Even before you have met him or seen his re-splendent (and highly priced) works—be they oncanvas, paper, metal or celluloid—you haveheard legends about his life, loves, antics, skir-mishes and triumphs. Reams of print havechronicled his stylish barefoot stance, his un-

abashed love for (and celebration of) the feminine form, hisdisappearing acts, his unforeseen arrivals, his quicksilverwit, his painting of horses and his paintings on horses. Toconfound or to confuse, or merely to suit the need of the mo-ment, he enjoys playing many roles—the artist, the buffoon,the patriarch, the fakir. When you do encounter the silver-maned superstar of Indian art, what strikes you most is hisindomitable spirit and indefatigable energy. As he steps intohis 91st year, Maqbool Fida Husain, easily the tallest icon ofour times, packs the panache of a Picasso and the drama ofa Dali in his trim, lithe frame.

On an overcast morning in Mumbai, I venture out to seekthe man behind the enigma. The day’s DNA has announcedthat the master is not entertaining the press or the public onhis birthday, just two days away. “Just a family dinner at avenue to be decided on the spur of the moment,” said the re-

port quoting his elder daughter Raeesa. However, bigger cel-ebrations are in store. Beginning with Singapore on October4, the grapevine informs, a host of exhibitions is beingplanned across the country slated for later in the year.Theatre director Nadira Babbar is said to be working on aplay to be culled from his absolutely riveting autobiographyM.F. Husain Ki Kahani, Apni Zubaani (The M.F. Husain story,in his own words). While at least one big Bollywood produceris believed to be interested in making a feature film based onit, Husain has his own plans too.

Husain is notorious for not keeping appointments. Thisson of a factory timekeeper has never been fettered by thehands of a clock. So I am apprehensive as I approach theKohinoor Empress, a tall pencil-shaped apartment buildingjust off Worli Naka where we are to meet. The lift depositsme on the second floor, facing a large canvas in the familiarsignature style on one wall of the narrow corridor. On theother, is a shoe rack with three or four pairs of sundryfootwear. This is just one of many homes spread around theglobe that the gypsy-at-heart painter might use as night shel-ter, if he happens to be in the mood or in the vicinity.Otherwise, it serves as home to his younger daughter Aqeela.

FLYINGHIGH AT 90

m.f. husain

EVEN AS HE CELEBRATES HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY, M.F. HUSAIN, THE TALLEST ICON OFOUR TIMES, SHOWS NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN. UNRAVELLING THE IRRESISTIBLEPERSONA OF THE BAREFOOT GENIUS WHO HAS NO PERMANENT ADDRESS.

cover story

SUPERSTAR OF INDIANART: Indomitable Husain

■ By S. Kalidas

BHASKAR PAUL

THE ARTS

M.F. Husain does not have any perma-nent address.

In his bedroom-cum-studio, Husainsahab is at his sprightly best. He is sur-rounded by his latest set of serigraphsinspired by Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal.Completely smitten by the film, he hasnot only dragged all relatives andfriends to see it but also wants to castthe lead actor Shreyas Talpade as theyoung Husain in an autobiographicalfilm to be made this year.

Ever the performer, as INDIA TODAY

photographer Bhaskar Paul asks himto pose for photographs, he opens hiswardrobe and exults, “Let me put on

something special for you. Look whatthey gave me for my birthday.” Hebrings out an exquisite Mughal chogha(gown), very finely embroidered withmotifs from his own paintings and averse from Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.The robe took six months to finish andis a present from his admirers inPakistan. His glee at receiving the giftis infectious and I read out the lines in-scribed on it: “Hai kahan tamanna kadoosara qadam yaarab. Hamne todasht-e-imkan ko naqsh-e-pa paya(Where does ambition cast its next step,

THE ARTScover story

oh God? I found a forest of desires in buta footprint).” When people complimenthim on his zest for life, he says, “Istarted out late in the voyage of desires,so I have conserved my energy.”

