KOCHI: Lord Krishna, one of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, revealing his ‘Vishwaroopam’ to Arjuna at the beginning of Kurukshetra war is one of the most iconic and astonishing episodes of the epic Mahabharata. One visiting the Arts and Crafts Village at Vellar in Thiruvananthapuram can get a glimpse of the scene from Indian mythology in the form of a 10.5-ft tall wooden sculpture ,also named ‘Vishwaroopam’ ,being made by a nine-member team led by sculptor R Nagappan. What makes this rendition special for Nagappan is that it is being made for actor Mohanlal.
Nagappan, who has been making sculptures using ivory, sandalwood, teak and rosewood for over 40 years, claims that this Vishwaroopam would be one of the tallest and unique wooden artefacts. The sculpture is being made from whitewood with around 80 per cent of the work completed. The imposing structure has 11 heads, 22 hands holding various weapons and around 400 carvings which depict different characters of the epic.
“The sculpture portrays important segments of Mahabharata starting from the game of dice which is placed at the centre. In the legend, Arjuna is said to be amazed on seeing Lord Krishna’s true avatar. People will react similarly once they see the sculpture upon completion,” says Nagappan.Mohanlal had already bought a similar rendition from Nagappan three years back. “His team visited us when we were making a 7 feet tall sculpture of Vishwaroopam. The actor was impressed and purchased it.
I personally delivered it to his house in Chennai. That’s when he asked for another sculpture which stands out from the rest,” he adds. Nagappan and his team have been working for close to two-and-half years on the project. “The credit goes to my team members all of whom are talented artists from the district.”
He has also been in contact with the officials of the Guinness World Records in hopes of setting a record. “I believe that the existing wooden Vishwaroopam sculptures are around 6 or 7 feet tall. The officials will check the sculpture once the remaining carving is done. Only then can they measure the final dimensions,” says Nagappan. He adds that the sculpture will be handed over to Mohanlal in 3-4 months. “The work was halted for the last one-and-half months due to the pandemic. We have resumed work now,” he says.