The unsung sheroes of Bengal have found a place in the pantheon of Durga Puja themes.
Dum Dum Tarun Dal has called its puja Kaal Bela 2023, after Samaresh Basu’s novel, but organisers actually refer to the dark times that descended on Bengal after the Dewani Rights let the East India Company take control of Bengal after the Battle of Plassey.
Responding to the call of times, the women of Bengal rose to rebellion against the colonial repression. And in doing so, they fought bravely, bore the British brutalisation and then almost disappeared from the annals of history.
The pandal has back-lit portraits of some of these women freedom fighters of Bengal.
Some of them have been identified, while most remain unnamed. Together with them, the Puja pays tribute to Netaji and his Jhansir Rani cadre in the INA.
As one enters the pandal, a portion of a submarine is hung overhead alluding to Netaji’s journey from Berlin to Sumatra where he travelled in two submarines, one arranged by the Germans and another by the Japanese.
But what catches the eye are the hand-painted reproductions of Netaji’s moments with Gandhiji and Nehru at a Congress session and with Emily Schenkl.
These photographs, obtained from various archives, were hand-painted and then mounted on oil tins, which served as reflectors with light thrown from behind.
Theme artist Pradip Das said: “The more we read, the more elaborate the pandal became.”
Another highlight of the pandal is the route of the Great Escape, like the boards at various train stations starting with Gomoh, and going on to Peshawar, Moscow, Kiel,
and Madagascar.
A collage of pictures from Netaji’s life, including the picture of the car in which he escaped from his Elgin Road home, attracts attention.
Das, a history buff and a visual designer, has done two large painted murals on the adjoining buildings of the pandals that have a three-dimensional effect.
One of the murals depicts the Biranganas of Bengal, the unsung sheroes, and another shows Netaji.
The idol is a tribute to Bhabatarini and Durga, as the sheroes have all been worshippers of shakti, said Das.
“The posture of the top two hands of the idol resembles that of Kali’s and her face is dark,” said the artist.
Durga here is surrounded by books, most of whose pages have been carved out to accommodate pistols.
“I tried to show how these brave women would hide the weapons when carrying them for rebels,” said Das.
Three magnum-sized combs hang on one side of the idol.
“The combs are feminine objects that one immediately associates with women. I tried to depict that age-old maxim ‘Je randhe, she chul o bandhe’ (the one who
cooks, does her hair too) changed to ‘Je chul bandhe, she bonduk o chalaye’ (the one who does her hair, also fires the gun)”.