Flame of Love

Flame of Love depicts M. A. R. Chughtai’s painting of a woman in a side profile, a bare breast peeping out from her clothes, her dishevelled hair open. She lifts her hair in her hands, as though to tie it to the jaali (screen) as a sacred offering for the return of her lover. The design of the screen finds an echo in the pattern of her clothes. The architecture and atmosphere are decidedly Islamic within which the lamp provides not just light but also a ray of hope.