The Man Who Made God Look Good

Ketan Mehta has created a magnum opus through his film 'Rang Rasia'. The film has touched upon topics that are relevant to our world even now. 'In the nude, whatever is not beautiful is obscene'. That, I think, is the first thing the movie has portrayed and done so elegantly. A truth that. for having been misunderstood, has caused a stir from time to time even in the contemporary world. Be it Hussain's art or Verma's himself.
The lady muse, Sugandha, tells the advocating fighting against Verma in the court, "He made a goddess out of a lady such as myself whereas you made me a prostitue." I think that Sugandha's act of suicide towards the end of the movie was like an act of murder at the hand of the society of nothing less than art itself. Ravi rushes madly into the room to find Sugandha hanging from the room glowing like a divine figure. Almost as if Urvashi herself were ascending to heaven.
The movie depicts the greatness of art in a rare way. Raja Ravi Verma assertively tells Sugandha in a scene from the film, "You are beautiful. But your beauty will not live forever. But through my work, you shall live on eternally." And in another scene, he tells Sugandha, almost defiantly, "You do not have any existence beyond my imagination." Hearing which Sugandha is left shell-shocked. But I think that the words were not an act of defiance simply against Sugandha but against the gods and goddesses themselves. We see how Ravi Verma gives life to the figures of gods and goddesses by putting them on his canvas. It is almost as if he were creating Godly figures all by himself. Be it Ram or Krishna, Lakshmi or Saraswati. And this forces us to ask- can Gods truly exist beyond our imagination? Their existence is only as strong as our faith allows them to be. Beyond it, they will cease to exist. Of course, the idea is rebellious. Very provocative and thus we see Verma's art attacked by the so-called saviours of our culture and religion.
Ravi and Sugandha cannot come together but are separated in Sugandha's death. It is almost as if Sugandha had come as an angel of inspiration into Ravi's life for sometime and having divinely sparked it, she leaves back to heaven. Ravi tells us the story of Urvashi and towards the end Sugandha compares their separation to that of Urvashi and her beloved's separation. Perfection of union seeming impossible in an imperfect world. A world where the beautiful is seen as obscene and the divine is demeaned.
Raja Ravi Verma is India's Michaelangelo. He was our Renaissance of art. He put into his art an almost Miltonic quest for perfection and beauty. And what's more, through his industry and perseverence, he made art reach every single household. That too in a huge nation like India. Our Lakshmis and Saraswatis, Rams and Krishnas would not be complete in our imagination if it were not for that artist.