Durga Puja this year seems to be all about nostalgia.
Taking inspiration from the good, old days, mandals are trying to recreate the era by going the traditional way.
“This year the decoration will be made mainly from bamboo and hay to look like a Bengal village, where Durga Puja started. The idea is to take people back to the roots of the festival,” said Supriyo Lahiri, cultural secretary, Powai Bengali Welfare Association.
They brought in the raw material — bamboo, hay and straw — from Assam. “To give a real village look, we will place a kumbhar chaki and ironsmith stall in the ‘village’ courtyard. Even the stalls will be made of bamboo and hay,” he added.
Inside the pandal, where the idol will be placed, the traditional village art form ‘Pat’ will be used to narrate Goddess Durga’s story. “The idea is to encourage the dying art form. Baul singers who perform at Shantiniketan will also be here.”
While the Powai association will present the village life, the Bengal Club in Shivaji Park will set up a temple that existed in feudal havelis of north Bengal. “That is where the traditional Durga Puja was actually celebrated,” said UK Mukhopadhyay, president of the club.
The Bengal Club has roped in Slumdog Millionaire art director Abhishek Redkar for the pandal. “We tried to find a picture of old haveli to recreate it. These temples used to be very big in the havelis, which housed huge households,” said Mukhopadhyay.
“We will also place chandeliers that were present in the havelis.”
The Bombay Durga Bari Samiti, which claims to be the oldest mandal in the city, is also going different this year.
“We will be celebrating Durga Puja through cinema. As Indian cinema is completing 100 years, we thought it will be the right thing to do,” said Soumitra Banerjee, president of the samiti.
Chandan Kumar Bhattacharjee, chairman of the social and cultural committee of the samiti, said: “We will show how Ma Durga destroyed evil in various films. The decoration too will present social messages on how to fight anger, hatred and other ‘evil’ feelings.”
