Rang
colours with emotion

by Keshav Malik (Padmashri)
Fellow of Lalit Kala Akademi, Art Critic and Poet

Keshav Malik

In Mohit Midha we appear to have an untamed man, a nomad of spirit. Yet, to go by his colour photographs, he finally seems to have found his true home, namely, the open sky, towering ranges, rocks and snow, effulgent light. A sizeable body of his prints testifies to this assertion, reflected as the Himalayas are in them. His mountains, in their upward pining, symbolise the country of the soul, no matter that a vast chunk of mankind presently has made its abode in the asphalt jungle. Midha, then, is not the sensation seeking cameraman. He would not seem to fit into pat categories - his eye is too contemplative for that. Moreover, though his works are charged with an unusual intensity (as much as serenity), the normal struggle of an artist with his daimon is nowhere reflected in his photographs.

By and large they symbolise the moment when he, passing through the usual uncertainties, has arrived into the region of peace.

The peace that is thus objectified in nature, is arrived at via the route of the innocent eye. Thus, almost everything he observes - flowers, streams or mountain ranges - become as clear as sparkling crystal, everything washed as though by torrents of snow flakes, a chilled moonlight casting a spell over the layers of brilliant colours. The startling tone of his pinks, mauves, blues, takes your breath away. The spacious vastness of a scene, in many of his works, seem to unroll itself before our eyes even beyond a composition locked in a given frame. It is this sense of space which gives a feeling of sacral mystery to his landscapes. Part secret of Midha's work lies in its theme, its framework or foundation being so imaginal, that no matter from which angle it may have been individually snapped, it invariably retains the element of great beauty, of a silence that passes our metropolitan understanding. Thus the work effects us physically, the layer of film lifting over our currently blase or bleary eyes.In sum, here is fare that is dignified and aloof; and indeed, I believe, it comes to the public not too soon. It reminds us that the 'exciting' world we have brought into being, falls much short of the divinity inherent in pristine, unpolluted nature. For me, personally, these shots are a bit of an awakening.

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