PROFILE

If you’re a fan of traditional handicrafts like dokra, terracotta pottery, kantha embroidery or the Bangla tant weave, Leela, a signature home accessories brand has plenty in its repertoire. The brainchild of architect Dulal Mukherjee and his daughter Malini Mandal, Leela was launched by the Mrittika Foundation trust that they set up in 2006.

The products, designed by the father-daughter team, are created by about 25 artisans in their workshop in Badu, a village near Calcutta. “The focus is on giving the traditional tale a modern twist,’’ says the 72-year-old Mukherjee.

So, the Leela kantha wall hangings sport abstract designs instead of the usual floral motifs or rural scenes, while large dokra figurines have lesser detailing as compared to traditional ones. There are ceramic figurines inspired by dokra while embroidered jute wall hangings, handloom saris and stoles flaunt geometric patterns.

“The idea was to give handicrafts contemporary designs and to cater to a niche market,” says Mandal, 39. It all began in 2000 when Mukherjee decided to use his farmhouse in Badu to encourage Bengal’s traditional handicrafts. So, he installed a potter’s wheel in a corner of his garden and hired a terracotta artisan from Hooghly to work on it.

The architect soon found himself discussing designs and patterns with the artisan. Buoyed by the feeling that he was providing a livelihood to the artisan as well as expressing himself creatively, Mukherjee hired more artisans and expanded the range of products to dokra and even handloom.

However, the products were not put up for sale till 2006, when Mukherjee nudged his architect daughter into assisting him. After graduating in 1998 from the TVB School of Habitat Studies, Delhi, Mandal had worked in Dulal Mukherjee & Associates till 2002. She had then decided to switch from full-time to part-time work in order to look after her daughter.

In 2006, she held an exhibition of the handicrafts produced at her father’s farmhouse and also started designing products herself. She now works full-time with the trust, designing and co-ordinating with the artisans while Mukherjee too visits the farmhouse once a week.

Today, the farmhouse has 10 resident artisans and weavers while 10 to 15 girls arrive daily from Badu to embroider jute mats and wall hangings. There are four workshops and a pavilion for them to work in. The raw materials are sourced from within the state — the jute, wool and brass from Calcutta, the mud for the dokra casts from Bankura and Bangalore silk thread from Shantipur.

Leela products are retailed through annual exhibitions, held at places like the Calcutta Rotary Sadan, the German Consulate lawns and Bangalore’s Raintree store. The items, priced between Rs 500 and Rs 10,000, have found buyers in people like actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Rupa Ganguly and industrialist Harsh Neotia.

Now Mandal plans to convert one of Mukherjee’s apartments into a studio where she’ll meet clients by appointment.

Trends

“Since the market is brimming with traditional handicrafts, people are now veering towards those with contemporary twists,” says Mandal. So, home accessories like mats and tapestries with abstract designs are a big draw. In terracotta, Mandal has noticed people preferring large items such as vases. The Leela vases are made eye-catching with detailing in leather, metal, cane or rope.

The scales tilt in favour of muted colours such as beige and eucalyptus green in woven home accessories. However, Mandal finds that her foreign customers usually prefer bright yellows and reds.

PROducts

The 22-in long dokra sculpture of a reclining woman and her child is tagged at Rs 8,000. Leela’s dokra products are given an antique look by polishing just the features or details and using a compound to give them a greenish tinge. The Rs 1,000 green ceramic showpiece of a woman playing with her child, that’s influenced by dokra sculptures, is equally fascinating. There’s also a group of three ceramic abstract figures in a huddle at Rs 2,500.

“The jute wall-hangings and mats are a take on the traditional puja asans (mats),” says Mandal. Embroidered in wool, these have patterns ranging from the tendril-and-leaf to geometric and abstract designs. There’s a red mat with embroidered leaves in the middle against an overall herringbone design and another wall hanging with an abstract pattern embroidered in black, grey, red and white. While the wall-hangings are priced upwards of Rs 2,500, each mat costs Rs 4,000 and above.

Photographs by Rashbehari Das