A Durga Puja committee in Calcutta will present 'Gambhira', the popular folk form of Malda district, as a live show on its pandal premises during the upcoming festive days.

A 10-member team of Fatepur Gambhira ‘Dol’ (team) based in Malda Englishbazar was contacted in July this year by members of the Baghajatin Vivekananda Milan Sangha, located at the Bagha Jatin Station Road in south Calcutta.

"We got the offer to perform ‘Gambhira’ live at the puja pandal of the club from Panchami to Navami (September 27 to October 1) in the evenings. Our team will present the folk show that is synonymous with Malda," said Bablu Mandal, the key organiser of the Gambhira team.

The members of this Gambhira team are all teachers of primary and high schools who stage Gambhira at various events as proficient artistes.

In Malda, Gambhira is a popular folk drama form, with Lord Shiva as the prime character.

“But Shiva is less of a God and more of a ‘Nana (grandfather)’, an indulgent character, who listens to the grievances of common people. The other performers present the everyday issues in front of ‘Nana’ in a satirical form and seek justice from him. The show ends with the assurance from Lord Shiva or ‘Nana’ that he will look into the problems of the people and address them,” said Bablu Mandal, a teacher of Nagharia high school, who, along with performing Gambhira, is also a researcher of this folk form.

Apu Saha, the secretary of the Durga Puja committee of Baghajatin Vivekananda Milan Sangha, said despite fund limitations, they always tried to promote pertinent subjects as their Puja theme.

“Malda’s Gambhira is a very popular art form and we desired to present it in Calcutta so that people can learn about the rich and varied folk culture of our state,” Saha said over the phone.

According to him, their Durga Puja pandal will have six small huts where it will be shown how the Gambhira artistes prepare before their show.

The masks and looks of Gambhira artistes will be shown to visitors at this Puja pandal.

“There will be a giant stage on the Puja premises where the Gambhira team from Malda will perform in the evenings. This is an effort to let people of Calcutta know the culture and heritage of Bengal,” he said, adding this was their 76th Durga Puja.

He said artist Girish Ghosh conceptualised the theme of Gambhira for the pandal. “Ghosh went to Malda to speak to the Gambhira artistes to get an idea. We want the richness of various forms of Bengali culture to be a crowd-puller,” said Saha.