Puja pandals pay homage to Tagore

MUMBAI: Conservative at best, this was the early twentieth century. The world was stunned by the beauty of love poems that arose from the heart of a Bengali bard who hailed from a traditional 'bhadralok' family. Gitanjali stormed the literary scene like few poems had done before, rewarding its creator Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore with the first Literature Nobel outside of Europe.
Driven by a sense of responsibility towards their shared heritage, some of the oldest Durga puja pandals in the city are dedicating this year's celebration to the memory of Gurudev whose 150th birth anniversary was observed May 7.
In an interesting departure from the norm, the Bombay Durgabari Samiti-that helms the 80-year-old Tejpal Hall celebration-has chosen to adapt the popular novel Chokher Bali for the stage rather than simply pick up one of Tagore's plays that come complete with dialogue and cues. Bengalis know this as the writer's longest novel that was serialised in a regional periodical for one year. "Most of us who belong to the older generation are familiar with the works of Tagore," says Madhuchanda Mukhopadhyay, who has directed the adaptation. "We sifted through his plays but settled on this novel for its relevance to modern times. Chokher Bali unravels a complex tale of relationships between two men and two women, and I am confident that the younger generation of Bengalis which sometimes feels that Tagore is outdated, will revise its view."
The president of the Bombay Durgabari Samiti, Salil Dutta, speaks with rare feeling when he rues how the Viswa Bharati University in Santiniketan lost the copyright to Tagore's works in 2001. "Since then, anybody is free to use and adapt his writings and songs as they like. As a result, Bengal is witnessing the traditional Rabindra Sangeet dissolve into all manner of rock and jazz," he says. "We are showcasing the form as sanctioned by Viswa Bharati."
But the community is torn between the need to preserve the traditional format and adapt it to suit modern tastes. "We had a fusion performance of Rabindra Sangeet yesterday and it was quite enjoyable," says Utpal Mukhopadhyay, president of the Bengal Club whose Shivaji Park puja is now in its 75th year. Incidentally, his wife Madhuchanda is directing Chokher Bali for Tejpal.
"In several quarters of the country you will find that Tagore is being re-evaluated as a writer. Amidst the churning over his theme and his style, most people have arrived at the conclusion that he was indeed a phenomenal amalgam of literature, painting, performing arts, theatre and of course music,'' says Mukhopadhyay.
The club's venue has been converted into a part-memorial to Tagore with blow-ups of his paintings. Pointing to a set of queer scribbles on the wall, he says, "Do you know that Tagore even scratched out errors to a pattern? He would write by hand and the words or passages that have been scratched out resemble either a bird or a tree."