Ganja Mahua Chronicles – Venkat Anand

I wrap your name in mine

I’m mixing weed with wine

I’m the dot, you’re the line

I’m the name, you’re the sign

This exceptional document charts the journeys of Venkat, an artist from a remote ‘tribal’ village in Madhya Pradesh, to the art worlds of Bhopal, Delhi and to foreign lands in the footsteps of his uncle, the legendary Jangarh Singh Shyam. It is a wonderfully devised jugalbandi between the artist and his soulmate, Anand. It is a story of survival, both physical and artistic, in the underbelly of cities and in the bylanes of the art market. It sparkles with an unusual incandescence.—Gulammohammed Sheikh