By Nitya Chakraborty
As I read the despondent news of the passing of Jogen Chowdhury, a towering figure of modern Indian art, on Sunday morning in the online edition of a Bengali daily, sitting in my Delhi flat, my memory went 62 years back when Jogen and I, along with a bunch of other close left-wing friends of Dhakuria in South Calcutta, had organised a big festival on William Shakespeare on the occasion of his 400th birth anniversary in 1964.
It was a politically turbulent year. The Communist Party of India (CPI) was split, with the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M). Our friends’ circle was split into three groups — those who remained with the CPI, the second group of those who joined the CPI(M), and the third group that preferred following the Chinese Maoist line, and was left to even the CPI(M). Later, this group joined the CPI(ML). Amidst the intense ideological slugfest, a few of us decided, in the interest of spreading some joy in an otherwise factious time, to organise a cultural programme, so that we could all work together irrespective of our intra-left political divergences.
Since Shakespeare’s 400th birth anniversary was coming up in April 1964, we decided to give it a try by holding a major exhibition on the evolution of world drama, as also staging of plays by some of the renowned Calcutta theatre groups. I had not met Jogen until then, though I was told by my close friend Shyamal Mukherjee about his talent as a promising artist, and that he was publishing a Bengali poetry journal called Nandimukh. About the writing part for the cultural programme, I had a talk with Samik Bandyopadhyay; but about drawing part, we had yet to decide the artist.
Shyamal took me to Jogen’s residence at Sahidnagar Colony, quite close to our place in Dhakuria. This was the settlement of the refugees from East Bengal who had arrived after Partition. Jogen’s family came from Faridpur, and around the same time, in 1950, my family arrived in Calcutta from Jamalpur in the then East Pakistan. Jogen came out of his house. Three of us sat at a nearby tea shop and discussed our festival programme. We requested Jogen if he could do the drawing and illustration part as per Samik Bandyopadhyay’s direction.
Jogen was highly excited. Our programme was scheduled for May 27-31, 1964. We were getting together only in the first week of April, hence, there was precious little time left for completing the exhibits. I took Jogen to Samikda’s house at Hindustan Road near Gariahat crossing and introduced them to each other. After that, for more than a month, Jogen worked on the illustrations and artworks on the basis of the synopsis of each period of world drama, written out by Samikda. Jogen was given a bunch of authoritative books on world theatre, as also relevant photographs by Samik Bandyopadhyay, who in 1964 itself, had a fabulous study room filled with books and journals all round.
Samik-da was pleasantly surprised at the manner in which Jogen was converting the synopsis into illustrations and poster banners at ease and even imparting them with new meaning. The result of the combination of two big talents of that time was fabulous, and the work continued for nearly three weeks. Finally, two different but related exhibitions emerged from the collaboration: the first was on the evolution of world drama, and the second on the journey of the Bengali theatre from its early days to the present (1964). In fact, when I saw the final product, I was really thrilled, as the festival was my idea (I was handling the backroom work, getting everyone together and networking) and the joint effort of Samik Bandyopadhyay and Jogen Chowdhury had produced an absolute artistic gem.
Once the exhibits for the festival were ready, other programmes, especially, the staging of Shakespearean dramas, were finalised. But, all of us had the gut feeling that our exhibition part would attract the most attention. Jogen was equally excited after the work was over. We were eagerly waiting for May 27, the inaugural day. We invited a lot of eminent literary people of that time, including the professors of Calcutta and Jadavpur Universities. Jogen also invited a lot of his artist friends.
Then came May 27 of the year 1964. From the morning, the decoration started at the hall of a famous school in Dhakuria. The two exhibitions were put in place by 1 PM. The programme was to be inaugurated at 6-30 PM. Jogen supervised the placement of exhibits and left. But by noon itself, news came of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s critical condition. Soon after, the death of PM Nehru was officially announced.
We, the organisers, were shell-shocked. Naturally, our festival had to be postponed and all the invitees had to be told. There were no mobile phones at that time. The old-style landline telephones also were not always in proper condition, and a personal connection for ordinary people was still a luxury. We got no time for grieving Nehru. All of us started contacting the guests and finally by 5 PM we managed to let everyone know. Our grief was two-fold. We were all standing in the hall with tears around 6 pm as so much labour was given to organise the exhibition and the festival. We were equally pained by the demise of our first Prime Minister, the beloved Nehru of the nation, the man of immense charm, political integrity, and worldwide fan-following.
Jogen was visibly upset and virtually crying. He was not sure whether we had the finances to reschedule the programme. The exhibits were taken home. Jogen took some, I also took some. But we were determined to hold the festival after the mourning period was over. The new dates were set on June 10-14, 1964. And we managed to pull it off. The festival was a tremendous success, and to a great extent, because of Jogen’s artworks and illustration at the exhibition. Jogen attended the festival on all five days and enjoyed massive appreciation from all and sundry. We were holding the programme on a shoestring budget. The entire work, Jogen did for free. We did not even pay him for transport.
Next year in 1965, Jogen left for France on a prestigious government scholarship. He came back as an Indian artist who could assimilate the best of western ideas with the Indian tradition. He believed in mass participation in art. During his days at Rashtrapati Bhavan as a curator, at one adda, he told me that he would like to go back to Kolkata and do something real to help the aspiring artistes belonging to the underprivileged sections of society. He was in favour of regular interaction between the artistes and the viewers.
Jogen was an institution builder. During his Delhi stay, he helped in setting up society for budding artistes. In Santiniketan, he set up the Santiniketan Society for Visual Arts and Design. At New Town, under his guidance, an art society for visual artists is functioning. On his own, he established Charubasana, the Jogen Chowdhury Centre of Arts. All these bodies are doing commendable work in taking art to the masses.
All the big shots of the artworld are writing about Jogen’s artistic prowess and the breakthrough made by him in Indian art. I do not understand much about all these arty intricacies. I cherish the image of Jogen in his struggling days when he was in tears along with me at the prospect of a shelved exhibition, like any other young Calcuttan of the 1960s. Adieu Jogen, you have lived your life well. (IPA Service)
