The inevitable juggernaut of life
rolls on relentlessly and we, as props, merely try to evolve with passage of
time. Some do it successfully and others like me are caught in a warp of reminiscence
making an obtuse effort of clinging on to every transitory moment. I’ve been
often engulfed in this abject state of nostalgia, and appreciatively I’ve managed
to emerge as a more positive and assured individual through these reflective
paroxysms. Durga Puja in Kolkata is one such piquant trigger in my life which
arrives annually and pokes my wistful genes through numerous innuendos and
allusions. Birendra Kishore Bhadra’s lilting Mahishasura Mardini (Annihilation of Buffalo Demon)
chants still captivate me every Mahalaya dawn, probably the only daybreak I’m
ever witness to considering the kind of doped sleepyhead that I am. 25 years ago, this was a routine imbibed by
my parents typically emphasising that Durga Pujas would not commence
spiritually if one did not hook on to the then radio recitals of this
octogenarian narrator. Initially I quivered in contempt, failing to decipher an
uncomplicated code where every year the entire Bengali kibbutz would wake up to
this very baritone and hail the onset of Devi Pakkha, such that it almost
became synonymous with the carnival itself. Bengalis have always been parochial
about their customs and habits, and this was nothing dissimilar. In 1976, All
India Radio having commissioned the Tollywood legend Uttam Kumar for the same
recital, owing to absolutely lukewarm responses had to replace him immediately
the next year, with Bhadra returning to the foil again. It has crooned on
unchanged ever since, and provided us all with the grand opening act of Durga
Pujas.
Born in 1978, a hefty part of my adolescence and youth had been exposed to a sort of transmutation amongst the Kolkata Puja organising fraternity primarily during end 80’s and 90’s. From traditional canopy-based pandals/mandaps, Puja committees gradually were seen to be moving to Structural Replicas like imitations of various Indian Temples, Shrines, Palaces etc. in an effort to exhibit something different from the ordinary and thereby attract the masses. The earliest harbingers of such Mandaps were the then usual
A Geometric Structural Design... Babubagan Club (2013) |
Yeah, sometimes it goes all ruefully wrong... This one, a Lego Land Replica... Swapnar Bagan Jubak Brindo (2009) |
I remember a few instances where such reproductions had actually caught the critics’ eye…. Lotus Temple (New Delhi) Replica by Santosh Mitra Square Sarbojanin in 1995 and Dilwara Jain Temple (Mount Abu) Replica by Jodhpur Park Sarbojanin in 2001 were two samples of structural simulations which have remained in my memory. Attempts were also made to create mock-ups of monuments from lands far and wide, beyond national boundaries. Even though some of those recreations managed to arouse public tumult by virtue of being out-of-the-box but most of them were typically forgettable and extremely lacklustre in terms of architecture and in art quotient. Be it the Egyptian Pyramids… the Babylonian Ziggurats, or even the more modern marvels like White House of Washington DC, St. Peter’s Basilica of Rome & Pashupati Nath Temple of Kathmandu…. each one of them were reconstructed albeit in a rehashed manner… People thronged these Mandaps due to mere inquisition instead of awe but ultimately these irrelevant pieces of exhibition remained very short-lived in the minds of the audience. Puja spectators were maturing and gradually starting to expect more from the organisers in terms of skill and creative aptitude instead of mundane rip offs.
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Mandap right out of the pages of Arabian Nights... 33 Palli, Beleghata (2008) |
The prototypical Bengali has
always been a movie buff, and hence the influence of the tinsel town has always
writ large on Kolkata Pujas. Durga images were often sculpted like contemporary
Tollywood & Bollywood matinee idols. In
the 1960’s when Suchitra Sen was the undisputed queen of Bengali filmdom, Lakshmi and Saraswati idols were known to have been
modelled on her face.
In the late 70’s & 80’s, artistes were asked to portray the
“Hema Malini smile” on Durga, the “Amitabh Bachchan hairdo” on Kartik while the
poor Asura remained a grotesque “Gabbar Singh” or “Shaakaal” look alike.
