This Puja Pandal Is Showcasing The Beloved Cartoon Characters Of Bengal

The Singhi Park Durga Puja in South Kolkata is one of the most popular puja pandals in the city. Every year, it attracts huge crowds and is a must-visit on people's pandal-hopping itineraries. This year, though, the crowds are even bigger. And what is drawing them in is the theme of the puja pandal&mdashthe creations of Bengal's iconic artist and writer, Narayan Debnath.

Bengalis have grown up reading comics about the antics of Nontey-Phontey, Handa-Bhonda, and Batul The Great. This year, the famous and timeless characters&mdashcreated by the award-winning artist&mdashare being highlighted in the pandal. And people just cannot get enough.

At the pandal, you can see the mischievous Handa pulling a fast one over Bhonda, the broadchested but clumsy Bantul the Great (who was inspired by the body builder Manohar Aich), and the antics of Nonte Phontey whose stories were set in a boarding school. You can see a bull chasing Nontey, and (just as in the comics) he has climbed up a lamp post, hanging on for dear life. People are stopping to take selfies with this 3D model figure. Another popular model is of Batul the Great taking a selfie. Even the Durga idol has a slice of Debnath's works in the shaaj (ornamentations). The entry points to the pandal look like an open comic book, to give the feeling that one is entering Debnath&rsquos studio.

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"We have brought his most famous characters into the pandal in 3D and 2D models. Artist Mithun Dutta has worked on these life-size models, recreating the characters exactly in the way that Debnath used to draw them," says Avijit Majumder, the general secretary of Singhi Park puja. In those days, artists would use Chinese ink and a pen that would draw in thin and thick lines. We have tried to recreate that effect.

Majumder says that the aim of the pandal theme was to reflect the spirit of Debnath's works. "He always wanted to make people laugh with his stories, and that's what we are trying to achieve here. "He always wanted to make people laugh with his stories, and that's what we are trying to achieve here. Lokera dekhchhi khoob anondo pachhey (we can see people are deriving a lot of joy)," he says. "Children, teens, and older people (who still have a child in them)&mdasheveryone is loving the theme."

The pandal has even used special lighting arrangements from Chandannagar to recreate popular cartoon characters from the West such as Mickey Mouse.

Debnath, who passed away in January 2022, was awarded the Padma Shri,&nbspthe Sahitya Akademi award, and has also received an honorary DPhil. An integral part of Bengali childhood for decades, the lovable characters of his comic strip include the duo Handa and Bhonda, Bantul the Great, and Nonte-Phontey.

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"At that time, when his cartoons first debuted, the cartoons available to us were from abroad (mostly from the West)," says Majumder. "The local cartoon scene was absent. He created the characters of his comic strips by observing the neighbourhood boys." That's how Nontey-Phontey, Handa-Bhonda and their antics was born.

The Information

Getting there Singhi Park is located in Dover Lane, near the Gariahat Police Station in South Kolkata. The area has many cafes and eateries where you can drop in for some snacks and beverages.