The show “Kal Aaj Aur Kal”, curated by the chairman and Managing Director of Kalakriti Art Gallery, Prashant Lahoti beautifully amalgamates vintage images, rare maps from the collection of Kalakriti archives and contemporary images from talented photographers of Hyderabad. Apart from the photographs, the exhibition also features snippets from the film The City produced by B. Narsing Rao, a film containing aerial views of Hyderabad.
The photographs by Saurabh Chatterjee brings forth the hustle and bustle of the urban city
The show manifests the fact that the city of Hyderabad has gone through a metamorphosis of varied strengths since the Nizams dynasty. It has embraced changes and mutated from one stance to another to gradually become what it is at present. The collection also features panels about upcoming developments in architecture and landscape transformations of Hyderabad.
Kamal Kasturi’s click of the Falaknuma palace captures the entire grandeur in its true sense
An interesting set of photographs clicked by Raja Deen Dayal, photographer of the royal dynasty of the Nizams of Hyderabad, are a prominent feature of the show. These manifest the popular sites of the city as captured from the legendary photographer’s perspective. The set of photographs in sepia unveil the glimpses of the Charminar surrounded by the then existing simplistic architectural structures. Another set of contemporary photographs of varied festivals being celebrated in close vicinity of the Charminar brings forth a splash of iridescently hued effervescence and also symbolically manifest the cultural diversity of the city.
The modern city gets reinstated through the photographs by contemporary photographers. Kamal Kasturi, shares his experience, “My works zoom into the grandeur of the Falaknuma palace. I have clicked pictures from the same angle as can be found in the old archived photographs. It is amazing to discover that some things and objects have remained unchanged and yet the appearance of the people and their stances, attitudes and modernist presence grant the works a contemporary spirit.”
One of the photographs by Saurabh Chatterjee brings forth the hustle and bustle of the urban city captured in all its modernist charm and speed. Saurabh tells more, “Hyderabad is a culturally rich city and I feel fortunate to be living here. A lot of times, it’s like documenting history. For example, with the coming of the Metro Rail, the landscape of the city has changed drastically, and it does not look the same again. Only the pictures remain. I really wish the same exhibition is brought to Hyderabad so that the Hyderabadis can see their own city from a different point of view.”