Hollywood’s debut in Kolkata Pujas can be dated back to the time when one of
the Clubs had imported the style of Durga-Demon combat from the west, by essaying
a Tarzan-esque Asura swinging from vines and about to leap on Durga, sword in
hand. Post Jurassic Park franchise in the 90’s, a lot of Clubs put up multitude
forms of dinosaur tableaux to cash in on the global dino-mania. There was a
point where it seemed T-Rexes were almost lumbering into puja pandals at every
nook and corner of Kolkata. Gory sight!!! But nevertheless, there were
countless takers and you could find the same trend continuing at
A Giant Kadam Flower.... Santoshpur Triangular Park Sarbojanin (2012) |
some Puja
Pandal even today. 1998 saw Saltlake FD Block Sarbojanin erect a 150 ft long,
90 ft high replica of the Titanic, which easily swept the popularity charts for
the year. Apart from the usual hype it induced, this was a major milestone for
pujas in Saltlake, who before this were almost like making up the numbers. A
few years later in 2007, the same Barowari came to limelight with the display
of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Castle. There was enough mass hysteria around it and
this ploy by the organisers paid off with lakhs of people swamping to witness
this spectacle. The gimmick also gathered momentum just before the Pujas with
JK Rowling and Penguin Books suing the Puja Organisers for copyright
infringement. Obviously
the matter was eventually resolved mutually and amicably through Delhi High
Court’s intervention.
A Buddha Façade rendering Gouranga Kuilya's message of Peace.... Tridhara Sammelani (2012) |
One of the early exponents of Wood Carved Installations... Chaltabagan Lohapatty (2006) |
Site Specific Installation meets Street Art for the first time in Kolkata... Susanta Pal's brilliant Sun God Wall Motif was the cynosure of his theme Dugga Utsav.... Badamtala Aasharh Sangha (2010) |
Amongst the theme-based Pujas, the visualisers deal with issues ranging from the spiritual and environmental to historical and mythological. This provides ample scope for conceptualization, and results in a common aesthetic strain which embodies the design of the outer pandal area, the mandap, the idol and lighting scheme. But there have been cases of utter disaster as well where the theme or installation was so cryptic that it turned out to be an absolute farce. Distinguished German artist Gregor Schneider, who was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 for his installation work Totes Haus u r, designed the pandal shell of Ekdalia Evergreen in 2011. The ambitious project - "It's all Rheydt in Kolkata 2011" was made of plywood and plaster, with the pandal resembling a "re-constructed" German road. This abstract form of work which recreated a three-dimensional road using typical techniques and material failed to muster any sort of appreciation from the public primarily due to the fact that most of the audience could not understand Schneider’s presentation. And most importantly, there was hardly any connect between the Pandal with the spirit of Durga Puja. The public feedback was so disapproving that Ekdalia Evergreen had to return to its traditional ways in the following year. Hence, it can be decisively concluded that thematic displays have not always reaped dividends for Clubs.
That is not to say, however, that
the making of Pandals can simply be fused with contemporary art, for there are clear
variances between the dynamics of the two endeavours. For starters, the
hybridity and impermanence of a theme pandal and its production by a
professional artist do not
automatically make it synonymous with installation
art, because unlike pandal-making, installation is a mode of representation in
modern art created at a specific art-historical moment in the discourse of the
avant-garde. Also, due to the mass nature of the festival, one's artistic
freedom in designing a pandal is often consciously compromised by numerous
factors, from ritual and iconographic stipulations to public taste. Contrary to
one's studio work, therefore, choices and treatments of themes in this context
have their limits. For instance, even though a female deity is the focal point
of this annual event, it is hard to imagine images of female nudity,
prostitution or pornography appearing in a pandal that addresses exploitation
of women as its theme. Eventually, the role of the market is vastly different
in the two spheres. The art market, which operates all year round, has hardly
anything to do with this season-specific commissioning and appraisal of pandals.
A beautiful Prasanta Pal display based on the folk art of Gond Tribals of Madhya Pradesh, which bagged them Asian Paints Sharod Samman for the year.... Ultadanga Sangrami (2013) |
A Contemporary Style of Open Canopy Structure potraying aboriginal Art form... Barisha Club (2011) |
I perceive Durga Pujas of Kolkata
to be the world’s largest, most popular public art exhibition. And probably the
only one that ends with the artworks being so methodically demolished and
eliminated. Only a city of anarchists could produce such outrageous beauties, and
then destroy it with such elation. That
is what this bizarre city called Kolkata has been, and will be!!!