A fast and prodigious painter,Husain has reputedly painted over25,000 paintings in 70-odd years. “Yet,I feel that is not even 10 per cent of whatI have bubbling inside me,” he asserts.He paints compulsively and furiously,anywhere and everywhere. Art gal-leries, cinema houses, public platformsand friends’ homes—Husain haspainted in all of them and painted themall as well. One well-known Delhi jour-

nalist postponed vacating her rentedflat for years giving the plea that Husainhad painted her bedroom wall and theworth of that was greater than theprice of the apartment. The gratitude oflady friends apart, for Husain the act ofpainting is fulfilling in itself. “I am notafraid to confront my weaknesses inpublic. I do not need to isolate myself inan ivory tower to paint like somepainters do. I like to paint in front ofpeople. Like a musician, I can concen-trate in the midst of a crowd and alsocommunicate with them in theprocess,” he says. The boot of hisMercedes S350 always has some

roasted chanas (grams), canvas, paper,paint and brushes tucked away forsuch creative emergencies. “These caneasily fit into my jhola (cloth bag) tooand I could leave for New York withnothing else,” he assures me.

Husain is believed to have devel-oped this capacity to be able to concen-trate amid chaos during his long yearsof struggle when he painted cinemahoardings to eke out a precarious liv-ing. He tells you about the time whenhe painted 40 ft hoardings for fourannas a foot under the blazing sun onthe open footpath in front of BadarBagh, a chawl in central Mumbai

OCTOBER 3, 2005 ◆ INDIA TODAY 59

BIRTHDAY BOY: Husain cuts thecake with his family in Mumbai

58 INDIA TODAY ◆ OCTOBER 3, 2005

MOMENTSpreciousdateline

HUSAINHUMBLE BEGINNING: Is born on Sep-tember 17, 1915, at Pandharpur,Maharashtra. Studies art withN.S. Bendre at Indore. Marries Fazilain 1941. Initially earns money bypainting cinema hoardings.

SHOW TIME: F.N. Souza inducts himinto the Progressive Artists Group in1947. His painting Sunehra Sansaaris shown at the Bombay Art Societyexhibition. Holds his first one-manshow in 1950. It is a sell-out.

THE PINNACLE: Is awarded the Padma

Shri in1966. Makes his first filmThrough the Eyes of a Painter in1967. It wins the Golden Bear at theBerlin Film Festival.

CULT FIGURE: Becomes a major butoften controversial public figure. Isnominated to the Rajya Sabha in1987. Does not utter a word inParliament but publishes sketchesunder the title Sansad Upanishad.Receives the Padma Vibhushan.

MONEY AND MUSE: The 1990s werededicated to Madhuri Dixit and themaking of Gajagamini. Follows itwith Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities.Signs a Rs 100 crore deal withindustrialist G.S. Srivastava to sell125 works, including Our PlanetCalled Earth series, in 2004.

PEOPLE’SPAINTER: YoungHusain sketching

PEOPLE’SPAINTER: YoungHusain sketching

husain’s exuberant personality packs the panache of a Picasso and the drama of a Dali.

BHASKAR PAUL

The maestro decided to make his birthdaycelebrations a privatefamily affair

It was a classic role reversal. Instead of being indulged with expensivegifts on his 90th birthday, Maqbool Fida Husain decided to give hisfamily a gift they will always cherish—his undivided attention. “Since

