Too many pricky issues have been conveniently pushed under the carpet to sanitise the celebrations of 50 years of Indian Independence. Critical voices are drowned out in the din created by en masse releases of everything from pop albums to television serials -- all cashing in on the 50-year peg. But a painter who begs to differ is Milon Mukherjee. He is hosting his 21st solo exhibition titled Goats and Scapegoats which revolves around the exploitation of the masses by a handful of first among equals. Goats as a symbol for the `used' seems natural enough -- there is meeting of fates on many levels. "Like goats, the aam janta is taken for granted by the political powers. Have you ever seen a goat lead a natural life? Some are taken to the altar and some to the butcher," says Mukherjee. The other parallel is that goats jump with joy at insignificant things and find contentment with whatever falls in their laps. "Just like hordes of human beings," he adds. Goats neither have the urge to create a better life nor are they aware of the quality of the one they are leading. "Unaware of what is freedom. Why life and why not life," he says. As an artist, Mukherjee finds himself slightly better placed than goats -- he can at least educe his experiences through the medium of paintings.

Mukherjee is not in the least bothered by the fact that though he is expressing his views on goats and scapegoats, they are the ones least likely to see his works. "My concern is about my expression -- how I can come out with my thoughts in the form I can manage to exhibit them in," he says. And even if the occasional goat does drop in, Mukherjee does not expect an earth shattering transformation. "A layman looks at the goats -- it tells him nothing. At most he'll say that the goats have been painted well!" he says. Paintings cannot be understood, they have to be felt -- something which the benumbed goats are largely incapable of.

Mukherjee insists that this communication gap exists in every creation."It exists for whoever feels and wants to share his feelings," he says. The gap can never be eliminated only bridged to some extent. Which he has always attempted to achieve through his paintings. For example, his first exhibition was called Children Without Childhood. The theme was child labour -- boys making kites instead of flying them and girls peddling dolls instead of playing with them. Here he tried to feel the gap between what they have and don't have. "The hyphen between the child and the labourer in child-labourer," he says.

For his latest exhibition, Mukherjee has deviated from his usual style. Here the strokes are bolder and the visuals strong. He says he has broken all barriers of colour and depiction. Colours float all over the canvas and clash into one another. The effect is that of motion. And the idea is to disturb the watcher and hopefully drive home the message that a few puppeters control our life.

But painting is not the only medium Mukherjee excels in. When he is not happy with mere visuals, he puts his thoughts into other channels. He has written novels and short stories, performed on stage and acted in a serial and a movie. "Painting is breathing fresh air on white canvas and writing is like blood flowing through me," he says. And acting? "Acting has been part of freaking out," he says. Mukherjee has also travelled extensively through Europe and has even held an exhibition in Paris. He insists that travel expands horizons, takes the mundane out of life and makes one look into the nature of things without inhibitions. "I am looking out to look in," he says.

And his journeys have taught him that there are more goats here than anywhere else -- in Paris, when he was trying to locate an obscure museum, a sweeper gave him precise directions to it. "But how many here would be able to tell you where, say, Jamini House is?" he says. The other lesson he has learnt is that an artist has to promote himself and flash his signature as a brand equity. "The signature has become an ISO 9000. In my first exhibition not a single painting was sold because I was a non-entity," he says. An even if work eventually speaks for an artist, it might be too late for him. Says Mukherjee, "Many artists have achieved their heights solely due to the media hype. In this age of drumbeats you either beat your own drums or get someone else to do it.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.