Kolkata: It was an unusual day for the museumgoers as the portraits of hairy (Vladimir)Lenin, unbearded (Karl)Marx, bald (Antonio) Gramsci, smiling Che (Guevara) and goatee-less Ho Chi Min adorning the walls of the Indian Museum in Kolkata were things to be bemused of.
The museum houses an array of priceless antiques ranging from mummies to fossils from which a visitor can easily visualise the world and things 10,000 years back. The exhibits of the Textile Gallery are hoary but not worn out.
One might wonder how the museum became a party office of renowned Left leaders as they seldom match with the collections in other galleries. The portrait of Joseph Stalin is bereft of his signature brown back-brushed hair, strong cheek under a heavy moustache and sharp eyes. Though he looks quipping in the portrait with thin hair and white stubble. While Che is giving a toothless smile.
But these are not fictitious figures the only difference is that we are not familiar with these looks as the history books across the world carry strikingly different pictures of these personas.
Many visitors are finding it difficult to get to the bottom of the subject while some are expressing their displeasure thinking that history is being distorted. The baffled ones are hurriedly bringing the 'wrong' to the authority's notice for immediate correction. The authorities said there was no wrong therefore, the question of making it right doesn't come here.
"There is no wrong as the nameplates at the bottom of the portraits are correct. Why? Was there only one Lenin or Stalin in the world?" asked museum curator Sayantan Maitra.
Elaborating on the exhibition, Maira said, "These are works of renowned Keralite painter Vivek Vilasini. These portraits are of persons from his ancestral village with the namesake of the famous personalities. He enjoys painting these people and is famous to the world for this. We just want to see how people react to these."
The Left leaders are seeing this as 'interesting'. CPI(M) politburo member and state secretary Mohammed Salim said, "South India has this tradition. I have seen people there named children after Subhas, Vivekananda and Vidyasagar. It is followed in Kerala too. They want to keep their children's names after famous personalities. The exhibition is an example of this."
As Kerala is ruled by CPI(M) the leaders believe the tradition of naming children after popular Left leaders is still followed.
The museum is hosting an exhibition on traditional and modern art. "Themed 'Dialogues Across Time', the contemporary folk art exhibition is the collaboration of the Indian Museum and Kolkata's Basu Centre for Arts. It was inaugurated on January 11 by Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and will continue till the end of the month," Sayan Bhattacharya, deputy director, said.
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