GUWAHATI: The descendants of the zamindar family of Gauripur —to which the doyen of celluloid and maker of the first ‘Devdas’ Pramathesh Chandra Barua belonged — are going through an emotional upheaval over the fate of their ancestral home, Hawa-Mahal.
Golden Frames: Pramathesh Chandra Barua
As the Assam government took over the possession of the heritage bungalow, on the banks of the river Gadadhar in present day Dhubri district on Monday, Pramathesh’s nephew Prabir and other relatives, who have been living here for ages, were seen bidding a tearful farewell to their home.
Apart from their personal belongings they have to leave behind all the priceless artefacts the family owned.
The artefacts would be on display in the renovated house-come-museum.
Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua, Pramathesh’s father, built the bungalow with the help of masons from China Town in Kolkata in 1904.
It took a decade to be completed.
The well-ventilated interiors ensured a pleasant stay for the royals, especially during summer.
The family earned the title of Raja from Emperor Shah Jahan.
As Pramathesh rose to fame, the celluloid connection drew some of the biggest names from Calcutta to Hawa-Mahal.
Bengal’s biggest star, Uttam Kumar, visited the bungalow in the 1950s for the shooting of the film, ‘Bicharak’ with his co-actor Arundhati Devi.
Another Bengali film, ‘Gajamukta’ was also shot here. Soumitra Chatterjee, Tom Alter and Moon Moon Sen came here for shooting in the 1980s.
Prabir said the biggest attraction of the bungalow is its spectacular location atop a hillock offering a breathtaking view of the sunset and even the mighty Kanchenjungha on a clear November day.
“Lime-surkhi made of locally available eggs and pulses as essential ingredients added strength to the walls and the seasoned timbers that were used to erect it still remain intact," he added.
The proposed museum would boast a 1514-Saka canon of Raghudev Narayan, a number small canons, guns owned by Pratap Chandra and other family members who were good animal trackers and elephant trappers, along with numerous colonial era artefacts and chemically treated heads of tigers and rhino.
Whenever tourists passed through Dhubri, they would stop at the heritage property to take a look at the house where Barua resided and later his niece, folk singing legend Pratima Barua Pandey lived.
But with the passage of time and lack of conservation efforts, the family was concerned about the fate of the heritage bungalow and the possible conflicts arising among generations next over the property.
Finally, the descendents of Kabindra Patra, who was a minister in the Koch Hajo kingdom ruled by Raghudev Narayan in the 16th Century in present day Western Assam, decided to hand over the property to the government for converting it into a museum.
“We are paying a tearful farewell to Hawa-Mahal, where our family lived for more than a century. But it was a decision taken unanimously by all our family members to preserve the glory of the capital of the zamindary estate of Gauripur. We will shift somewhere else in Assam,” Prabir Barua, one of the nephews of Pramathesh, told TOI on Monday.
Attending a ceremonial take-over of the building, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The aim is to complete the renovation and restoration by December 2023 and open Hawa-Mahal for the public from January 1, 2024.”
Hawa-Mahal was completed in 1914, costing Rs 3.2 lakh at that time. The Assam government has paid Rs 15.20 crore to the family members for parting with the ownership of the ancestral property.