Panch Kanya

  Oil Color on Canvas

Historically, the three visual arts mediums: painting, theatre and cinema are intrinsically linked as they feed into reach other. Until the early 1900s, only men played the role of women in theatre. There are classic Marathi plays where despite the availability of women actresses, this tradition is upheld even now. Hero’s from Marathi films play women in these plays. Shanthi finds this fascinating and decided to use ‘Panchkanya’ a lithograph print produced at the Raja Ravi Varma studio to recreate today’s Panchkanya that connects film, theatre and painting. Traditionally, the Panchkanya’s Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara and Mandodari are extolled as the destroyers of great sins. Her Panchkanya’s are – Vijay Chavan, Bharat Jadhav, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Satish Tare and Prasad Oak, great actors who break barriers of theatre and Cinema.