he is a public figure, we have to go out and be with the public to spend timewith him. But this year, he decided to be a father figure and the entire familyspent 48 hours together,” says Husain’s daughter Raeesa. The artist’sbirthday eve was, thus, celebrated in a surprisingly quiet manner atMumbai’s exclusive restaurant The Zodiac Grill, at the Taj Mahal Palace &Tower. The entire family (22 of them; five great grandchildren included)flew in from all over the country. “The mood was very happy and jovial andwe were all so loud, as if we were at some Udipi. We probably chose thewrong restaurant,” jokes Raeesa. But no effort was spared to make theevening a special one. Peeping into the kitchen, one saw the chefs at work,readying plates of Husain’s favourite Camembert Soufflé and his order ofthe evening, lamb chops (he likes them medium done). Says Taj’s ExecutiveGrand Chef Hemant Oberoi: “Husain is fond of good food and is particularabout the flavours.” Individual attention ensured that the special eveninghad no skirmishes—mushrooms, something the family is not fond of, werekept out and no liquor was added to any of the dishes. The hotel prepareda special chocolate relish cake that was served on a dish shaped like apalette with a spoon in the shape of a brush. At the stroke of twelve, aspianist Austin Alphonso played “Happy Birthday”, Husain sportingly blewthe solitary magic candle. The actual birthday, which coincided with theauspicious Ganpati Visarjan, was spent at home in Worli with the fam-ily coming together for some professional portraits and a lavish home-cooked meal. “We cooked his favourite yakhni pulao, kebabs androtis,” says Husain’s younger daughter Aqeela. This is one memory thatwill definitely find its way into the Husain family album.

by Geetika Sasan Bhandari

where he lived for many years. Frompainting hoardings he progressed todesigning toys and painting children’sfurniture for Rs 300 a month. “How-ever, even at that time I knew that timeswould change and I would live by myart one day,” he says. “There was a timewhen I painted furniture by day and myown art by night. I painted non-stop.”

The times started to change slowlyaround the time of Independence.Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002),the enfant terrible of Sir JJ School ofArt, spotted Husain painting away one

day by chance and immediately in-cluded him in his Progressive ArtistsGroup (PAG). The PAG entered the artworld with the manifesto of aspiring tooverthrow the reign of the “second-hand European academic realists” a laRaja Ravi Varma on one hand and the“wishy-washy Indianism” of the BengalSchool on the other. The PAG held its firstgroup show in 1947 and Husain’s workwas noticed right from that first show.With encouragement from Rudi vonLeyden, the German Jewish émigréwho served as the art critic for The

Times of India, he held his first one-man show in 1950. With prices rangingfrom Rs 50 to Rs 300, the show sold out.He promptly resigned his job at the fur-niture factory. “I was a best seller rightfrom start,” Husain chuckles.

What set Husain apart from his PAG

contemporaries is his deeply rooted“Indianness” and his celebration of lifeand people. Whereas Souza andS.H. Raza were busily assimilatingEuropean art from Byzantium down-wards, Husain sought out his sources inthe temple sculptures (Mathura and

THE ARTScover storyh u s a i n s p e a k

Husain’s father worked as atimekeeper but dreamed ofbecoming a businessman.

“He would buy ‘How to Become aBusinessman’ books and make myuncle try his hand at one businessafter another. But invariably the ven-tures failed,” recalls Husain, and thenadds with a wry smile, “But his son didnot do badly.” Combining charismaand painterly talent, Husain learntearly how to find promoters and winbuyers. What is more, he created col-

lectors just as he created art. India’sfirst professional art gallerist KekooGandhy, of Mumbai’s ChemouldGallery, recalls in his memoirs:“At our first Husain exhibition,I looked out of the windowand saw my wife’s unclepassing by. I just pulledhim in and said weneeded a crowd. ButHusain sold so wellthat after that exhibi-tion, our sales shot up

from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 per year.”Husain is a firm proponent of the

gallery system even today when he nolonger needs promotion. Over thedecades he not only made establishedgalleries make good money, but alsohelped set up new galleries.

For example, when he tired ofChemould in 1968, he helped a watchseller by the name of Kali Pundole toopen the Pundole Gallery, whichunder Kali’s son Dadibhai, nowrepresents Sotheby’s in India. Overthe decades, Husain upped andupped the prices of his paintingsmuch to the mirth of gallery ownersand the chagrin of his contem-poraries who accused him of turningtoo commercial. It is another matterthat many of these artists wouldbank on Husain to find thembuyers when their works did not sell.And invariably, Husain magnani-mously obliged.

Going by today’s prices an aver-age Husain painting fetches anythingbetween Rs 75 lakh and Rs 2 crore.

