Window Seat | 28.8.22

Sikkim Exxpress, 28.8.22

 

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee | 28.8.22

Kumartuli and the Fading Art of Clay Idol Making

Durga Puja is the grandest festival of Bengal and among the Bengalis living across the world. The epicenter of the festival is Kolkata.  In 2021 The UNESCO accorded heritage status to Kolkata's Durga Puja festival.

On the centre stage sits the idols of Goddess Durga, usually made of clay and straw, which are made at a place of Kumartuli in the northern part of Kolkata ,once known as Sutanuti. These artisans have been making the idols for over three centuries now. However, despite the appreciation they receive from across the world-the art is facing problems, mainly of sustenance.

My journalist turned academician friend  Mrityunjay Chatterjee  has written on it in his  social media platform.

 

All does not seem well for the "celestial colony", on the bank of river Hoogly. The priceless art of clay modelling is fast moving towards oblivion for a variety of reasons coupled with government apathy. The new generation is opting out of the trade of their ancestors and choosing newer avenues of making a living, terming the trade as highly “labour- oriented, unremunerative and unenterprising”.Besides, the galloping prices of ingredients, lack of patronage, paucity of funds as loans from banks and financial organizations, the debt trap of crafty money lenders and the advent of the much cheaper dice-made images have all added to the fast decay of the profession. 

“It takes months of painstaking labour and finely tuned artistic acumen before beauty takes shape and assume the final form, be it goddess Durga or Kali, says famed artisan Nepal Pal. “No one is willing to take such pain. Our children are getting educated and opting out for more profitable, less labour-oriented professions”.

A member of the new generation, Arup Pal is a graduate from an art college. He has specialized in carpentry. He, like many of his age, has taken up a job with a private company. “Why opt for the ancestral profession when there is no money, no future. Clinging to soft sentiments does not help or yield two square meals a day. I have a job and security in life”. 

“We are an endangered class”, says Narayan Pal  regretfully. “We carry on as we are artists and when the idols travel to different pandals---there is   deep satisfaction  within. The appreciation of the people eases the relentless pain. We again look forward to the next year.”

Most of the workshops do not have a proper roof over their head.” The government had in 2009 promised a permanent colony—with workshops and housing besides an art gallery. Only two blocks out of four were built.

 

"We have approached almost everyone for help. Most of us live from hand to mouth since we have to deal with the vagaries of the weather with tarpaulin sheets covering our workshops. But nothing has so far been done”, says Pal. 

The trade is seasonal, says Babu Pal and “even after engaging every available hand in the family, including women and children,we can barely survive. The income generated out of the image-making takes us through six months of the year. For the rest of the period, we work in different trades, even as labourers to survive.”

When banks and other financial organizations deny them loan for lack of  collaterals, these artisans are forced to borrow from the crafty money lenders who charge high interest rates. ”We know we are being cheated. But what is the alternative?” he rues. 

The artisans are trying out different alternative ways to tide over the lean period. They are taking up work in terracotta and ceramic industries. 

As Kolkata prepares to celebrate  this year’s Durga Puja and the artisans work round the clock to give shape to the goddess and her children, one big   question looms large over Kumartuli--- will its art survive? 

The artisans helplessly look for an answer, for a light at the end the tunnel. 

Lal Singh Chaddha

I watched Lal Singh Chaddha (LSC) even as the protest against it and call for its boycott singed social media- for two reasons: one, because there was a call for a boycott (I had to see for myself what was there in the film that warranted a boycott) and two, because it was an official remake of Forrest Gump (1994), a film I had watched long back and liked.

Though Lal Singh Chaddha was little stretched towards the end, I liked it. So did my mother, who is in her early eighties and my wife, who is in mid-fifties. My son, who just turned thirty, said Amir Khan has turned self-obsessed, otherwise it could have been a better movie. He should have given Mona Singh (in the role of his mother) and Kareena (heroine) more screen space.

After watching LSC, I watched Forrest Gump (FG) again on OTT. It is available on Prime Video. And guess what- I liked LSC more than FG. The character of the mother and the heroine was better structured and chiseled in LSC. The director took care to remake the film factoring our cultural and aesthetic sensibilities.

Watch it if not for Amir Khan, but for the message it tries to give very subtly and for Mona Singh in the role of a gritty mother. What a power packed performance! And a quick Bharat darshan - from the cold desert of Ladakh to sand dunes of Rajasthan, from Kanyakumari to the North East to the gullies of Kolkata.

To conclude, I tried to find some valid reasons for the troll and call for boycott; found none whatsoever. May God grant the trolls some sense and sanity.

Page moves to the pages of history

Tim Page, the 'fearless' British-Australian photographer known for his war photographs, especially of Vietnam - died on 24 August of liver cancer. He was 78.

A jajabar (nomad could be the nearest English word in translation) since his birth- he even did not know who was her real mother- he wondered through out his life- from one place to the other. His father was a British soldier, who was killed in WW II. He was adopted very early in his childhood. At 17 he left home to wonder around. Somehow he landed into photo journalism and spent decades covering one battle field after the other- from Vietnam to Laos to the jungles of Africa. He covered Indo-China war. He also covered many other wars in his time, from Israel to Bosnia and Afghanistan, as well as the aftermath of war in places like East Timor and the Solomon Islands.

He was wounded several times during war coverage. He loved the art and glamour of photography. He also said “the only good war photograph is an anti-war photograph”. Page’s persona bounced between these realms for the rest of his life; one part rock’n’roll war photographer, one part peace ambassador decrying war and suffering.

His books include NAM, The Mindful Moment, Page After Page, Derailed in Uncle Ho’s Victory Garden and the forthcoming Nam contacts. 

Tail piece: Translation

Red Lion Climbing.

Could not understand a thing?

That is ‘Lal Singh Chadda’ in machine translation.

Lesson learnt: Don’t trust machine when it comes to translation.

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Journalist turned media academician Mrinal Chatterjee lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He also writes fiction and plays.

mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com