Kolkata pujo pandal pays striking tribute to Zakir Hussain

Kolkata’s Pujo landscape this year includes an unusual tribute — a towering mural of Zakir Hussain at a tea-themed pandal in Alipore. The installation, curated by Anirban Das, reimagines the tabla maestro’s iconic association with rhythm and chai.

“This mural validates that whenever you see Zakir sitting cross-legged, you will think of a beverage and a milk-white monument that some besotted emperor built because he was missing his wife,” observed heritage enthusiast Mudar Patherya, praising the clever treatment. The mural, pieced together across wooden slats and lit with hidden rope lights, sets the tone for a pandal that unfolds in layers: twelve frescoed pillars featuring historic personalities linked to tea, a thangka-inspired protima painted on-site, more than 1,200 hand-painted rikaabis on the ceiling, and clay busts honouring tea garden workers. Behind the spectacle lies a micro-economy — 150 professionals worked on-site for two months, totalling 900 person-days. For Patherya, the experience goes beyond festival decor: “Call this a museum, not a pandal. Upload Anirban’s thought process with QR codes. And when you capture it on 0.5x, send it to your friends — they’ll think you’ve just walked out of Florence.”