In the world of Durga puja, where pandal-hoppers are increasingly drawing up their must-visit lists based on the track record of the theme-maker, here is news to make people add AK Block to their routes and head for Salt Lake this October. Bhabatosh Sutar, one of the biggest names in Puja art, has taken charge of the idol and pandal in the Sector II block.
The connection happened through block secretary Aritra Ranjan Sen, who had got Sutar to craft the idol at Uttar Byantra Sarbojanin puja in the locality of his factory in Howrah in its 75th year. “That was in 2013. Last year, our pandal on the history of spice trade was conceptualised by Raju Sarkar, a member of the artists’ collective Chander Haat, of which Sutar is a backbone. He took me to meet Sutar who had expressed a desire to work in Salt Lake. When we met, I reminded him of the Byantra idol he had made,” said Sen.
AK Block held its khuti puja on June 2, the day after the election. “Usually, we hold it on the day of Rathyatra. But our artist wanted to start work early. So we brought the day forward, choosing an auspicious time as soon as the election got over,” said Mousumi Chatterjee, a puja volunteer.
Sutar came over to attend the occasion. “I have always been curious why Salt Lake, despite being a neighbourhood with educated, well-off people, has not hosted any puja that has hit the headlines and won top awards,” said the artiste, who has drawn award judges and crowds to a little-known alley in Arjunpur, off VIP Road, over the last couple of years and brought renown to Arjunpur Amra Sabai Club.
Salt Lake, Sutar feels, does not have a theme puja legacy. “No major award has come here since 2003 (when BE East was the toast of east Calcutta),” he told The Telegraph Salt Lake, watching the priest holding the ritual in the park from a distance.
Though his lips are sealed as to what he will make, Sutar insists that his inspiration for the pandal comes from the idol itself. “Many artistes make the pandal first and then fit the idol into the setting afterwards. For me, it is the opposite. The idol decides what the setting would be. My enthusiasm for Puja will be gone if I am not allowed to make the idol.”
The idol for AK Block, he said, is nearing completion in his workshop. “I am doing this for 25 years. It will not be bad,” he assured curious residents in jest.
Mayor Krishna Chakraborty, who lives in adjacent CJ Block and is the local councillor, dropped by with her two-and-a-half-year-old grandson Trishan, who was visiting her. “Vote puja is over, it is time for khuti puja now,” she smiled.