BENGALURU : MS Dhoni and Bommalattam, Rohit Sharma and Warli, Virat Kohli and Togalu Gombeyata -- what do these combinations have in common? Each of these traditional arts belongs to the state that the cricketers are gunning (or should we say batting and bowling?) for in the ongoing IPL tournament. While the world of cricket and traditional arts may seem poles apart, a new poster series by LastBench Studio brings the two together in a seamless fashion.
Called Folk Cricket, the eight works take one player from each IPL team and recreate their portrait using a folk art that is intrinsic to that region. Shreyas Iyer looks right at home in a Mughal painting, and Kohli’s eyes, helmet and outfit get a fun puppet makeover while Sanju Samson assumes a divine avatar in a phad painting reimagination of him.
While wanting to ride out the IPL wave is one reason behind this fun fusion, the creative studio also wanted to bring about awareness about India’s rich history of art, thereby helping the artisans who have been affected by the pandemic. This then led artist Raaj Rufaro, who also works at LastBench Studio, to amalgamate cricket and art, which also helped him fulfil his desire of working with regional art forms. “We knew we wanted to make these larger-than-life posters of cricketing heroes,” explains the studio’s founder, Sriram Sabhapathy.
Once an art form was adequately researched and finalised, it took Rufaro, who is a graduate of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, 8-10 hours to make each sketch from start to finish. Not each attempt, however, was a perfect sixer. “I initially tried to combine Dhoni’s portrait with Tanjore paintings but that didn’t work. The same happened with KL Rahul and phulkari, so I eventually had to change it to wood inlay. It’s quite challenging to get the posture, facial similarities of the player and sketch right within an art form,” adds Rufaro.
Agrees Sabhapathy, who explains that doing a wood inlay work for a human figure is an uncommon combination. Research, thus, became crucial, with the team working with internet resources, and craft and cultural organisations for extra help. “All this research only made us appreciate the work that goes into our country’s art forms,” he says.
Classic strokes
MS Dhoni - Bommalattam puppetry Tamil Nadu (Chennai Super Kings)
Rohit Sharma - Warli art Maharashtra (Mumbai Indians)
Virat Kohli - Togalu Gombeyata leather puppetry - Karnataka (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Shreyas Iyer - Mughal painting - Delhi Sultanate empire (Delhi Capitals)
KL Rahul - Wood inlay art Punjab (Kings XI Punjab)
Rashid Khan - Cheriyal painting Telengana (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
Andre Russell - Kalighat painting Kolkata (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Sanju Samson - Phad painting Rajasthan (Rajasthan Royals)