Whose ‘Destiny’ is it?

A revered name in the Mumbai Art circle, Virchand Dharamsey passed away yesterday (Thursday) following brief illness, at a Navi Mumbai hospital. He was 88. Modernist painter Parbhakar Barwe was a close friend of Dharamsey. We, at Chinha had planned an interview with Dharamsey for the upcoming book on modernist Prabhakar Barwe, and accordingly, art scholar Vineel Bhurke interviewed Dharamsey Bhai. He not only gave an extensive interview to Bhurke, but also made available to Chinha, the cuttings of Barwe’s interview which he had taken for a Gujarati daily.

All of this happened just within a month, yesterday we got the sad news that Dharamsey Bhai has passed away.

We also wanted to interview painter Lalita Lajmi for the book, but unfortunately that could not happen due to the sudden death of Lajmi. We are happy that we could interview Dharamsey Bhai in the nick of time. Barwe would always say “Man’s destiny walks with him”, in this case whose ‘destiny’ was it??

We announced the book on pioneering painter Prabhakar Barwe, and I started working on it immediately. The basic draft of the book was in fact ready since a long time. Despite our best efforts, the last two attempts at getting a publisher for the book failed. But this time we had decided to finalise the publisher, and so in this third attempt we finally were able to lock a date.

We started the work on a war-footing, though this is a very initial stage of the book. Gradually, we began collecting pictures of paintings. Some enthusiatic people too started sending letters written by them to Prabhakar Barwe. What was important was the people whom we wanted to talk to about Barwe started getting in touch with us. Similarly, the author who was going to put this effort on paper had already started working on their contribution.

One such important person whom we wanted to talk to about Prabhakar Barwe was Virchand Dharamsey Bhai. He was a very close friend of Prabhakar Barwe. Though I had not met him in person before, I had heard about him quite a many times, especially in the context of Asiatic Society library. I too was a member of Asiatic Society library for a short while. Also, the Film Society for which Dharamsey Bhai worked, I too had joined for some time. Yet, I had not met him in any of those associations. Many people told me Bhai and Barwe would sit in the canteen of Elphinstone college opposite to Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. I remember being a part of this conversation many times but somehow never came across Dharamsey Bhai even there.

When I started working on the book on Barwe, the first big task was finding the contact details of Dharamshi Bhai. Here, one of my painter friends Madhav Imarate did this job for me. He managed to get the contact number of Dharamsey Bhai. The truth of the matter is that I am a bit uncomfortable talking to people who I am not acquainted with. So in keeping with that I did not call Dharamsey Bhai for quite some time. When one day Madhav reminded or rather kind of scolded me for not calling Dharamsey Bhai, I finally called him.  After initial greetings, when I uttered the word Barwe, Dharamsey Bhai started talking about Barwe with lot of excitement. He listened very patiently to the entire planning of this book and the contents in it. That’s when he informed that he was going to visit Mumbai and said they should meet. Meanwhile, while working on this book I was also gathering as much information as I could on Dharamshi bhai through a friend Nitin Dadarwala.

I called him up again this time when Dharamsey Bhai was in Mumbai. He told me upright that he was in Navi Mumbai and invited me over. Unfortunately, I could not manage to go and meet him. However, in a few days during one of the programmes at Chemould Gallery, wherein interview of Atul Dodiya was going on, Nitin Dadarwala walked in with an old man. They came straight to me. Nitin introduced that the other man was Dharamsey Bhai. The minute I saw him, I recognised that I had actually seen at the Asiatic Society Library coffee house and also at Jehangir Gallery, but had never spoken to him. But that day, we spoke for about 15 minutes.

Dharamsey Bhai asked me again when we can meet. That’s when I told him that I might not be able to come but my friend Vineel Bhurke will surely meet you. Vineel Bhurke immediately took initiative and they both started talking. That minute I knew that my choice was right. Within a week Vineel fixed an interview with him and I prepared some 50-60 questions to be asked to Dharamsey Bhai- mostly concentrating on Prabhakar Barwe. I also shared some Google links of the monumental work done by Dharamsey Bhai while in Film Society. He was an Encyclopaedia on Indian cinema. However, somehow I was very surprised how did Barwe and Dharamsey Bhai come to know of each other. These and many such questions were a part of the questionnaire I sent to Vineel for the interview Vineel comes from a corporate culture and he studied all the links and questionnaire and approached Dharamsey Bhai for the scheduled interview at his house in Navi Mumbai.

When I called Vineel that night, he said Dharamsey Bhai spoke very well. It took a bit of time for him to open up but when he started talking he was a pleasure to talk to. When Parabhakar Barwe got the National Award, a Gujarati newspaper had interviewed Dharamshi bhai. Bhai had brought the cutting of the interview and he translated every sentence of it for Vineel.

When I called Vineel that night, he said Dharamsey Bhai spoke very well. It took a bit of time for him to open up but when he started talking he was a pleasure to talk to. When Parabhakar Barwe got the National Award, a Gujarati newspaper had interviewed Dharamshi bhai. Bhai had brought the cutting of the interview and he translated every sentence of it for Vineel.

With this interview, two aims were achieved. One was Dharamsey Bhai’s association and the beautiful memories of it made a good feature article and secondly, the association would make good anecdotes that can be included in the book.

Reading all of this gave me goosebumps. This interview must have happened around end of March 2023. Actually after reading the interview taken by Vineel Burke, I had decided that I would be speaking to Dharamsey Bhai but somehow I couldn’t just make it happen. I wanted to meet and find out more if he had any rare photos of Barwe or some photos of his paintings. I also wanted to take recent photo of Dharamsey Bhai.

However, nothing of this will happen now. This morning Dharamsey Bhai left for his heavenly abode. That we have been able to document everything Dharamsey Bhai talked about Barwe in the form of articles, photos, cuttings, etc. is a great complement for Chinha. I would like to thank Vineel for this effort. Had Dharamsey Bhai not pressed hard that we meet soon this interview would not have happened, as happened in the case of Lalita Lajmi.

Working on Prabhakar Barwe’s book has given me enumerable experience and I am truly amazed at that. In Barwe’s word I would call it a ‘Destiny’ and that is what I am remembering this morning.

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Satish Naik
Editor
Chinha Art News