KOLKATA: A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended her support to the
Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, it has come to light on Monday that Bengal's famed ancient scroll paintings 'potchitro' will be used in the election campaigning of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
The 15-foot-long scroll, made by patua artists of Naya village in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, highlights the achievements of the younger Yadav during his tenure as the Chief Minister. It was presented to Akhilesh Yadav by artist Mrinal Mondal on January 6. "I was asked to make a scroll depicting
the achievements of Akhilesh Yadav during five years of his rule, including upcoming Lucknow metro and schemes such as giving of bicyles and laptops to school children. Some Rs 1.70 lakh has been spent to make the potchitro," artist Manu Chitrakar told Express.
The patua artists tell the stories of potchitro through traditional songs as they slowly unfold the scrolls. Even those songs were translated from Bengali into Hindi. "The song for the campaigning was written by me and translated into Hindi by Shibashish Danda in Naya village," Manu Chitrakar added. Some of the
songs go like:"Uttar Pradesh ka mukhyamantri bana Akhilesh/ tajjub banke dekhe sabhi dekhe saara desh." Even Akhilesh Yadav's decision tax rebate to films shot in the northern state also found a space in the potchitro. "Chalachitra nirmataon suno sabhi dhyaan de kar/do karore take chhoot milenge shooting karna chahenge agar" goes another song.
Sources revealed that the artists from Naya village would tell the story of the scroll paintings through the
translated Hindi songs, video of which will be made and screened in various constituenies of the poll-bound state. The father-son spat has also featured in the potchitro, where Akhilesh has been compared with Mahabharata character Abhimanyu and the spat as 'chakravyuh'. "Rajya ke log bhaari maton se jitaye
Akhilesh ko agar/ chakravyuh tod ke aayenge desh ka naya rajkumar," goes the stanza.
The potchitro art of Naya village has also featured in the new international terminal of Mumbai airport. Naya is a unique village of painters engaged in the traditional handmade potchitro art using natural colours. Even though the residents are Muslims, the painters have passed on the tradition of painting and
singing events of Hindu mythology Mahabharata, Ramayana and Manasa Mangal through generations. Every resident has common surname of 'Chitrakar' or painter and every house and every wall of the 80-house village is hand-painted.