Pritish Nandy is equally stimulated by the right and left sides of the brain, leading the life of a voyager, mogul and mediator with effortless ease. Poet, film producer, adventure sportsman, media chief, politician, this multifaceted personality’s endlessly spinning compass has never pointed to a lone occupation, instead propelling him to follow diverse pulls. Work of the intellect interchanges with artistic pursuits of the soul.

At 16 years of age in 1967, he published his first volume of poetry, Of Gods & Olives. Over the subsequent decade, Nandy went on to author 30 books of poetry and translation, winning a Padma Shri for his art. His journal Dialogue drew upon the surging poetic movement in 1970s Kolkata, revealing the inner turmoil of those artists sickened and inspired by the city’s wretched, intense, and stirring poverty. Nandy’s wrenching verses denote the hypocrisy of Kolkata:-

Calcutta if you must exile me wound my lips before I go
only words remain
and the gentle touch of your finger on my lips
Calcutta burn my eyes
before I go into the night
the headless corpse
in a Dhakuria bylane
the battered youth his brains blown out
and the silent vigil
that takes you to Pataldanga Lane
where they will gun you down
without vengeance or hate

Continuing to seek new avenues of expression, Nandy turned to journalism and film. Later he founded his own media company, Pritish Nandy Communications. In recent years, Nandy’s capricious revolving door has led him back to poetry. On December 1, 2007 his poetry-cum-painting exhibit will open at the Tao Art Gallery in Mumbai. In a mixed media show of ambition and sensitivity, the poet dissects his poems on canvas. Words splay across large canvases while the shade of the painting imbues the prose with immediate spassion only colour can convey. The visual and visceral nature of the exhibit naturally merges Nandy’s political ideals, emotional depths and aestheticism.

The paintings speak to the head and to the soul, broadcasting their meanings through image. Similar to renowned poet Bob Dylan’s revival of poetry by combining it with music, Nandy’s work hopes to break artificial barriers between poetry and painting, thus rediscovering its potency in the 21st century. In his quest for the ‘new’ Nandy has created an art form that might serve as the poetic emblem of this century. Now it will come to life on canvas.