Resurgent Kumartuli counts down to Durga Puja

Crippled over two years by the pandemic curbs, artisans are hoping for a return to festivities this year

Idol-maker Indrajit Pal says that had Durga Puja been round the corner, he wouldn’t have to think too hard for a theme for his idols. He would have depicted the war against Ukraine in the backdrop of the pandemic, showing science being used to manufacture weapons as well as vaccines.

“But the war is likely to be over by then (Durga Puja begins on October 1 this year), so I will stick to COVID as my theme — what exactly I will show I am not going to tell you because someone might steal the idea,” says Mr. Pal, among the first in Kumartuli this year to begin work on the iconic Durga idols.

Mr. Pal, however, doesn’t want any acknowledgment for that — that he is among the first to start work on Durga idols this year; what he wants recognition for is that he recently made a suspense thriller, Black Rose, which he released on YouTube. “Idol-making is my profession, but filmmaking is my passion. I have made 14 short films so far. All it takes is just one film going viral, and then I shall be successful and rely less on idol-making, which is no longer profitable,” says the 50-year-old artisan, whose savings saw him through the pandemic.

He lamented that the idols he had sold for ₹1 lakh during pre-pandemic days fetched him only around ₹40,000 during the last two seasons, though the cost of the raw materials had shot up. “One kg of nails, for example, now costs nearly ₹100 — double of what it cost until recently. All we expect from customers this year is to pay us pre-pandemic rates,” Mr. Pal says.  

His thoughts sum up the general mood in Kumartuli — the idol-making locality in northern Kolkata — if life, including in Kumartuli, is going back to pre-pandemic days, so should the compensation. Quite a few workshops have started work on Durga and Kali idols simultaneously; reversing the order of the festivals, it is the Kali idols that will be completed first and stored away as Kali Puja takes place a few days after Durga Puja. The activity is slowly restoring the ‘busy’ look to Kumartuli, where photographers and visitors usually flock particularly during the months preceding Durga Puja.

“You can say I am neck deep in debt,” says artisan Swapan Pal, who hails from Santipur and is busy painting on the eyes on dozens of tiny unfinished idols meant for Gangaur Puja, observed by the Marwari community. “This year, I am hoping that work will be near-normal and I will be able to clear most of the debts. We have no skills other than idol-making,” he says.

Even regular customers sense signs of a return to normalcy. Salt Lake City-resident Poonam Ruiya, who is waiting to collect her set of idols for Gangaur Puja, says, “The last two years many families from our community used clay from their gardens to make symbolic figures for the puja. Not many were in a position to venture out to buy idols. It is such a relief to think that we will once again observe the festival in a normal manner. I am hoping the worst is behind us.”