Dhak. Dhunuchi. Shiuli. Red of sindoor, and saris. Lights, gifts, greetings... Note, how readily this transforms into "Sound! Lights! Action!"
Durga Puja, so central to the Bengali life even along Thames, is a driving force not only of economy but social and cultural life too. Not just clothes and shoes, the best of Bengal's creativity, from literature to music and films, awaits the autumnal festival. How much of these integrate the Durga myth? How many scripts have Devi as metaphor?
Paran Jaay Jaliya Re, recently in headlines for copyright violation, showed Durga Puja complete with dhunuchi dance. But the celebrations were an excuse to tame the NRI from London: she turns Bong in a red sari! The sequence was inspired by Sanjay Dutt's dhunuchi dance in Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta: there, too, Durga was mere garnishing for a script that stands very well on Saratchandra.
the tiffany jewelry 925 exchangeDevi, the very word for the goddess, was the title of Ray's 1960 Sharmila-Soumitra-Chhabi Biswas starrer. It opened with a static shot of an ornamented statue of no, not Durga but Kali. However, the Dark Damsel of Destruction is but another form of the goddess who fought several demons, including Mahishashur. The worship gives Devi its analogy as Dayamoyee watches the fireworks with her father-in-law and nephew, then follows the procession to the river for immersion. Daya too is like clay moulded by the patriarch who believes she's Kali incarnate. She herself believes in her divinity when an ailing child placed at her feet miraculously recovers. But when her nephew dies in her care, she falls from her own eyes. Ray used the leitmotif of worshipping a woman to posit faith against hysteria, in order to condemn the destructive power of blind belief.
In 1984 Aparna Sen opened Parama with an ancestral Puja. Rahul, a US-based photographer related to the Chowdhurys, comes to photograph the celebration for an international magazine. As Raakhee in the eponymous role commences the ritual of welcoming the goddess, he discovers the ideal subject for his story on an Indian Housewife. Boudi to one, Bouma to another, Kakima, Mamima, Mashi, Pishi to a whole lot of others& in a single sweep she's established as another Dasabhuja, a superwoman adept at multitasking. "Yet, much like the multi-armed goddess in clay, Parama is powerless," says Sen.
But "I didn't think of all this while writing the script," she says, so it must've been there subconsciously. For, much like Daya in Devi, Parama becomes an outcast when the Life magazine arrives. From the photofeature, her family learns of her tempestuous affair with Rahul, and those who were elated at the prospect of a wider showcasing of her beauty now shun her.
Rituparno Ghosh acknowledged both Ray and Sen when he made Utsab (2000). It opens with Joy, grandson of Bhagawati (Madhabi Mukherjee) making a video film to take to America. "These vessels were used for the shooting of Devi," he intones. Elsewhere he feels "like the photographer in Parama, shooting a Puja that's part of my mother's ancestry." However, Durga Puja is not just the springboard of Utsab. Aatchala the formal structure arching over Durga and her brood depicts scenes of domesticity, the priest explains. That becomes the leitmotif for the film about four siblings who come home to spend five days with the matriarch. The celebrations would've masked the tensions and turmoil that beset the lives of Nishit, Asit, Parul and Keya. They tumble out when Shisir, a cousin who was thrown out for an affair with Parul, comes to buy the house.
In a direct echo of the Durga family, Bhagawati's brood rather than an individual Concord WatchOther articles:
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http://chud.com/community/index.php/public/blog/view/id_301/