PAllAV CHANDER talks to PRAKRITI ROY about how the gift of painting and theatre came to him with dyslexia and mild ADHD
Twenty-six year old Pallav Chander had trouble with academics owing to dyslexia and minor Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, his creative inclinations tided over his classroom shortcomings.
Having an artist for a mother, Pallav has been surrounded by art since birth. When he couldn’t keep up with his studies and school, he looked for an outlet for his creativity in the performing arts. It was theatre which provided him that outlet. “Theatre gave me the platform to express my thoughts and emotions in a way nothing else ever did. Even my school teachers appreciated my good work,” he tells you.
Till he turned 20, Pallav was focussed on theatre singularly. Only recently, he went back to his Alma Mater Apeejay, Sheikh Sarai, this time as a dramatics teacher and directed a play with the students Pratha — The Power Of Change. Ironically, this was about dyslexia.
It was only at age 17 that he started painting as a therapy. It was around this time that the film Taare Zameen Par got released. “After I watched the movie, I just wanted to paint. Now, it’s become a habit. I have to paint everyday, not because it’s my work but because it’s therapy for me,” Pallav says.
Very soon, he had a portfolio which he sent to Birmingham College of Arts, UK, for admission to their Bachelor’s of Arts programme. Since he couldn’t afford all the three years of his tuition fee, the university admitted him directly into second year, based on his artwork as his basic academic foundation was not strong despite the remedial classes he took in school.
“I am still not the best reader. It takes me a while to grasp the written word. But if you give me a visual book, I am good with it,” Pallav says. Now, he is devoted to both painting and theatre and often intersperses them. For him, they are different and yet they share the same palette. One may say, his theatricality emerges from his paintings.
He sees the canvas as a stage and the stage as a canvas and describes his painting process as composing a scene. As far as his theatre is concerned, “my stage is like a canvas and the lights and composition will give you the impression of a painting”. The plays that his company White Noise Productions produces are multi-faceted and Pallav wears several hats — director, visual designer and co-writer for a tragedy, drama or an issue-based play. His next offering is The love of Don Kuka, a pantomime play to be staged at Akshara Theatre from June 1.
His paintings are about common objects and emotions. What makes them stand out are the layers and textures in them. “Painting is therapy. I never plan what I’ll paint. As I work on each painting for a few weeks, something emerges. I genuinely create art for art’s sake. The fact that I can earn doing things I love is awesome,” he says. Pallav put up his first solo exhibition at the India Habitat Centre in 2014, titled Decoding a Dyslexic Mind.
For Pallav, theatre is as important as painting. If painting is his therapy, theatre keeps him grounded because it is a team effort, he says. It has helped him since childhood that his mother understood dyslexia. He was exempted from subjects like Maths but it didn’t help that other people always saw him as out of the ordinary while he thought he was perfectly normal.
“The harmony between theatre and art came naturally to me. Since it’s the only way I know how to do things, I fail to understand why people see them differently. Maybe, the two gel well because of dyslexia,” he sums up.
Currently, Pallav’s paintings are on display at a group exhibition at Art Heritage Gallery. As for his next exhibition, he says, “artists are banjaaras, just loitering with the flow the river.” His mottoIJ Believe in art and create from your heart.