A jugalbandi of paint with music, dance and recitation — that was indeed what was enacted in a soul-stirring evening at Nazira on May 24. The MC Club auditorium in the upper Assam oil town was the venue of this unique show organised by the local art school – Nazira Chitrakala Kendra, in association with the non-government organisation Human Welfare Society. Billed ‘Miraculous Drawing Show’, it tried to explore the possibilities within the ‘near-impossible’.

Placed in the middle of the stage was an easel and mounted on it was a board with drawing sheets. And as the curtains of the show, hosted by Rantu Mudoi, went up, there emerged a young man with paint and brush in his hand to create works of art on the canvas painting, with his hands, feet and even mouth — all to the tunes of music and rhythms of dance. He is Rabin Bar, who has made Assam proud by his unusual artistic skills, appearing in Zee TV’s popular show Sabbash India, where he earned the sobriquet ‘India’s Miraculous Artist’.

Once the offbeat show was inaugurated by writer-intellectual Syed Mohammad Mohsin, also the former head of the department of English in Nandanath Saikia College, Rabin Bar produced an instant portrait of the educationist in just three minutes. Soon came on the stage danseuse Dipti Gohain and as her hands and feet moved in tandem rhythmically in a classical dance item, also swung the brush strokes of Bar on the canvas. And what took shape on the canvas was a beautiful painting.

Such works of art were also created by Bar in sequences when singer-lyricist Alekhya Barua sang a couple of numbers with a guitar in hand. Bar also created a beauty as Pankhi Bordoloi recited Hem Barua’s evergreen poem Mamatar Chithi.

Then started Bar’s magical acts with brush and paint. If he created a scene of the sinking of the ship Titanic on a huge canvas without touching it, by just blowing dry coloured powders on it, he also mesmerized those present in the auditorium with the unbelievable act of drawing and painting on three different canvases simultaneously – all having three different subjects – one with his hands, the second with his feet and a third with his mouth.

A number of distinguished guests, including the ONGC Assam Asset general manager AK Mukherjee, were also part of the audience that had a fair dose of children and enthusiastic students.

Bornali Konwar