In Kolkata, pujas are an annual upsurge and celebration of popular, quirky art
At Kumartuli, the potters’ quarter in north Kolkata, a torrential downpour has left a deep furrow on Mintu Pal’s forehead. Puja organisers have come to collect idols, but he tells them that they will have to return a day later. Disembodied limbs are scattered around. In the middle of all this mayhem is a queer sight. It’s a Durga idol all right, but it’s not one which you will come across every year. Pal has made his version of a “Chinese idol” to go with the Pagoda pandal of a north Kolkata puja which is recreating an “imaginary Oriental village”.

The traditional large eyes of the goddess has been replaced by more Oriental features, the fibre glass structure is smaller than your regular Durga idol. “Though traditional idols are very much in this year, one has to take some liberties when one is creating a work of art,” says Pal.
A world away from the slush of Kumartuli is Rashbehari Avenue where the gigantic pandal of Badamtala Ashar Sangha has been erected. It is a 50-feet structure built of dried grass and palm leaves and resembles a weaver bird’s nest. It can pass off as a bizarre pop-art installation. For millions of pandal-hopping Kolkatans, it will be just another pandal to appreciate before moving on to one made of saris or a pandal depicting an Ayurvedic village.

The Badamtala pandal has an ace up its sleeve. It boasts a filmi connection— it’s a brainchild of National Award-winning Bengali film-maker Gautam Ghosh and art director Ujjwal Chakraborty. “We have not erected a giant weaver’s nest here without reason. This is a depiction of nature as the force of good and those opposing it as evil. We are trying to convey the message that human beings are at the centre of the ecological crisis in the world. This is just another example of the flight of creativity that the city witnesses during puja,” says Chakraborty.

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