There
is a beautiful understanding that i struck with, which gave me a comfort in the
mind and will try to consolidate it and assimilate for final realization.
Though nothing new and not a revelation or discovery, this is about artists and
the people’s relation to artists. The people who enjoy any work of the art, the
best and more are the ones who have no connection with the artist who created
it or with the artist who is responsible for the art in way or the other. This joy
is absolutely detached from the creator and only a pure connection between the
product and the consumer.
I
have often experienced that, people sitting in the gallery, at a long distance
from the stage during any performance are the ones who enjoy the most and
better than people sitting in the front rows. The front row guys have 2 basic
problems. 1) Either they know the performers decently well and they keep
thinking about them at a personal level or they make some kind of judgements 2)
They are keener to establish better rapport or connect with the artists, for
several reasons and hence miss out enjoying the content.
For
the people sitting in the gallery, his or interest is just focusing on the
content and expecting the best from the performer. In both the situations, there is a critical
difference. Knowing and not knowing the artist at some personal level. This is
very crucial in appreciating in any art form.
Before
getting into that, let me express what i analyzed for myself who an artist is.
An artist is not a normal person with regular sensibilities of an average
human. He or she has an inexplicable urge to extract something deep side them
to give self and society an above normal experience. In other words, they
realize consciously or subconsciously that, they are bestowed with some talent
which needs to be exploited for the expression. There is this inner positive
restlessness that they live with and deal with most of their life. There is
this deep need to express themselves with their talent to the world. They seek recognition
for their work more than their personal attributes.
An artist can never be
happy if he or she is praised for their qualities as a human or for their beauty
if the artist is a woman. Take the best of the singer or the actress and just
heap praises on their womanhood and yes they will feel good but they will feel
more deprived and insufficient if their talent is not acknowledged or
appreciated.
Brahmanandam
will never be contented if suddenly people say you are as great as Swamy
Vivekananda or if Amitabh is called the best monk ever. Even Aishwarya Rai
bacchan’s happiness will be restricted if people heap praises on her, calling a
great mom. And not make a relation to her as a fabulous actress, which she is.
They are all justified and these are the facts of life.
An artist needs to be
understood from the perspective of that particular art only to know the person
well. But most of us do not have time or even the attitude to know the person
well enough as we do not want to, at the very basic level. Hence, we should
just leave them to their personal lives and we should just focus on their art
form. They are eternally struggling anyway to balance several aspects in their
lives.
So
why do people who interact with celebrities get disappointed or make judgements
about their personal character?. Some where the fault lies with us( the
consumers of art) as we ought not to
know them personally and we have to have connection only with the artist in them,
with exceptions being silent admirers and family members.
Being
a A.R Rehman fan, i can’t expect him to be a messiah outside and keep doing
several good things. May be he does also and that’s all private . He has to
worry about privacy; his has right to lead life and have opinions or not have
opinions about anything. Why should that alter my respect for him? A.R.
Rehaman, Shreya ghosal, Amitabh, Aamir
khan are all greatest artists for me and i better restrict myself knowing their
works and everything related to their works.
Media
blitz Krieg on their personal lives and giving details, away from their core talent,
have to avoid at the consumption level as we have no choice to condemn, when
they are being pumped by all media platforms. And for all those who have to
interact with them, they need to consciously keep away from their personal
lives and details. If by default, such experiences are inevitable, and then
they ought to be treated as basic humans who are liable to make mistakes,
behave normally and react normally.
Why artists are expected to be above
normal? In fact the insecurities that they are subjected to , by the parameters
of success and failure, richness and erosion of affluence , which is so susceptible
by one movie, one song, one week etc
that, we need to sympathize with them. Allow them to handle their lives and let
be them what they are...
One
thumb rule is, if we want to enjoy the art forms, better not to take them
seriously at the personal level and if possible not meet them also. I have
given up my idea of meeting Lata ji, Amitabhji, Saurav Ganguly as i will only
force all my expectations on them and then get disappointed. Not that they will
be bad, but i will be caught in my expectations tangle, and i do not want to
stop appreciating artists as what is life without an art?
Expectations
in general with people brings disappointment and hurt as we stop appreciating
people as to what they are, we want them to be like we want.. With artists our
treatment subconsciously is very intense and hence we all make mistakes. Just
know them as artists, period.
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