Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna from Anand against a background of France's Saint-Paul de Mausole Church, actors of Rang De Basanti celebrating against the background of Claude Monet's The Spring at Vetheuil, the six stars of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. walking hand in hand in a park, and not Central Park mind you, the Park Scene painted by Yves Ganne — these are some of the quirky yet uber artistic works of 19-year-old Tabrez Alam. He started his unique artworks that he calls 'Somewhat pop art' early this year and has already put up 131 of them on his Instagram page @tabrezthird, which has a whopping 15,400+ followers.
"I had just discovered stalwart artists like Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh. When I went through his paintings, I found them unique in regards to the bright colours as well as the marvellous brushwork. Inspired by his painting The Starry Night, in particular the bright crescent Moon in the corner, I was reminded of the epic scene in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial where E.T. elevates the bicycle the boy Elliott is riding and they go on a ride through the night sky. That's when I decided to combine the two. The feedback I received was overwhelming."
With this he created his next masterpiece — again inspired by Van Gogh, this time his Starry Night Over the Rhône. He combined the painting of a deep blue night sky studded with bright yellow stars with a scene from Bollywood movie Masaan. "I felt that the scenes and many moments from Masaan would be suitable as a foreground for this painting. It showcases actor Vicky Kaushal sitting on the banks of the river and gazing at the stars," says Tabrez who got over 3,700 likes for this piece.
Earlier, Tabrez would select the paintings first and then checked for movie scenes or the right faces that would best match it. But now, his experience has taught him to identify the scene he wants to portray first and then assign the painting to be used in the background. He says, "When I see certain paintings, I immediately remember a scene or a song from a movie. For example, when I saw the painting of The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer by Vincent Van Gogh, it reminded me of a scene from the movie Dil Chahta Hai. Similarly, when I laid eyes on the painting of Extérieur de la gare Saint-Lazare, effet de soleil painted by Claude Monet, it instantly reminded me of a scene from The Pursuit of Happyness. According to me, the colours in the paintings should describe the emotions in the scene." For Tabrez, his art has not only garnered many followers on Instagram, but Frankly Wearing, a start-up that prints various themes on T-shirts, has printed some of his best artworks too. Now, that's something I'd wear proudly.
If you ever want to see Vincent Van Gogh's paintings in reality, then here are some places you'd need to visit:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and The National Gallery of Art in London are places where you will see two of his best known works based on sunflowers
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam houses his painting called The Yellow House where he hoped to establish a shared studio with some of his comtemporaries. The house is located in the town of Arles in South France The Musée d'Orsay in Paris houses his famous and beautiful masterpiece, Starry Night Over the Rhône
