Zayed Khan and Mandira Bedi Lead a Packed Opening for Padma Shri Dr Mukesh Batra’s 58th Photography Exhibition. Magic Moments – Through the Kiwi Lens turns the beauty of New Zealand into support for the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind. Padma Shri Dr Mukesh Batra’s 58th photographic exhibition, Magic Moments – Through the Kiwi Lens, opened to a packed house at the Kamalnayan Bajaj Art Gallery, Nariman Point, Mumbai.
Actors Zayed Khan and Mandira Bedi were the first guests to arrive, lending warmth and star presence to an evening that brought together cinema, art, business, diplomacy and philanthropy. The opening was also attended by Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar, Graham Riuse, Consul General and Trade Commissioner, New Zealand, Daniel Quer Confalonieri, Consul General, Argentina, Tibor Kovacs -- Trade Attache, Consulate General of Hungary, Malati and Mudit Jain, Nidhi Choudhari, Director -- NGMA, Kamalnayan Bajaj Art Gallery Director Pooja Bajaj, Mala Goenka, Honorary Secretary and Trustee of the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Vandana Sethhi among others.
At the heart of the exhibition is a deeply moving thought: what if a photograph could travel beyond the gallery wall and touch a life? This year, Dr Batra’s camera journeys across New Zealand, capturing glass-like lakes reflecting snow-capped peaks, coastlines shaped by wind and sea, forests glowing in filtered light and cities shimmering beneath the vast southern skies. Yet the exhibition’s most powerful story lies beyond these landscapes. Proceeds from the exhibition, which continues until September 12, will support the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind. There is a quiet poignancy in photographs born from light, colour and sight helping those who experience the world without seeing it in the same way.
"Photography has taught me to notice what we often rush past — a changing sky, a reflection on water, a moment of perfect stillness. But for me, the true value of these images begins when their beauty can serve a larger purpose. If what I see through my lens can, in some small way, help those who experience the world without sight, then these photographs become far more meaningful than anything I could simply hang on a gallery wall," said Padma Shri Dr Mukesh Batra.
Through his lens, New Zealand is not reduced to a postcard. A stretch of water becomes a moment of silence. A cloud breaks open above a mountain. A road disappears into green, while a sudden burst of city light interrupts the dusk. His photographs hold on to those fleeting seconds that disappear almost as soon as they arrive.
For Dr Batra, photography has always been about noticing — how light falls across a landscape, how stillness can sometimes say more than spectacle and how a single frame can preserve an emotion long after the moment has passed. That same sensitivity runs through his philanthropic journey. Over the years, he has used his photographic exhibitions to support numerous social causes, allowing the beauty captured through his camera to travel beyond gallery walls and into lives that need support.
Magic Moments – Through the Kiwi Lens continues that journey, bringing together the sweeping visual beauty of New Zealand and a cause rooted deeply in compassion. These photographs do not simply ask to be looked at. They ask to be felt. And in being seen, they help someone else see a little more hope.