Filmmaker Tapan Sinha would have turned 100 today and, to mark this milestone, a Durga Puja pandal in the city is gearing up to pay tribute by displaying various souvenirs of his work, spread across 25,000sq ft.
Dakshindari, at the Ultadanga end of VIP Road, is where theme-maker Anirban Das has chosen to showcase his theme, Singhabahini, for the club Dakshindari Youths. “The theme is a play on the word Sinha, standing both for his surname and the lion, the mount of Goddess Durga. The word refers to Durga herself as also a carrier for Sinha’s works,” explains Das.
A vintage vehicle is being built modelled on the bus that was shown when the title credits were rolling at the start of the 1959 film Kshaniker Atithi. It stands parked flanked by two wing-like metallic contraptions. “We will screen a montage of his film clips in hologram on the wings in the evening,” Das said.
Further up, an oversized wheelchair and an oversized harmonium stand at a distance from each other, in a nod to Sinha’s films of the same names. An installation has been created with hand-painted replicas of 27 of Sinha’s film posters. The shell of a yellow taxi stands parked, with some of its parts lying around as if after a bomb blast, to stand for the tumultuous times chronicled in his Calcutta trilogy.
Cutouts of key figures from films like Banchharamer Bagan, Adalat O Ekti Meye, Jhinder Bandi and so on line the ground level of the walls which have portraits of actors who acted under his baton. A song from Harmonium, Aha chhal kore jol, sung by and picturised on Chhaya Devi, will play on the soundtrack. At a far corner, the boundary wall has the figures from the poster of Nirjan Saikate painted on layers of corrugated sheets.
A replication of a commemorative stamp on Tapan Sinha on the pandal wall alongside paintings of actors he had cast
The pandal is the head of an elephant, with its trunk raised in a salute, in tribute to Sinha’s award-winning 1978 Hindi film Safed Haathi. Above the idol the canvas has illustrations of a film being shot.
Premendu Bikash Chaki’s light adds a serene touch to this centenary tribute.
“We are inviting cast and crew members who had worked with Sinha on October 2 to mark his 100th birthday,” Das said.
Partha Varma, the secretary of Dakshindari Youths, remembered Anirban discussing Tapan Sinha’s centenary among several options as themes. “Tapan Sinha is not discussed as much as Satyajit Ray or even Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, though we have all seen so many of his films like Golpo Holeo Sotyi, Kabuliwala, Banchharamer Bagan or Baidurya Rahasya. Many of our club members were doubtful as to how many in the current generation would know of Sinha. I felt we are responsible for this lack of awareness. So I took this up as a challenge. A fimmaker of his calibre deserves a grand centenary tribute. I am glad Anirban has decided to offer one on a Durga Puja platform,” he said.