From Kahaani to Utsab, examining how Durga puja has been depicted in Indian cinema

Durga festivities have always made for good cinema. The festival’s elaborate visuals contribute in establishing an atmosphere of grandeur and richness needed for cinematic opulence on screen. Mostly hailed as the central festival of West Bengal, Durga Puja sequences in films have always added the required dollop of dramatic oomph to any narrative.

One of the most poignant additions of the Durga festivities was Sujoy Ghosh’s 2012 sleeper hit Kahaani. Starring Vidya Balan as the harrowed and pregnant ‘Bidya’ Bagchi, Kahaani was everything that modern-day Kolkata represents. Ghosh, almost as a hat-tip to the city’s obsession with the festival, stitched the Dashami bhashaan (immersion) celebrations with the film’s climax.

A symbolism of Shakti overpowering all evil, Vidya’s final move to track down her husband’s killer was juxtaposed with the deity’s return to her abode after gracing earth for a few days. With multiple close-up shots of idol immersions in the Ganges, Ghosh populated his frames with scores of women celebrating shidoor khela (a ritual where married women apply red vermillion on each other, as a sign of a prosperous married life). The addition of such sequences was purposeful, so as to draw a parallel with Vidya and her ill-fate at losing her husband. But it also highlighted her final victory in avenging his murder. Vidya’s ultimate ploy of mingling with the crowd by donning the traditional white sari with red border was Ghosh’s way of insinuating that the deity had her own way of empowering women in trying situations.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas (2002), an adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel, also used the puja sequence to highlight the director’s signature dramatic overtness. Bhansali veered away from the source material and used the backdrop of festivities to mark the meeting of the two women protagonists Parvati (Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan) and Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit-Nene). With opulent set designs and a riveting score by Ismail Darbar, Bhansali placed Durga puja at the centre of all action.

Pradeep Sarkar’s retelling of another one of Chattopadhyay’s works, his 1914 Bengali novel titled Parineeta, also had sequences from Durga puja that helped build the milieu of the period film. Sarkar, throughout his film, introduced typically Bengali aesthetics in the plot, which ensured the film was well representative of its times. He also used the festive rituals of Durga puja as a dramatic thread to depict celebration of a hapless family finally being able to gain some agency. Multiple shots of Sanjay Dutt performing the ‘dhunuchi naach’ (the traditional festive dance) were deftly input to symbolise a sense of euphoric merrymaking. It depicted how Lalita (played by Vidya Balan) managed to disentangle her family from Naveenchandra Roy’s (played by Sabyasachi Chakrabarty) financial con.

Sarkar, in fact, placed the puja sequences twice in the film – one which showed Shekhar (played by Saif Ali Khan) performing the dance (evidently showcasing happier times) while Dutt’s version was shot with piercing background scores and sharp edits, understandably alluding to a climactic scenario.

The other feature film that brilliantly instilled the essence of Durga puja seamlessly within its narrative is Rituporno Ghosh’s seminal film Utsab (2000). Only the sixth film in his limited filmography, Utsab was a culmination of the past and present, which the director aptly captured in a cinematic tableau. It was the perfect blend between dwindling legacies, modern influences, and a family’s utmost efforts to hold on to traditions.

Ghosh neatly placed the film’s narrative at the backdrop of a palatial Bengali aristocratic household, with an ageing matriarch, who readies herself for the annual event in the family. Her sons and daughter congregate on the special occasion to share common nostalgia and make new memories, but the delicately balanced equations unfurl to expose complex interpersonal dynamics. Throughout the film, Ghosh made use of the deity (or Pratima) as a symbol of the lapse in time and memory. The idol gradually became the physical manifestation of a once-prolific family line that now dwindles with a threat of complete extinction.

The idol and its varied meta-cinematic references have often adorned great movie plots and bolstered the narrative into more layered territories.