‘FILM’, SAID THE ARTIST M.F. HUSAIN to The Sunday Indian in 2010, a year before he died, ‘is the most powerful medium to articulate your ideas with force. It has actors, dialogues, songs, music and yes, colours.’ Right on. And, in his 1980s photographs of Chennai, he proves this assertion. Film, in these photographs, spills into the street to comment on the daily life – the foot-ballet, biking and breathing – that gives weight to necessary fantasies: song, action, desire.
Indian cinema hoarding - oversized, brightly coloured and hand-painted posters that advertise coming attractions – is a marvel of urban vernacular architecture and a critique of everyday life. Its beauty comes across in this Husain photograph, in which a billboard showcasing the Tamil film Guru (1980), starring Sridevi, grandly adorns…
