At Home with Durga: The Goddess in a Palace and Corporeal Identity in Rituparno Ghosh’s Utsab

Abstract

In this article, I examine the representational strategies used to visualize the pratima (deity) of the Hindu goddess, Durga, as a paradigm of time, memory, and corporeal identity, in Rituparno Ghosh’s 2000 Bengali film Utsab. I analyze the body as a dynamic site of memory-formation that shapes new histories in the sprawling colonial palace in which the film’s narrative unfolds with an ancestral Durga festival as its focal point. To this end, I look at how the body of the goddess produces and defines the transience of human experience, the fragility of material history, and the desire for historic relevance.

Keywords

• Calcutta
• colonial
• body
• Durga
• goddess
• jewelry
• memory
• palace
• puja
• Rituparno Ghosh