“Multiply that by half the numberof oils he has painted—say

10,000—and you begin to getan idea of the wealth he

has created,” says ArunVadehra of theVadehra Gallery andrepresentative of auc-tion house Christie’s inIndia. by S. Kalidas

RUNAWAY SUCCESS: Husainpaints a horse at an exhibition

SHARAD SAXENA

The charismatic and savvyartist single-handedlycreated the market formodern art in India

BHASKAR PAUL

Husain’s art is Indian in form and content, yet global in its relevance and appeal.

brand

60 INDIA TODAY ◆ OCTOBER 3, 2005 OCTOBER 3, 2005 ◆ INDIA TODAY 61

“You live for a moment. Two hundred years from nowthere will be another Husain, so people of that timeshould watch his work and understand him. Why should people keep returning to me after 200 years? My paintings should end with my life.”

“In my art, I don’t want to take a stand. One keeps changing all the time.”

“HOW CAN I GOABSTRACT WITH500 MILLIONPEOPLE AROUND ME?”

“How my mother longed for a day to see me agrown-up man by putting me in my father’s

shoes. As I grew up I became barefoot.”

“IF I HAD BEEN IN EUROPE, IWOULD HAVE BEEN MOREGIMMICKY THAN SALVADOR DALI.”

“You cannot escape the logic of the market. Theworth of a painting is in the eye of the buyer.”

“I am essentiallyconcerned with the humanform and themysteries of life.My paintings are acelebration of life.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget my yesterdays.I know how it is to work so hard on ahoarding that is put up for only a couple ofweeks and then destroyed. Isn’t it funny?”

“I must find a bridge between western technique and theeastern concept. That is my goal. And, of course, to show

the values, the eternal values of humanity.”

Excerpted from Rashda Siddiqui’s In Conversation with Husain Paintings and interview given to INDIA TODAY.

Khajuraho), Pahari miniature paint-ings and Indian folk art. “Although Iowed my initial understanding ofEuropean art greatly to Souza, I also re-alised one did not have to paint or thinklike Europeans to be modern,” he says.Nor did he, at any time, understand theangst of existentialism. “Alienation as aconcept is alien to my nature,” he main-tains. In the mid-1950s Husain got na-tional recognition with two very specialcanvases Zameen and Between theSpider and the Lamp. Zameen, whichwon the first prize at the first NationalArt Exhibition in 1955, was inspired byBimal Roy’s film Do Bigha Zameen. Butinstead of bemoaning rural povertyand indebtedness, it presents a sym-bolic celebration of life in rural India

62 INDIA TODAY ◆ OCTOBER 3, 2005

THE ARTScover story

with a vibrancy never seen before.The next year he painted a more

enigmatic work and cryptically called itBetween the Spider and the Lamp. Thispicture features five women reminis-cent of ancient Indian sculpture with anoil lamp hanging from the top of canvasand some unintelligible words in ascript that looks like ancient Sanskrit orArdha Magadhi or some long forgottendialect. From the hand of one woman,painted as if frozen in a mudra (ritual-istic gesture), hangs a large spider byits thread. Some critics have alluded tothe women as pancha kanya (Ahalya,Kunti, Draupadi, Tara and Mandodari,who are hailed as virgins even thoughthey were married because of their in-nate purity) of Hindu mythology. Whenthis painting was first shown, despitethe ripples it created, no one came forth

to buy it for Rs 800. Husain decided hewould never part with it for any price.A living icon of Hindu-Muslim, ganga-jamni culture, Husain’s art is quintes-sentially Indian in form and content yetglobal in its relevance and appeal.

As modern Indian art gained wideracceptance through the ’60s and ’70sHusain was steadily scaling up hisprices and using the media to createhype around his colourful persona andhis escapades. “Life without a bit ofdrama is too drab,” he is wont to say.Detractors screamed hoarse andfriends frowned in exasperation.“When I hiked up my prices to over alakh rupees, one of my closest friendsTyeb Mehta said I was finished as apainter,” he shrugs, adding, “The fiscalworth of a painting is in the eyes of thebuyer.” And buyers came in droves to

Husain. From Badri Vishal Pitti, aHyderabad businessman for whom hepainted 150 paintings based on theRamayana at the behest of the latesocialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, toChester Herwitz, a handbag tycoonfrom Boston who bought up anythingthat Husain produced through the ’80s.The latest Husain collector in the list isthe Kolkata industrialist G.S. Srivas-tava who has reputedly struck a dealfor 125 Husain paintings for a whop-ping Rs 100 crore. Srivastava has doneso, not for the love of art, but on theadvice of an investment banker whoconvinced him that Indian art wasappreciating at a higher rate than moststocks. MF Husain the brand is nowgrowing into Husain Inc.

