Durga Puja: Bollywood scenes that capture the essence of the festival

The season of festivities has commenced. It is the time for Durga Pujo and Navratri. Bollywood has made umpteen usage of graphics that demonstrate this festive season to create hummable songs, significant scenes and heart-stopping visuals, abundant with metaphor. Let us take a look at some films that have portrayed the Bengali Durgo Pujo in such a way that made these films stand apart...

Amar Prem: This Shakti Samanta classic had only a short scene of Durga Pujo right when the film is about to conclude. It was an appealing manner of paying a tribute to the mother figure in the goddess. As a boy escorts his foster mother home, the city, too, is gearing up to welcome Durga. The metaphor of the mother’s homecoming was apparent and perhaps intended.

Ram Teri Ganga Maili: This Raj Kapoor film, too, had a short but immensely pertinent scene that depicted Durga Puja. The beautiful Ganga waiting for her lover to come back to Gangotri, has just given birth to a baby boy and her local guardian, Post-Babu, is elated. He beats a steel plate in order to proclaim his happiness about becoming a grandfather. That faint plate noise is merged with the thunderous music of drums being beaten at a Durga Puja celebration in Kolkata, when Naren (Rajiv Kapoor) is being coerced by his family to forget about Ganga and get married to the shrewd businessman, Bhagwat Chowdhury's daughter. Naren, who can neither speak up against his family, nor express his feelings to anyone, silently stares into the Goddess' eyes and conveys his heartfelt anguish to her, all in a gaze.

Devdas: This Sanjay Leela Bhansali magnum opus, which was based on a Bengali novel penned by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, introduced the viewers to an awe-inspiring Durgo pujo. While in the original novel, the two central female characters never met, in the film cinematic liberty has been taken and Paro (Aishwarya) and Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit) were shown dancing to the part-Bengali folk and part-psychedellic tunes of ’Dola re dola’ with the gathering enjoying the show. The entire sequence was a feast for the eyes.

Antarmahal: The premise of the entire film somehow revolved around the Durga Puja in this Rituporno Ghosh film. The story takes place in Bengal and is set in the end of the 19th century. Jackie Shroff played Bhubaneswar Chowdhury, who is an affluent and overwhelming zamindar. His main endeavour is to amuse and charm the British so that they honour him with the Raibahadur title. There are quite a few adversaries and he has to outwit them, so he decides to put Queen Victoria's face on the body of the Goddess Durga whose clay idol is made every year for the renowned Durga Puja. When the handsome sculptor (Abhishek Bachchan) gets attracted to Jashomoti (Soha Ali Khan), he makes a respected work of art – He carves a durga idol with Jashomoti's face on it, sealing her fate.

Parineeta: Set in Kolkata, Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta opens with a scene of Durga puja to show us the grown up characters of Vidya Balan and Saif Ali Khan. The sequence shows the budding friendship between Lolita (Vidya) and Shekhar (Saif) and her concern for him as she picks up the burnt coconut shells while he performs the traditional dhunuchi dance in front of the Durga idol to the tune of the throbbing beat of the dhaaks. Later in the film, Lolita repeats the act for Girish (Sanjay Dutt).