Folk artists depict Dhoni and others in a new form

DEHRADUN: Cricket fans in India often equate their favourite player with gods or as super humans with divine power. In this IPL season, the sentiment has been used by a group of folk artists to re-imagine cricket stars in traditional art forms, reports Abhijeet Singh. The project, called Folk Cricket, has come up with the folk versions of popular stars, including helicopter shot specialist MS Dhoni and Indian team captain Virat Kohli, among others.
Dhoni, who plays for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), has been depicted in‘Bommalattam’ — a form of 18th century puppetry art popular in Tamil Nadu — that narrates the story of Ramayana with the help of puppets. A close contemporary of Bommalattam is Karnataka’s Togalu Gombeyata, which is the art form in which Virat Kohli (who is playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore) has been depicted. ‘Just like a puppeteer who stands behind the curtains and runs the show, ‘Thala’ (which means leader and is Dhoni’s nickname in Chennai) can be seen doing the same behind the stumps,” said Sriram Sabhapathy from the Last Bench Studio in Bangalore, that has conceptualised the series.
Likewise, the artists have imagined batsman Rohit Sharma in Maharashtra’s Warli painting style while Jamaican all-rounder Andre Russel has been visualised in Bengal’s Kalighat style. Stating that their work was not sponsored by any of the IPL teams, Sabhapathy said, “However, a few of the teams saw the work we’ve done and appreciated it.” He added that the idea gave them a chance to raise the cause of the folk artists who have suffered immensely due to the coronavirus pandemic.