Despite all his celebrity and wealth,Husain is personally untouched byboth. “He can be as comfortable in awayside dhaba dipping his roti in a cupof tea as in a five-star hotel relishing anexpensive meal,” says veteran painterand close friend Ram Kumar.

No success story is ever smooth orwithout blemish. And Husain has had

OCTOBER 3, 2005 ◆ INDIA TODAY 63

PIECE DE RESISTANCE: Between theSpider and the Lamp 1956

WOMEN ARThusain’s

The eternal seeker of the feminine form in his works hastouched the lives of several women in one way or other

Husain’s mother Zainab was from Pandharpur, Maha-rashtra. Having lost her as a child, the nonagenarian pain-ter still seeks her in every feminine form. “As I do not recall

my mother’s visage most of my female figures have no face details,”says Husain. Women have, thus, been Husain’s eternal muse.

The second woman to make a deep impression on Husain wasMehmooda Bibi, a widow with a son and a daughter who lived inBadar Baag Sulemani building in central Mumbai. She used to see

Women have been Husain’s eternal muse as he seeks his mother in every feminine form.

Husain paint film hoardings under theblazing summer sun day after day andtook pity on him. She invited him to eatwith her family and slowly became asurrogate mother to a young Husain de-termined to become a painter. WhenHusain asked for her daughter Fazila’shand in marriage, she happily blessedthe couple.

Fazila Bibi was Husain’s wife. Motherof his six children. Anchor of his wan-dering soul. Simple homemaker. A greatcook. Salt of the earth. She was not con-cerned with Husain’s public life but sawto it that he never had to bother with theresponsibilities of running a household.

“My father could not have become what he is had it not been for our mother’ssupport,” says Shamshad, Husain’s painter son. Husain echos the sentiment inhis autobiography. She passed away in 1998.

Husain met Maria in 1953 when he went on his first trip out of India toCzechoslovakia. Maria was his interpreter and Husain promptly fell head overheels in love with her. He showered her with 50 paintings and shaved off hisbeard and hair to impress her. He decided to marry her and even persuadedFazila to agree to it. But Maria would not live in India nor be a second wife. Shenow lives in Melbourne with her husband. She appears as the lead character inHusain’s film Meenaxi—A Tale of Three Cities.

A Lucknowi by birth, Rashda Siddiqui has been Husain friend and confi-dante for over three decades now. A sensitive aesthete she has written the bookIn Conversation With Husain Paintings. She lives in Delhi with her family.

Husain attracts women like sugar attracts flies. In his long and eventful lifethere have been many women who were touched by his grace in one way orother. He is still open to propositions. by S. Kalidas

THE BETTER HALF: Fazila and Maqbool in Mumbai (above);Husain’s portrait of confidante Rashda Siddiqui (left)

EAST MEETS WEST: Maharaja Holkarwith Maharani East and Maharani West

IN MOTHER’S IMAGE: Mother Teresainspired many Husain paintings

64 INDIA TODAY ◆ OCTOBER 3, 2005

THE ARTScover story

more than his share of controversiesand brickbats. Many artists accuse himof commercialising art at worst andwasting his creative energies in stuntsand gimmicks at best. Then there wasthe instance of his depicting IndiraGandhi as Bharat Mata during theEmergency which made Husain looklike a political stooge. But his main an-tagonists have been from the VishwaHindu Parishad and the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh whovandalised his paintingsand threatened his life forhaving painted the goddessSaraswati in nude. Husainreportedly apologised forthe hurt caused and thecontroversy died its nat-ural death. Husain brushesthese criticisms off with ashrug of his broad andstraight shoulders. “Ihold nothing against mycritics. But I do not feel theneed to respond to them,”he says.

