The Olabibitola Sarbojanin pandal in Howrah and (below) Gouranga Kuila. (Gopal Senapati)

A Tamluk artist who creates themes fit for dreams was one of the big hits of this Puja, designing as many as six showpiece pandals that attracted huge crowds and won a slew of awards.

Gouranga Kuila, who chose art over agriculture against his family’s wishes, had shifted base to Dum Dum and spent one-and-a-half months working on the six pandals that had themes as varied as a doll’s house to an aquatic biosphere complete with coral reefs, shells and sea weed.

One of Gouranga’s creations this year was the pandal at Olabibitola Sarbojanin in Howrah, adjudged a Five Star Puja by the judges of the CESC The Telegraph True Spirit Puja awards.

Mechanically manoeuvred dolls made of synthetic fibre held centre stage, moving their arms, legs and heads to music. Dolls crafted from softer material hung from the walls and pillars. Dolls made of carton boxes that looked like wood from a distance lined the sides of the pandal.

Sanjukta Chowdhury, who had come all the way from New Town for a glimpse of the pandal on Navami evening, was mesmerised. “This is surreal. Such vivid imagination and craft,” she gushed, trying to hold her ground as a group of pandal-hoppers brushed past.

Gouranga’s vision of underwater life at Ahiritola Sarbojanin was north Calcutta’s most-talked-about theme, while three-dimensional patachitras made of thread gave the pandal at Mitali in Kankurgachhi a special touch. He did repeat the doll theme for Bharat Chakra in Dum Dum Park and Lake Town Adhibasi Brinda but with different types of dolls. At 66 Palli, Gouranga used cellophane to create the effect of a glass painting.

So how did he manage to work on six pandals at the same time?

“The assignments were difficult and the deadlines tough but I took up the challenge because I love art and making new things,” said Gouranga, who didn’t sleep a wink for three nights before Sashthi.

A self-taught artist, Gouranga came into the limelight after winning the national award for handicrafts in 2002 with an innovative flower vase. He has not looked back since.

If there is one regret, it is that his family didn’t support his decision to pursue art. “I have always liked to draw and paint. I would create things since my schooldays but when I decided to take this up as a profession, my family did not back me. They thought I had no future,” recounted Gouranga.

For a man who supposedly had no future, Gouranga hasn’t done badly in the past five years that he has been coming to the city to showcase his creativity. Back in hometown Tamluk loaded with laurels for his work this Puja, he is already planning what to do next year. And in between, there is Kali Puja and Jagaddhatri Puja in Chandernagore.

Doesn’t he pause to take a breath? “I never tire of working. It’s my passion,” he smiled.