Street Quartet (Bandwallas)

After a diverse series of paintings depicting war and persecution, Krishen Khanna began to paint bandwallas or bandmasters who are usually seen leading wedding processions in north India. In this painting, Khanna has depicted four bandwallas engaged in playing their grand instruments and synchronising their tunes in their red ensembles, buckled belts, and shoulder epaulettes. The red uniforms convey the energy that they emanate. The artist portrays these men as practicing and creating music with a sense of joy, but that is only for show. If we pause the tunes and remove the uniforms, these men return to their precarious lives on the streets of Delhi. Khanna’s humanist rendering captures the harsh realities of their lives, playing long hours of music for little money in uncomfortable uniforms that play on people’s memories of military bands while concealing their true feelings as all performers must.