Mamata Banerjee, mayor Subrata Mukherjee and former footballer Sailen Manna on the dais as singer Usha Uthup bids for one of Mamata?s artwork. Picture by Amit Datta

Has Didi gone Dada? I was referring to Dada, which, according to the Concise Oxford, is the name of ?an early 20th-Century international movement in art, literature, music and film, repudiating and mocking artistic and social convention and emphasising the illogical and absurd?.

Like its creator, her art is meant to subvert logic and all the canons of aesthetics.

Artfully enough, Mamata had already taken care of any objections that her critics may raise about its validity as art. Her well-publicised disclaimer was: ?Arre, I am no artist, no painter. I am just a vagabond dabbling with colours?. ?Every public figure has a shy, private space? and the exhibition Mamata 25 Hours in a Day was all about that carefully-concealed aspect of her volatile personality, said the invitation card.

But Mamata is no stranger to art. Her grungy look is carefully cultivated. Her crumpled cotton saris are often bought from a dermatologist-turned-designer, who comes from a family of seasoned politicians. And isn?t high drama Mamata?s USP? Besides her frequent aural assaults during mahamichhils, her attempt in 1996 to hang herself in public when her followers tried to force her to fight the elections in spite of her extreme reluctance, was telecast live.

Nobody, who had the misfortune of travelling on Rajdhani while she held the railway berth, can easily forget her rhymes being played instead of piped Rabindrasangeet in Hindi. It was difficult to decide which was worse.

Not one to give up easily, she has penned about 19 books, in case she did not have a captive audience.

Now, giving theatrics a rest, Mamata is trying the colour offensive. She has already contributed to the designing of the Trinamul symbol of grassroots and flowers.

So what has Mamata created for her exhibition that ended on December 30 at Swabhumi? It drew her admirers by droves and it netted more than Rs 2 lakh at a public auction.

Mostly maids in full bloom, peacocks, Ganeshas, Kali, tribals, bauls, Jagannath, arabesques, shrinking violets and giant flowers in colours that would make a scene painter blush and lines that would do a mehendi artist proud. It could not be termed child art for she had put in too much conscious effort into each work. Although the deities or objects she had tried to depict were instantly recognisable and they were firmly outlined with black, bronze or silver the images were vague and amorphous ? like jellyfish floating in a void. Somewhat like the bedizened maidens in pullovers over Bangla saris draped the Mamata way who kept a watchful eye from every corner.

To be fair to Mamata, she is no better or worse than our chief minister, who at a cement factory celebration in Sankrail, had executed in full public view a squiggle that vaguely resembled a fowl. Mamata?s depictions are more easily identifiable. Is there more method in Mamata?