Black beauties of Chennai

Black beauties of Chennai

Having a keen interest in drawing portraits since childhood, I was naturally fascinated by statues of persons, particularly those made of stone. I had always wondered how a sculptor could transform a block of stone into a human figure and used to observe and admire statues whenever I could spot one.

Recently, a thought flashed across my mind. The city of Chennai has a considerable number of statues at various locations. Why not put a collection of pictures of all the statues(of prominent personalities) of Chennai on my photo-blog? It would make an interesting page and that would be my contribution to my beloved city.......and  I started my journey with my camera.

When I ventured into the field for the purpose, I was a bit disappointed. The statues which I had seen some years ago in black, were now golden in colour, as if King Midas had touched them while passing by, not all, though. Let me clarify... black is not my favourite colour. Nevertheless, I felt that coloured statues have lost their original character because the natural beauty of the stone, its texture and the intricate work of the artist got obscured by the colour. They appear to look more like mannequins. In my view, some of these statues do not resemble the personality they are supposed to represent. The facial features of some of the personalities have not been brought out well (a notable example is the statue of MGR) which is very sad. 

I frankly do not understand the logic. Agreed, it was decided to colour these statues in gold... for whatever reason. The dress is in gold colour....the hair is in gold colour.....the face and hands are gold in colour.....but then why colour the eyeballs black? Anyway, the less said the better.If any of the authorities in charge of the subject are reading this page, I request them to consider restoring these statues to their original beauty.

Now, coming back to the collection.These statues in black have majestically withstood the ravages of nature ,  but look at the coloured ones......the colour has started to peel ( take a closer look....statue of Dr.Annie Besant is a good( or should I say, bad?) example.  I personally would prefer the statues were left as they were....I mean, black...plain and simple.

I have tried to cover almost... repeat almost, all statues including busts ( more than 60 personalities) in Chennai. Wherever I could, I had given a closer shot of the same statue.  Maybe, I could have missed out some (NB:There is at present no statue of Jawaharlal Nehru at Kathipara junction). If you think I have, please do let me know their location in the comments, so that I could cover those also.

Before you go ahead, let me tell you this-

1. I refrained from putting the names of the personalities above the photographs, just to let you have the thrill of identifying the personality and to kindle your interest to know more about the personality.... after all,in my view, the life of every personality featured here  has some good things to teach us and ease our journey towards being better human beings.
2. Not all the statues featured here are made of stone and they are in random order.
3. There is a small surprise at the end of this page. There are two photographs of a famous personality. Both are photographs of the same statue, taken  at the same location and at the same point in  time but, compare the two. Look at the first one. Observe the stooped shoulders and  the forlorn look( or is it 'lost in deep thought'). Now look at the second one....the head is held high and the figure is standing tall and straight as if ready to take the bull by the horns?. Surprised, aren't you? Me too.

And here is the collection......