BHOPAL: An artist in the city has painted the agony of female victims of acid attack even before the release of Deepika Padukone film ‘Chhapaak,’ a story on acid attack survivor. The film is set to release on Friday.
Suchita A Manale, 34, has done a series work on acid attack survivors – the only artist in the country to have chosen this subject.
The series, titled ‘Abhimukh’, comprises 56 works in mix media, including itching, collagraphy, ink on paper and installation. The first show of her works, which took three years to complete, was held at Mumbai’s Jehangir Art Gallery in December last year.
Suchita has not only highlighted the stark and hideous side of this horrendous crime. Her works are also about hope and positivity – about how some women victims have got along with life, with a renewed vigour and enthusiasm. “They face torture every day. They want equality, not sympathy,” she told Free Press.
"I have met two acid attack survivors who fought back instead of turning themselves into living corpses. Laxmi Agarwal is successfully running an NGO at Lucknow and Rashmi Qureshi is a model in New Delhi", she said.
Suchita, who hails from Latur (Maharashtra), feels strongly about acid attacks. "No one has the right to disfigure a beautiful creation of god. Such persons deserve to be hanged", she said.
She, however, finds it heartening that unlike in the past the survivors of acid attack no longer feel guilty about it or try to hide the scars that the attacks leave on their faces. "Earlier, they used to wear earrings, cover their faces or even wore burquas to keep their disfigured faces hidden. Now, that is not so", she said.
She said the idea of painting acid victims took shape in her mind about six years back when she was recuperating from a leg injury. "I realised how it feels when a part of your body becomes dysfunctional". When she was bed-ridden, she happened to see a video on Laxmi Agarwal. And that inspired her to do the series work. Interestingly, ‘Chhapaak’ is also a biopic on Laxmi.
Suchita, however, has refrained from painting realistic portraits of the victims. “I heard their stories and then used my imagination to paint their faces," the artist said. Before embarking upon her work she did detailed documentation of acid attack cases, did case studies and met up with the victims at Bhopal, Pune, Delhi and Lucknow. Hearing their stories affected her so much that she slipped into depression. “It took me six months to come out of it. Besides meditation and writing, I also counselled women in rural Maharashtra as a therapy,” she said.
