Maithili Chaturvedi’s studio sits inside Wankhede Stadium. On match days, crowds stream through the complex for cricket games while, somewhere between and beyond the noise, the 23-year-old painter labours over her portraits from the golden era of Hindi cinema. “I walk around throngs of people, and no one knows I’m not going to watch the match,” she says. “I’m just going to paint.”
The setting is almost too precise to ignore: one of Mumbai’s most charged public spaces doubling as a private studio. Inside, over the light scratching of Chaturvedi’s brush, Lata Mangeshkar sings ‘Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya’. A painting titled ‘Darling Darling’ lifts from a single still—the moment Madhubala steps into frame singing, “Iss dard ko lekar jitaa hai, iss dard ko lekar marta hai”. Chaturvedi renders the scene through refracted reflections of Anarkali’s jewellery, some of it sparkling with such corporeality that it makes you want to ignore the ‘Do not touch’ signs. “I’m drawn to frames that refuse to pass by,” says the artist. “Moments where the woman is looking at me, just as much as I’m looking at her.”
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