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He paints and sings just for his god

BHUBANESWAR: On Tuesday when the mega art exhibition, showcasing works of several stalwarts of the State, was being inaugurated at the Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra here, all the roads did not lead to appreciate the city’s artists’ fraternity and connoisseurs. Some chose to head for the Orissa Modern Art Gallery where the solo show of a seven-year-old kid kicked off.

What makes this Class 1 student Pratyush so special that attracted eminent artists like Pranab Patnaik, Prafulla Kar, Debu Bose and Baladev Maharatha to skip the mega art event just to be with the kid who had invited them all. He is a wonder-kid who paints and sings wonderfully, however, only for Lord Jagannath.

The 41 paintings that adorn the walls of the gallery tell the tale of this child’s love for the Lord.

His paintings include scenes from the ‘dasavarata’ (the ten incarnations), the ‘rath yatra’ (car festival), the popular Dasia Bauri and Manika Gauduni episodes, the temple of Jagannath and many more - but each one related to Lord Jagannath. And what fascinates the visitor to his show is the flawless narration of the myths on Jagannath that his paintings portray so poignantly.

“Before he could learn to speak, he would often gaze at the photographs of Lord Jagannath hanging on the wall and love to draw circles replicating the eyes of the Lord when I would be painting at my leisure”, recollected his mother Sucharita Kar, an amateur artist.

And over the years, he would always insist on telling him stories from the mythology, she revealed. Two year ago, he had been to an exclusive exhibition of paintings on Jagannath with his art teacher and painter Pradosh Swain following which he started sketching stories on the Lord, she added.

Pratyush has not only won awards and accolades for his paintings at the State-level competitions; he has also bagged a number of prizes in State-level singing competitions that made him dearer to the musicians.

Adept in recitation of Sanskrit ’slokas’, he prefers to sing songs on Jagannath when he is asked to sing his most favourite song.

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