KOLKATA: South City Mall, long a familiar pre-Puja stop for shoppers in south Kolkata, is set to become a destination on the pandal map this autumn with its first Durga Puja, themed Jatra — the journey.Though malls such as South City and Acropolis have installed Durga idols in their atriums during the festival for several years, South City is moving beyond festive display to organise a Puja of its own. The mall says the celebration will feature India’s biggest-ever Durga Puja pandal inside a mall, adding a new address to Kolkata’s loved Puja circuit.The theme, Jatra, looks at the journeys that shape the festival: the goddess’s arrival, families returning home, friends setting out together on pandal trails, and generations revisiting rituals that remain constant even as the city changes. For the mall, the theme also reflects its own passage from being part of Kolkata’s Puja preparations to hosting a community celebration.“Kolkata has given South City Mall a place in its life, and that affection has shaped who we are,” said Dip Biswas, Centre Director, South City Mall. “Our first Pujo is a heartfelt way of honouring this relationship. We want Jatra to feel like a celebration the city can call its own.”Nishank Joshi, Chief Marketing Officer, Nexus Select Malls, said the scale of the pandal would draw attention, but the Puja would have to earn affection in a city with a rich and exacting cultural tradition. “Jatra, meaning a journey, speaks to the way Pujo travels across generations, carrying memories and creating new ones,” he said.The theme also arrives a year after a north Kolkata Puja explored another meaning of jatra by resurrecting a vanished theatre neighbourhood. Nabin Pally Durga Puja on Nalin Sarkar Street in Hatibagan recreated the theatre para around nearby Raja Rajkrishna Street, once home to Star, Rang Mahal, Biswarupa, Sarcarina, Bijon and Rangana. Only Star survives today, and it no longer stages plays.Nabin Pally rebuilt facades and booking counters of Sarcarina and Rangana, placed the idol on a recreated revolving stage and filled the locality with posters of old productions. The Puja honoured performers such as Noti Binodini, Tripti Mitra and Miss Shefali, and paid tribute to lighting designer Tapas Sen.This year, South City’s Jatra offers a different journey: from memory to gathering, from shopping landmark to Puja destination, and from familiar routes to a new stop in Kolkata’s autumn map.
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