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Kolkata pujas focusing on 20th-century luminaries, rare folk music draw people
Among the oldest community puja organisers, the Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity in north Kolkata, has paid tribute this year to Leela Majumdar
KOLKATA:As big-budget pandals showcasing unique themes continue to draw large crowds on Kolkata streets, some puja pandals have also been in the spotlight for focusing on either near-extinct folk art forms of West Bengal or 20th-century luminaries such as writer Leela Majumdar and filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak.
Among the oldest community puja organisers, the Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity in north Kolkata, which dates back to 1937, has paid tribute this year to Majumdar, an iconic author of children’s literature who passed away in 2007 at the age of 99.
While the main pandal and the murals around the idol of Durga are based on the theme ‘Pakdandi’ (memory lane) and feature larger-than-life recreations of pages and characters from Majumdar’s books, buildings in the entire neighbourhood have been incorporated into the theme with graffiti and artwork painted on their walls.
“We started working on the theme from January onwards. Since there was an apprehension that the monsoon might affect the festival, we used waterproof materials,” Somen Dutta, secretary of the puja committee, said.
Kilometres away in south Kolkata, the puja organised by the 76-year-old Baghajatin Vivekananda Milan Sangha is a tribute to two century-old folk art forms from north Bengal: Gambhira songs from Malda and the Gomira mask dance from the Dinajpur region.
“Despite our limited budget, we try to do something every year to keep our art forms alive. We have brought exponents of Gombhira and Gomira from those regions to perform live every day so that people of Kolkata can understand their value,” Apu Saha, secretary of the puja committee, said.
The AK Block puja committee at Salt Lake, on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata, and the Behala Adarsha Pally puja committee in the south-west corner of the state capital have both paid tribute to Ritwik Ghatak this year.
While the theme of the Salt Lake pandal is based on Ghatak’s 1974 film Jukti Takko Aar Gappo (reason, debate and a story), Adarsha Pally focuses on his 1960 classic Meghe Dhaka Tara (the cloud-covered star).
“The din and bustle of city life has almost driven us into an artificial amnesia. Very few from the young generation have watched Ghatak’s immortal works. We should be thankful to these puja committees,” said Archit Mitra, a Selimpur resident who drove all the way to Behala to see the pandal.
