'Didi' paints to rake in corporate moolah

Poll brush

Even as the date for the crucial April-May assembly polls draws near, Mamata choose to paint a different picture. At least 95 paintings of Mamata that went on display a couple of days ago at a city gallery here, were sold out.

“She is finishing four to five more canvases before she hits the campaign trial in North Bengal on April 9,” Trinamool spokesman said.

Mamata’s 95 paintings had been sold for around Rs 2 crore and the buyers included industrialist Harsh Neotia, Jay Mehta, co-owner of IPL franchisee Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of Cricket Association of Bengal.

The three day solo exhibition titled “Twenty-five Hours a Day” has already grabbed the attention of the city with people thronging the gallery. The use of bright colours like green, yellow, orange and others have provided the paintings a different kind of appeal. From nature to the various facets of human relationship, Mamata’s wide canvas covered them all.  An interesting aspect of all the paintings lies in the names that she has given to them with two of the paintings titled ‘jangal mahal’ (the Maoist hit belt of Midnapore region where she is opposed to deployment of central forces) and her  ‘Ma Mati Manush’ (Mother, Soil and People) slogan.

The price starts from Rs 50,000 and goes up to Rs 10 lakh. The proceeds of the sale through auction will go to the TMC election fund. “I am all for state funding of elections. If it would have been done, then I would not have to raise fund in this fashion,” she told newsmen here on Wednesday. Inaugurated by eminent painter Jogen Chowdhury, the exhibition was widely appreciated by painters Shuvaprasanna and Sameer Aich, dance exponent Amala Shankar and singer Dwijen Mukherjee among others.