What few people know

is that Husain is generous to a fault withhis bounty. Apart from a number ofcharities and art scholarships that hecontributes to, there are any number ofinstances when he has either boughtthe works of needy artists or just giventhem money quietly.

The other remarkable facet ofHusain is his interest in young people,

especially younger artists. Sayssculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee: “Justlast month he chanced to meet me at agallery and asked me what I was up to.So I showed him my latest catalogueand for the next half an hour he forgoteveryone else and analysed my workwith deep empathy.”

For his 9th decade Husain isplanning a busy schedule—his fourthfilm (see box), exhibitions, travelling

and searching for a newmuse. “I meet them by thedroves at every crossroad,”he says. As I prepare towind up the interview herecites a poem he wrotefour decades ago:

“As I begin to paint,Hold the sky in your

handsAs the stretch of my

canvasIs unknown to me.”With a flick of his long

brush he waves me adieu.It has been a long day, andhe has promises to keep. ■

OCTOBER 3, 2005 ◆ INDIA TODAY 65

fida

BOLLYWOOD STYLE

SELF IN THE OTHER: The painterwants Talpade to play young Husain

Cinema has been M.F. Husain’sbiggest passion after paint-ing. Right from the time when

he saw his first silent movie as a childto the time he saw Hum Aapke HainKoun a record 65 times and then fol-lowed it up by making Gajagamini, acinematic ode to womanhood in theperson of Madhuri Dixit. During thetime he painted cinema hoardings forBollywood producers, he recalls that

the only silver lining was the shootinghe would get to watch to sketch thelead stars of the day. Today, afterhaving made his third film Meenaxi—A Tale of Three Cities, he calls cinemathe highest form of art: “Cinema haseverything—form, movement, spaceand time.”

But Husain’s entry as a directorwas by sheer chance. In 1967, theFilms Division (FD) decided to get ashort film made by a non-filmmaker,M.F. Husain. Despite the bureau-cracy, Husain went ahead with hisusual gusto. The result was Throughthe Eyes of a Painter, a black-and-white short film shot in Rajasthan.

According to veteran filmmakerMrinal Sen, after the film was com-pleted, it baffled everyone at the FD.Sen did not know Husain at that pointand was himself sceptical about it.“As chance would have it, I was inBombay the day the final print cameout. So I decided to see the film my-self,” recalls Sen. The film was adocumentary on how an artist goes toRajasthan to paint and the visual im-

pulses he records. Sen recalls comingout of the auditorium, his eyes moist,and saying, “After watching this filmI liked Rajasthan a lot more than I hadever did.” He set about writing a let-ter to the FD explaining why the filmwas so remarkable. As luck wouldhave it, the film was sent to Berlin thatyear, where it won the Golden Bear,the best short film award.

“I wouldn’t say it was a perfectfilm but it was certainly a work of art.There were times when Husain hadbeen pretentious, times when some

things were over the top. But everyframe of the film was like an artist’scanvas,” says Sen. He hadn’t evenmet Husain then.

Later that year, Sen received aninvitation from FD to celebrate thefilm’s winning the award and he metHusain for the first time. “We have re-mained friends since. Every time hemakes a film, he shows it to me. I haveliked them in bits and pieces. Some

frames have stuck in my mind. Butoverall, none of his films have beenable to reach the remarkable qualityof his first film,” says the filmmaker.

Well, Sen shall have one moreHusain film to watch soon. Never oneto give up a good thing easily, Husainis now planning to render his auto-biography in celluloid and wantsShreyas Talpade, the hero of NageshKukunoor’s Iqbal, to play the role ofyoung Husain.

by S. Kalidas with Swagata Sen in Kolkata

husain can concentrate in the mi dst of a crowd and also communicate with them.

HEMANT CHAWLA

Husain’s obsessionwith the celluloidcould see him turning his own life story into a movie soon