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The Midas Touch

Make up artiste Prabhakar Bhave who, has been doing make up for Purushottam Karandak for the past 37 years says it’s his way of serving the art.

Not everyone strives for attention. There are people, for whom satisfaction is about bringing others in limelight. One such person who has been serving Marathi theatre selflessly is makeup artiste- Prabhakar Bhave.

Commonly known as Bhave kaka in the student fraternity, Bhave has been the makeup artiste for Purushottam Karandak for the past 37 years. What is not so well known is the fact that today, when makeup artistes charge exorbitantly high amounts for their work; Bhave does make-up for the entire team of 16 participants in nominal fees.

Purushottam Karandak, one of the biggest drama competitions in the city, this year completed 46 years and Bhave's role in shaping the competition has been of immense importance. "I was working as a mechanical draftsman in Kirloskar Cummins. Rajabhau Natu, the founder of Maharashtra Kalopasak asked me if I could do makeup for the Wednesday theatre activities that their group used to do. I had no reason to say no and that is how it all started," recalls Bhave as he further adds, "Initially when Purushottam Karandak started, the teams used to get their own makeup artistes. As a result of this, there used to be a lot of rush. That is when the organisers decided to provide their own make-up artiste to the participants. And fortunately, I was the chosen one for the role."

Bhave gives the credit of making him a well-known make-up artiste, to Purushottam Karandak. "The students put countless challenges in front of me. They used to and still do come up with complicated scripts that involve complex characters. For instance, making a college going student look like an old man, or a wicked character and so on. You won't believe but it is due to these participants that I have also ventured into fluorescent make-ups and wax make-ups," adds Bhave.

"In 1984 I visited Canada and UK and that is where I got the idea of making masks. I have made over 300 masks that the students have been using in their plays. In fact all my masks were used in a film called Ek Hota Vidushak. But unfortunately they were not used properly and that's how I stopped making them," adds he.

Bhave is also the author of a book titled- Rangabhusha, which is one of the few Marathi books written on make-up. The book also won the Sahitya Award by the Government of Maharashtra in 1992. "It was due to this book that I came in contact with writers like Pu La Deshpande, Kusumagraj and so on. Purushottam Karandak has produced actors like Rahul Solapurkar, Sonali Kulkarni, Mrunal Kulkarni. Names like Jabbar Patel, Satish Alekar have also learnt their basics here. Today, when they are doing well in the theatre of life, I am content with the fact that what initially made them glow in the limelight was my makeup," he concludes.

Source : expressindia.com