Kanu Desai, born Kanhaiyalal Hukumatrai Desai, (12 March 1907 – 9 December 1980) was an Indian artist and art director. He contributed to decorative art, drew and designed sets for films, and illustrated several books written by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...

Life

Kanu Desai was born in

Bharuch Bharuch (), formerly known as Broach, is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since time ...

Bombay Presidency The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...

, in 1907. Later his family shifted to his maternal uncle's home in Ahmedabad. In 1920, he volunteered at

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

session in Ahmedabad addressed by

. He joined Ravishankar Raval to learn art in 1922. He was sent to Shantiniketan to study under

Nandalal Bose Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting. He became the princip ...

in 1925 through the scholarship of Gujarat Vidyapith. He was thus influenced by Bose and

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

. In 1930, he joined Gandhi in

Dandi March The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

during which he drew many paintings which recorded the event. Later he started drawing silhouette paintings. In 1937, he participated to decorate INC session at Haripura. His drawings published as romantic albums under ''Jeevan Mangal'' and ''Nritya Manjari'' titles. After designing coverpages of books, he started designing sets for films in Mumbai. He made plaster casts for the sets in ''Ram Rajya'' (1945). He worked as an art director for several films including '' Baiju Bawra'', '' Navrang'', ''

Bharat Milap ''Bharat Milap'' is a Bollywood film. It was released in 1942. based on Ramayana. Remakes It was remade into two movies in the same year 1965, by Babubhai Mistry starring Sohrab Modi, Sulochana, Ashish Kumar. And as ''Shree Ram Bharat Milan ...

'', '' Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje''. He died in 1980.

Awards

He received Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak, the highest award in Gujarati culture, in 1938. He was also awarded

Filmfare Award for Best Art Direction The Filmfare Best Art Direction Award is given by the '' Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. Although the awards started in 1954, this category was started only in 1956. Superlatives Awards See also * ...

in 1957 for '' Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje''. In 1965, he received Gujarat Gaurav Puraskar from Gujarat State Lalit Kala Academy.

References

External links

* *
Shrungarika
(1945)
Rang Lahari
(1941) {{DEFAULTSORT:Desai, Kanu 1907 births 1980 deaths Indian art directors People from Bharuch district 20th-century Indian painters Recipients of the Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak Painters from Gujarat