‘Debipaksha’ to ‘Utsab’: Bengali films celebrating the spirit of Durga Puja

It's that time of the year when sky is flecked with the cotton candy clouds, the sweet fragrance of shiuli flowers makes us nostalgic, and the same old beats of the dhak finally announce Maa Durga's arrival from Kailash to our homes and hearts. And, when everything is done and dusted, there are films which celebrate the spirit of Durga Puja. It’s a great time to binge on films to soak up the festive spirit, especially when pandal hopping is not an option this year due to the pandemic. Here is a list of Bengali films which have used the spirit of Durga Puja nicely.

The plot revolves around a family crisis that starts on Mahalaya (the very first day of the Puja fortnight) and encapsulates Ishaani's (Arpita Pal) inner dilemma about motherhood and its boundaries. ‘Bodhon’, directed by telecom engineer turned filmmaker Ayananshu Banerjee, is an ideal tribute to all those caring women in our lives. The title also symbolizes the invocation of Maa Durga to mark the countdown of the 10-day festival.

‘Devi’ (The Goddess) tells the story of a girl Dayamoyee (played by Sharmila Tagore) who was forcefully married to Umaprasad (played by Soumitra Chatterjee). Dayamoyee takes care of his father-in-law Kalikinkar Choudhuri who believes Dayamoyee is actually an incarnation of Goddess ‘Kaali’ and she has to be worshipped. The whole village also worships Dayamoyee. Her husband Umaprasad, a school teacher outside the village, can’t convince Dayamoyee because she also starts to believe the ‘incarnation of Goddess’ story. But her so-called belief soon becomes a tragedy.

It’s been one of the most important films by Rituparno Ghosh which received Golden Lotus Award for Best Director. On the backdrop of Durga Puja, the film is a nice commentary showing many emotional currents passing among a family and relatives. Some of the industry’s big names like Madhabi Mukherjee, Mamta Sankar and Prosenjit Chatterjee played key roles alongside Rituparna Sengupta. The story starts with the Durga Puja celebration in an elderly lady's spacious, ancestral house but the fragmentation of the joint family soon changes the scenario. Rituparno used Durga Puja as the ideal peg on which hangs the film.

‘Debipaksha’, directed by Raja Sen, is all about Haimanti (Rituparna Sengupta), a survivor of a brutal sexual assault who courageously decides to stand against her molester when her younger sister's safety is also threatened. Transformed by the violence of the evil moment, Haimanti finally lifts the trident of her priest father's presiding deity, and manages to plunge it into the tormentor. It’s symbolic to Shakti prevailing over evil once more. Decimation of Asura lifts the spirit of Maa Durga also. Good performances backed by a strong cast, led by Soumitra Chatterjee, make this film a must watch for every Bengali movie buff.

Kaushik Ganguly's 2017 hit ‘Bishorjon’ has received several prestigious awards including the National Award for the best Bengali cinema. The audience loved the characters played by Abir Chatterjee, Jaya Ahasan and Kaushik Ganguly. The story of the film revolves around a Muslim man from India and a Hindu widow and it’s a cross-border love story. Ganguly's character Ganesh no doubt adds the cherry on the cake. The film gained such popularity that it convinced Ganguly to make a sequel. The second film, titled ‘Bijaya’ is slated to release soon.

A classic Satyajit Ray work and our very own Feluda - your Durga Puja playlist is incomplete without ‘Joy Baba Felunath’. The mysterious disappearance of a family heirloom and a murder during Durga Puja against the backdrop of Banaras throw a challenge to private investigator Prodosh C. Mitter, aka Feluda (Soumitra Chatterjee) to launch his 'mogojastro' to bring an evil businessman to justice. This is the Soumitra Chatterjee we will remember forever. Gentle and tough, soft yet unbroken and intelligent but humble; wielding his famous Magajastra, Feluda became a complete man and a balanced human being. Surely an evening of fun for entire family!

Largely based on Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay's popular short story 'Protima', Rituparno Ghosh directed by ‘Antarmahal’ is a poignant tale of misogyny and oppression with religion being a metaphorical aspect. It’s a bold story intertwining the disturbed personal lives of an elderly zamindar (Jackie Shroff), his two wives (Roopa Ganguly and Soha Ali Khan), and a potter (Abhishek Bachchan) assigned to craft the Durga idol in the image of Queen Victoria. ‘Antarmahal’ is such a film you can watch in a romantic dine-in date on a crowded Puja night.