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METROSCAPE
Man
Of Many Parts
Dilip Chhabria is
shifting gears. The 48-year-old ex-designer from General Motors who introduced
post-liberalisation India to the concept of customised cars, rejuvenating
the geriatric Ambassador and, sacrilege, redesigning the Mercedes, is
diversifying.
His portfolio now also includes corporate interiors,
refrigerators, televisions, suitcases and even furniture. "With a
similarity in the prices and features of most fast-moving consumer goods
like fridges and TVS, the novelty lies in design," says Chhabria.
His company was in search of volumes and new challenges and sensed an
opportunity to leverage their auto design capabilities.
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Chhabaria with his self-designed
fridge and TV
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Chhabria has just submitted new refrigerator
designs for Godrej. The prototype bright yellow and silver refrigerator
looks funky and futuristic-you can almost imagine the characters of Star
Wars helping themselves to drinks out of this one. Placed together at
his Andheri office, the fridge and chunky blue colour TV prototype have
often been mistaken for a mainframe computer. He styled the steel grey
interiors and furniture at Arthur Andersen's Delhi office this year and
has just submitted a prototype hard-top suitcase to VIP.
From cars to white goods, is it tough? Nope.
"Automobiles are the pinnacle of industrial design. Once you design
cars, you can design just about anything." Chhabria, however, hasn't
stopped designing cars. He has just begun sketching a radical new Jeep-type
vehicle for Bajaj-the Indian version of the Hummer, a military vehicle
driven around by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now he's truly in
the realm of fast moving consumer goods.
—Sandeep
Unnithan
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A. D. Singh with Giannetti (below); Sabina
(far left) with Krishnan and Ranganathan
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KITSCH COOPERATION:
Kitsch, as an aesthetic tactic, seems to be the biggest thing to catch
the imagination of drawing room India since the potted money plant. So
it wasn't surprising when last Friday at Melange, (Sangeeta Sinh Kathiwada's
eco-friendly fashion store), Sabina Singh, restaurateur A.D. Singh's wife,
dedicated herself to the line of kitsch when she launched her pop-patterned
clothes label "Horn OK Please" and designer Preeti Vyas Giannetti
decorated the store with typical streetside altars and small light bulbs.
Who came: Marc Robinson, Randhir Kapoor, Bandana Krishnan, Rajat Kapur,
Suman Ranganathan-all in a gaudy mix of colours and garments. Party organiser
Kathiwada, in a nylon sari in psychedelic orange, insisted on saying,
"We should stop saying 'chee!' to Indian street art ... and be able
to wear a 10 carat ring and a ten rupee one with equal elan." Looks
like many of them are trying.
—Natasha
Israni
Painter Of Paradise
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NATIVE KNACK: Arakkal
(left) and his Kerala-inspired works
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Yusuf Arakkal-a Malayali by birth and a Bangalorean
by choice-is a facile and prolific painter. Having left his native Malabar
"in search of creative freedom and individual identity" as an
impetuous teenager, the prodigal recently returned to God's Own Country
with a sketch book and his box of paints. He travelled down the length
of the state revisiting sights long buried in his subconscious.
No wonder Kerala Tourism and the Taj Group of
Hotels chose to sponsor his exhibition at Delhi's premier art gallery,
Art Today, showing poignant images of the emerald state. Thankfully Arakkal's
sketches and canvases are not awash with technicolour green, red, white
and black. No, his is an eye that looks beyond the cliche of the Kathakali
mask, the coconut palm and the sea surf. In fact, if anything, they are
somewhat melancholic and muted in earthy reds, ochre and chocolate browns.
And his subjects-when human-are ordinary folk, fishermen and tea vendors.
Otherwise unmanned boats do the trick of total recall.
—S.Kalidas
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