Indore artist creates portrait of Lata Mangeshkar using opening lines of her 90 songs

PTI, Sep 28, 2024, 12:09 PM IST

PTI photo

Indore: An artist in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh has created a unique black-and-white portrait of legendary singer late Lata Mangeshkar using the opening lines of her 90 different hit songs to form the lines of her face.

Mangeshkar was born on September 28, 1929 in Indore.

The unique thing about this 31×23 inches portrait made by artist Milind Dhawale is that the opening lines of the songs have been written at appropriate places on the singer’s face in sync with their meaning.

For example, the opening line of the song ‘Bindiya chamkegi, choodi khankegi’ has been written in place of a bindi on Mangeshkar’s face, while the opening line of the song ‘Dheere dheere bol koi sun na le” has been used to form her lips.

Dhawale has written ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’ on Mangeshkar’s forehead in this portrait, because the 55-year-old artist believes that this song, which awakens the feeling of patriotism by reminding the martyred soldiers of the supreme sacrifice for the motherland, is still etched on the minds of Indian citizens.

These lines of the songs are written so neatly in the portrait that one is able to make out the text only when they observe it from close. When seen from a distance, these titles appear only as lines.

Talking to PTI on Saturday, Dhawale said he had made this portrait on Mangeshkar’s 90th birthday and he kept trying to gift this artwork to the singing legend in some way, but his wish could not be fulfilled.

“I will always regret that I could not meet Mangeshkar and give her this portrait,” he said.

Mangeshkar breathed her last on February 6, 2022 in Mumbai at the age of 92.