Prattusa Mallik
We were on a trip to visit a textile cluster at Nuapatna in Odisha, when we came across something we had never seen before — walls of houses covered with vibrant artworks, themed along weddings!
Intrigued, we asked our co–host and master–dyer Lakhindar about it. He said, "Whenver anyone gets married, the façades of their homes are painted like this just before the nuptials begin. Even after the celebrations are over, the wall art remains forever."
Apart from the conventional ‘groom weds bride’ typography, motifs in these murals are also seen recurring. While mythological figures still reign supreme, popular animated figures also feature frequently.
What pops out the most, however, is the choice of colours in these murals. Yellow, teal, green, pink — the rich colours make the walls look like covers of pulp fictions.
As we walked through the lengths of the village that afternoon, we couldn’t help but wonder — how art is still the bane of Odisha’s existence, and there’s so much of the state that we’re yet to uncover.