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Pottering about pandals

Innocent celebration of creativity? Or culpable breach of copyright? Either way, the Durga Puja Committee of a Kolkata suburb must have felt struck by a stupefying charm. On behalf of J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros and Penguin India filed a case in the Delhi High Court against the FD Block Puja Committee of Salt Lake for using a recreation of Hogwarts castle as its ‘Harry Potter Pandal’ without permission from the author. The plaintiffs demanded that the defendants — who were served with a 394-page summons — cough up two million rupees or dismantle the pandal. Enter the Delhi High Court — which after summoning representatives of the puja committee to appear before it — permitted Hogwart’s to remain standing until October 26. At the same time, it ordered the defendants to seek Ms. Rowling’s permission before erecting similar pandals in future. It is never our purpose to question the majesty of the law or the indispensability of copyright laws. But aren’t we working ourselves into a futile lather over a trifle? Couldn’t such a matter have been amicably settled over a platter of Every Flavour Beans and some chilled glasses of Butterbeer? The FD Block committee likes to see itself on the cutting edge of design. Last year, it recreated the Titanic. While that created a few ripples among Kolkata’s pandal-hopping public, it was not torpedoed by a court case or anything like that.

Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with West Bengal’s Durga puja celebrations knows that pandal-decorators regard themselves — and well they might — as creative artists. Recreations of such buildings as Kolkata’s famous Kali temple and the Taj Mahal are not uncommon and puja committees vie with one another to create better and more beautiful pandals. Occasionally, a small controversy erupts — as it reportedly did a few years ago when some socially conscious folk, keen on raising the awareness of AIDS, created a display made entirely of condoms. The plaintiffs’ contention that the Hogwarts marquee was erected for commercial use strains credibility. Funds for pandal marquees are almost invariably collected from members of a neighbourhood and entry is always free. If anything, the Hogwart’s marquee is a reflection of India’s unique capacity to assimilate and absorb as its own the whole world. Far-fetched? We thought so too until we heard about the making of Hari Puttar Aur Jadoo ki Chadi (… and the Magic Wand) — Bollywood’s answer to Ms. Rowling’s fictional fantasy.

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