Talk of Durga Puja and the first thing that comes to our mind is the idol of goddess Durga and the artists who painstakingly create them. From the late 90s, the involvement of the artists went beyond the mere making of the idols ? contemporary artists gained new heights as novelty in creation was encouraged and Durga Puja became a medium of showcasing the artistry that was long hidden due to the traditional notions and rituals.

The artisans of Kumartuli are attuned to the profession and the art passes on from one generation to the other. Qualified artists create spectacular installations and add newer dimension to the festival. Today, it is a one man show ? the decorations, themes, idol, music, lighting ? everything is decided by the artists. Pandals are no longer just pandals ? they are more works of art. For instance, this year, ?Rasbehari Badam Tala Ashar Sangha? has made the pandal in the likeness of a humming bird?s nest. In ?Dum Dum Park?, a fishing village has been recreated with pottery, ponds, and fisherwomen. At Santosh Mitra Square they have recreated the Statue of Liberty this time.

Through the lightings and decoration they highlight the current issues like global warming and need for practising green methods in daily life.

Creativity at its best

There are 30-40 artists involved in the pujas, but among the ones really pushing the envelope are Sanatan Dinda, Susanta Paul and Bhabatosh Sutar. ?I believe the professional artists working in the puja arena today contribute to enrich the larger visual culture of Durga Puja. While the sponsors and organisers of a puja usually have a voice in the making of a pandal/idol, its conceptualisation and execution primarily depend on the artist,? says Sunanda K Sanyal, Associate Professor of Art History and critical theory at The Art Institute of Boston, Lesley University .

According to Sanyal, who is making a documentary on the pujas A Homecoming Spectacle, these artists are doing a revolutionary work, but laments the state of art in West Bengal as it is still limited to the modernist style. He hopes the puja work of these artists will have a bearing on the art work and take it further. ?Sutar and Paul, have raised pujas from the days of copying temples and old structures as they have come up with completely original and indigenous ideas,? says Partha Dasgupta, an artist.

Paul is a student of textile designing and understands the characteristic of the material he uses very well. His structure is airy and weaved. The theme he is doing this year is based on the ?tantrik cult?. He is installing many trishuls all around the pandal and has mostly used hues of red and golden to bring out the effect. From behind the idol, laser beams would emanate. And on top of the idol, there are eight inverted cone structures made of magenta-coloured tissue depicting the eight Durgas, who together killed the Mahisasur. Unlike Paul, Sutar makes the idol on his own, maintaining the harmony between structure and sculpture. He uses folk elements in his work. In one of his works this year he has foregrounded the culmination of power of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswar in creating Durga. He is doing this by making the pandal in the shape of a chula (oven).

For Dinda, the idol is central. Also, he plays with the interiors. Says Sanyal: ?Dinda?s involvement in this work is informed as much by his religious sentiments as by his artistic convictions and skills. He sees the work as part of his homage to the goddess, but that doesn?t (according to him) come in the way of his creative decisions. He follows rituals such as fasting and bathing before beginning to build his idol. However, he would never make a pandal on Titanic or Harry Potter, and detests such efforts as dreadful examples of frivolity in the serious context of Durga Puja.

Paul, on the other hand, treats idol-making more as an artistic exercise, and got involved in it from 1998. He sees the pandal as a space where he can demonstrate his installation and regards the idol as sculpture. If he carves an idol from wood (as he did in the past), he sees it as a dead object until he, the artist, breathes life into it. Paul has been working with noted director Rituparno Ghosh from Bariwali . Paul won the national award 2002-03 for costume designing for Ghosh?s Chokher Bali. Although he has a boutique, Steps, he hardly gets time for it as pujas have become his main occupation. ?Rituparno da is going to act in a movie for the first time but I am not able to work with him this time because I am busy with the pujas. I have become a professional now,? Susanta puts it in a matter of fact way.

Not all artists are as comfortable as Paul or Sutar in admitting that pujas is now a profession for them. Dinda gets irritated by the fact that the masses know him as Mritshilpi (idol-maker) and his identity as a painter is unknown to them. ?At least they know me, so I try and take it positively,? he says. He asserts that the puja work is not a bread-earner for him and as a principle he doesn?t entertain any club other than his locality, no matter what the price.

The contemporary artists until a couple of years ago would make fun of me saying ?Susanta must be putting up bamboos during puja?, but I never cared and things are different now as they have come to recognise the creativity and hard work. Paul, however, feels differently. ?What is the difference between the artisans of Kumartuli and these artists as both of them are making the same things,? Paul opines.

Sutar, who majored in Western painting in 2000, in fact had no qualms in admitting that the reason why he started was neither creative satisfaction nor religious attachment, but money. ?I was in college and needed money, so I tried my hand. But after the first year, I realised that this too could be as creative and as innovative as my art work,? says Sutar.

Sutar and Paul both do two-three pujas every year. The money they get is not bad, they say. The established artists earn between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh per pandal. Sutar is the highest paid at present, earning 4.5 lakh per pandal, as he makes the idol on his own. The artists admit that just the puja do not sustain them throughout the year, but it forms the major part of their income. Rest of the year they have exhibitions of their work and Paul has his boutique and film work. New artists start with anything between Rs 35,000 and Rs 50,000. Kumartuli artisans charge between Rs 10,000-70,000 per idol. Decorators take Rs 60,000-1 lakh per pandal.

Puja budget in yester years was between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 4 lakh minimum. This year the range has been between Rs 8-10 lakh to a maximum of Rs 30-50 lakhs for clubs such as College Square, Entali, and Md Ali Park.

Paul doesn?t find anything wrong in art students entering pujas. He, in fact, wants the art college to include installation art, the kind done by them during the pujas and is even patronising some of these boys. After all the satisfaction an artist gets from 10-15 lakh people watching and appreciating his work is possible only in the pujas and not in galleries.

Moreover, there are awards for both the idols and pandals and winning them becoming a prestige issue for clubs, especially the Asian Paints award, which has been there for the last 25 years.

However, one thing that really irks them all is that appreciation of their creativity and hard work remains confined within the state. Says Sanyal, ?I don?t know what all these innovations will lead to. Most of the art world, though interested in these activities, is somehow unmotivated to generate a continuing dialogue about it.?