Cleverly placed in front of the entrance, her work also sums up the two features that stand out in almost all the pieces on display: a remarkable use of colour and an attention to detail. Take, for instance, the stunning marriage of vermilion and orange in Akhilesh's Oh My Gogh! Again Untitled, with little motifs that defy description. Fascinating digital patterns make up Baiju Parthan's hawkmoth, getting smaller and more spaced out towards the edges of the wings to suggest fragility. And the attention to minutiae in the Sanam C.N. piece is what makes it spectacular - each leaf, twig and branch in his enchanted forest is drawn with painstaking perfection.

Stark contrasts and smouldering energy - consider the untamed swoosh, splatter and splash of saffron and black in Kingshuk Sarkar's acrylic or Shakila's deft collage which suggests brutality without showing a drop of blood - leave the viewers both engrossed and disturbed. So do the subtle variation of tones and the deceptive sense of calm in Dharmanarayan Dasgupta's delicate use of pencil colour on Nepal paper and Ganesh Pyne's adroit wielding of crayons and charcoal in Narak.

Roul Hemanta's diptych is as riveting up close as it is from afar. The big picture presents the bare bones of a skeleton; closer scrutiny reveals that it is made up of white silhouettes of those who must work themselves to the bone to survive. Endless lines of pots and pans and shanty-dwellers have been peeled out of a background of the ubiquitous corrugated sheets that make up their homes. Where Hemanta portrays the squalor of city life, Manish Moitra shows the bustle in his vignettes of a colourful Bazar.

Others, like Shreyasi Chatterjee, turn to nature instead. In Toposcape I and II (picture top and above) - two imposing canvases presented side by side - Chatterjee captures the serene tones of an ocean on a clear day, ornamenting it with the concentration of a jeweller using her signature style of patchwork, appliqué, stitches and paint. On the other hand, Paramjit Singh's impasto oil on canvas shimmers with the heat of the sun and smells of wet earth and freshly trampled grass.

But it is Jamini Roy's small, chipping - many of the master's works have not aged well owing to his technique of treating the board before painting - landscape done in gouache that takes one's breath away. The close stippling by his fitful, skipping brush makes the glimmering light and dark of dusk descending over the verdant countryside of Bengal come alive. Rubbing shoulders with Roy are other virtuosos like M.F. Husain with a vivid ink on paper, Sailoz Mookherjea with a poignant watercolour, Somnath Hore with a chilling bronze sculpture of an emaciated man and Lalu Prasad Shaw with his customary Babu and Bibi.

Yet, newer talent like Abir Karmakar with his take on Bhupen Khakar's Man with a Bouquet of Plastic Flowers and Anju Dodiya with her whimsical Head in the Clouds also hold their own. The churning that the show causes within the viewer finds reflection too - Yusuf's work shows seismic drama; rugged formations in muted colours heave and float as if being pulled by centrifugal forces.