraj figure, hence, assumes a female form.

His ‘Kali' is a sketch with accentuated lines on which molten coal tar is pasted. Her black hair comes out of the canvas and makes it a 3D work. His ‘Butterfly', similarly, is made of wire mesh that pops put of the canvas, giving it a life-like feel. ‘Funeral' is a black-and-white mix of coal tar, which on close scrutiny will reveal that it's the entire funeral process on the go.

Some purists often criticise painters who insist on moving to abstract skipping figures and forms. Simran disagrees. “It's the result that matters and not the process. Unless you think different, you can't have your own voice,” he asserts.

Simran has been heavily into creative writing, filmmaking and theatre. If in class V his painting ‘My Friend' was selected at a UNESCO children painting competition, his film

My Nicotine was screened at Cape Town World Film Festival in 2005, while another film

WB-04c 5542 was nominated at the Tiscoli Film Festival in Italy the following year. This associate creative director of tele-serials like

Dil Mil Gaye and

Pyar Vyar and All That says his experience of managing everything from content to management, shoots and post-production has taught him to dabble with various mediums in one go.

A versatile pen

Simran is currently working on two feature films, titled Haba and Kayalkalp . That the story has been penned by Simran himself shows yet another creative streak. While Haba is about a 10-year-old boy who wants to exchange his destiny with someone, Kayakalp is about the deconstruction of a family through the age reversal of its protagonist.

For both films, Simran is waiting for a “sugar daddy to sponsor” them.

Simran, son of Kolkata-based veteran fashion designer Mona Lamba of label Monapali, is also assisting new director Anand Sivakumaran on his feature film Chikotee “on teen romance” to be shot in Delhi soon.