Kolkata, Oct 17 (PTI): Kolkata’s Durga Puja pandals are exploring diverse themes this year, with Behala’s Debdaru Phatak Club drawing inspiration from 19th-century Kalighat paintings, Haridevpur’s 41 Pally Club highlighting transgender inclusion, and north Kolkata’s Kashi Bose Lane celebrating nature and community life through Warli art.
At Behala’s Debdaru Phatak Club, the theme seeks to reinterpret the distinctive aesthetics of Kalighat patachitra through the lens of modern urban life, offering visitors a glimpse of an art form that captured the changing social landscape of colonial-era Kolkata.
The club has collaborated with Team Upasana Chattopadhyay to conceptualise and execute the theme.
Kalighat paintings gained popularity in Bengal during the 19th century, when patua artists used bold visual expressions, humour, satire and irony to portray the transformation of urban society. Alongside religious and mythological figures, their works depicted everyday life, social conventions and the fleeting attractions of material pursuits.
The Debdaru Phatak Club has sought to revive this artistic legacy by adapting its visual language to the contemporary Durga Puja setting.
Titled ‘Kalir Atale Mahamaya’ (Mahamaya in the Depths of Kali), the theme brings together the Kalighat painting tradition and the worship of Goddess Durga.
“We wanted to connect two traditions deeply rooted in Bengali cultural identity — Kalighat painting and the worship of Maa Durga. Kalighat and Maa Durga are both deeply ingrained in the Bengali psyche. We have tried to bring the two together and present them as a unified theme. I hope visitors will appreciate what we have attempted within our limited means,” Atanu Ghosh, a key office-bearer of the puja committee, said.
Around a kilometre away, the 41 Pally Club in Haridevpur has used its theme, ‘O Men and Women’, to question discrimination against transgender people and call for greater acceptance of the community.
The theme challenges what the organisers describe as a culture of disdain, neglect, mockery and exclusion that pushes transgender people to the margins of society and makes them feel ashamed of their identity.
“The same Nature, the same Divine Creator who created you, created us too,” a spokesperson for the puja committee said, arguing that gender diversity is part of the natural order.
Drawing on Hindu mythology, the organisers refer to Lord Shiva’s form of Ardhanarishvara, representing the union of masculine and feminine energies, and Arjuna’s adoption of the identity of Brihannala during his exile in the Mahabharata.
The theme also invokes the divine forms of Krishna and Kali to underline the coexistence of dualities.
The club highlights the exclusion of transgender people from experiences traditionally associated with womanhood, including motherhood, while emphasising their emotional bonds with children.
“The Creator has denied us the experience of motherhood. The laughter of a child, the call of ‘Ma’ — these may belong to you. And yet, we consider ourselves the mother of every child,” the theme statement says, describing the joy and fulfilment transgender people find in caring for children.
Over 10 km away in north Kolkata, the Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja committee has chosen ‘Aadim’ as its theme for 2026, celebrating the simplicity of life and the age-old relationship between human beings, nature and the earth through the traditional Warli art form.
The theme draws inspiration from Warli art, which depicts everyday life, work, festivals, music, dance and the spirit of togetherness through simple lines, colours and geometric forms, Puja committee President Somen Dutta told PTI.
The theme, ‘Aadim’, represents a journey back to the roots, celebrating the elemental aspects of human existence and the harmonious coexistence of people and nature, according to the organisers.
Warli art, known for its distinctive visual representation of rural life, provides the central artistic inspiration for the puja, bringing together traditional expressions and contemporary presentation.
Dutta described the concept as an attempt to rediscover the beauty of life’s simple rhythms through art, colour and form.
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