Dharwad: Recently, was in Dharwad to attend the three-day exhibition, lecture cum demonstration, slides show and interaction program of Prof Babu Jattakar, veteran artist and former Principal College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat, Bengaluru.
Gods become alive in brass, copper, silver, and gold: During an informal interaction, Prof S K Pattar, Principal of Government College of Fine Arts, Dharwad made a casual reference of his former student Naveen Shankarrao Kadlaskar, who has made a big name in sculpting the idols of Gods in brass, copper, silver, and gold. The way, he was dealt with made me curious to know more and meet him. However, repeated calls were reverted with switched off mode messages. This exercise went on for a couple of days.
Work pressure compels to switch off the cell phone: On the third day, Naveen Shankarrao Kadlaskar sprung a surprise and turned up and revealed the reasons behind switching off his cell phone. It had so happened that he was getting repeated calls from his clients, for delivery of the finished products. However, due to the heavy demand of Shravana month orders, and shortage of assisting skilled workforce, he was finding it difficult to complete the assigned works. In order to avoid frequent queries over phone calls, and concentrate continuously and all alone, to meet the huge challenge, he was compelled to resort to such an unsavory predicament!
A big family of four brothers and four sisters: Shankarrao Kadlaskar, Naveen's father was an employee of the former Karnataka Electricity Board(KEB), and was moving to places on transfers every now and then. A native of Badal Ankalagi village in the Belagavi district, he served in Dharwad, Belagavi, Haveri and North Canara districts during his career. Naveen was born in Sirsi on 22-07-1976. Mrs Jwalini and Shankarrao had five children, two sons and three daughters. Unfortunately, Mrs Jwalini passed way when Naveen was barely three years old! In order to take care of the children, Shankarrao married Ms Suvarna, and they had three more sons and a daughter.
A family of artists: Naveen was lucky enough to have guidance in arts, thanks to the encouragement of his mother Mrs Jwalini, during his childhood days. Mrs Jwalini, herself was a good singer. She also had the skill sets of doing her own compositions, to sing. Nagaraj, brother of Naveen, was a Tabla player. His sisters were also blessed with artistic skills.
Art courses in Dharwad: Naveen had primary education and later high school education from the K E Boards High School in Dharwad. Later, he pursued the Drawing Master course at the Government College of Fine Arts, in Dharwad. He completed the Art Master course from the Gangambika Fine Arts School.
Thanks to the Art teachers: While having his formal art education in Dharwad, Naveen received professional guidance from his teachers like M R Balikayi, Vasant Pattar, Datnal, among many others. It goes to the credit of Mrs Karuna, his elder sister and Prakash Savgaon, brother-in-law of Belagavi in infusing him an interest in alloys sculpture. Prakash Savgaon had a jewellery shop, wherein Nagaraj Pattar was helping out the business as an assistant. Although, Naveen had formal qualifications in the art field, he didn't have a proper job, and it was at this stage, he was called by his Belagavi brother-in-law to look after the family business.
Emergency order challenge comes as a boon: Naveen was entrusted with overseeing the business in the shop, and had nothing to do with the sculpting work being carried out there. Naveen was over-enthusiastic in giving it a try to do sculpting assignments, but was barred from venturing into the same for having no prior experience. Naveen was religiously observing Nagaraj Pattar's daily routine, and was desperately awaiting for an opportunity to plunge into the sculpting world. Ultimately, the day came in the form of an emergency order, and the responsibility of shouldering the same was aptly handled by a confident Naveen. From then onward, there was literally no looking back at all from him!
No job add to hurdles for marriage: While in Belagavi, Naveen happened to meet Ms Bharati in a relative's function. On his part, he decided her to be a life partner; but the path looked to be arduous, as Naveen had no regular employment to his credit. It was also very difficult to convince elders on both sides; but, Naveen was firm in his resolve. Thanks, to his successful completion of the first ever assignment, Ms Bharati also got job as a government school teacher, simultaneously. Now, both of them decided to go ahead.
Expertise with brass, copper, silver, and gold: Over a period of time, Naveen developed expertise in handling orders of sculpting the face covers, idols of various Gods and Goddesses with a variety of alloys, including brass, copper, silver, and gold. Going by the numbers, it looks Naveen has sculpted more than a 1,000 idols, chariots, palanquin among many others.
A big list of Gods: Naveen, humbly submits, whatever he has been able to accomplish so far, is all due to the grace of the almighty. He candidly admits, neither did he have any thoughts nor dreams of surging so far in the field, without the blessings of his parents, family members, well-wishers, friends, and teachers. So far, he has sculpted the idols of Ganesh, Anjaneya, Durgadevi, Shiva, Rama, Lakshmi, Saraswati, and, Shirdi Sai Baba, among many others.
Crowns, ornaments, swords... Along with the idols, Naveen is also known for sculpting the accessories of Gods and Goddesses, like sacred ornaments and weapons like crowns, decorative garlands, swords, trident, face covers, etc. He has also delivered orders for doing silver cladding or plating for the doors of holy sanctums of revered pilgrimage centres, within the state, neighboring Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Goa.
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