All that I wanna do BY Sanjeev Khandekar Museum Gallery, Kala Ghoda & Pundole Art Gallery, Fort Mumbai-based Sanjeev Khandekar is better known as a Marathi poet, and something of his love of words - and metaphors - has seeped into his "twin installations". "They are the stories of modern man and woman, of our lives," says Khandekar. But there is nothing cozy about his tales. Khandekar styles him­ self as a critic of late capitalism - its mass production of goods, its stress on manic consumption and its obsession with goal-driven activity. At the Museum Gallery, the white walls are covered with endodermis-patterned wallpaper, the floors red-carpeted to look like microflora of the diges­tive system and suspended from the ceiling is "Aladdin's lamp col­ lection", fiberglass containers shaped like internal organs and lit up from within to resemble bloodied pieces of flesh. Khandekar's work stresses (somewhat heavy-handedly) that every part of our selves is a com­ modify. In the middle of this gory spectacle is Sri Sugarcane Juice Centre. TVs, radios and even identical Bal Krishnas have been put together on its machine-like shelves to create the impression of an endless production line of goods. But if capitalism is evil, Khandekar cleverly suggests that it is bewitching too. He enacts its double-edged promise of transfor­mation. The Pundole installation, titled Le Peau de Chagrin, is based on the French ovelist Honore de Balzac's story of the man who exchanged his skin for one that would fulfill his every desire, only to find that it was a recipe for death. A statue of Khandekar sits in the middle of the gallery, its private parts nibbled on by toy insects. The theme park atmos­phere is so exciting that we almost forget that this is yet another critique of capital­ ism, which uses all the things it criticizes (our attachment to shiny things that hold promise of a better life and a penchant for novelty) as tools for its own success. But, one could argue that this is a feature of any such critique. This is some­ thing of which Khandekar isn't unaware. "We can only work with the tools we have," he says. But Khandekar's works fall short in their execution. The installations' success depends on their ability to capture our imagination: like the huge "lanterns" glowing eerily in the gloom or the tiny insects creeping up the wall at Pundole. It's too bad that these hand-made compo­nents very often look tacky from up_-close. -ZJ Time Out Mumbai, 29th July 2005