Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

Poet Shakti Chattopadhyay was died on this day, in the year 1995 in Kolkata at the age of 61. He was one of the powerful and popular poet of Bengal, contemporary of Sunil Gangopadhyay.            Shakti Chattopadhyay was a bohemian poet. He loved to travel hills, forests and villages of Bengal with friends, and sometimes, alone.            He was born on 25 November, 1933 at Jaynagar of South 24-Parganas.              He was very strong in Bengali language. His poems are literally gems of Bengali literature. The admirer of Bengali poems can never forget his immortal poems - "Abani, Bari Achcho?" (অবনী বাড়ি আছো) and "Jete Pari, Kintu Keno Jabo" (যেতে পারি, কিন্তু কেন যাবো)             In my college life, in late 70s, I had a scope to listen his poems by the poet himself, when he physically attended a literary function at Sisir Mancha, Kolkata. It wa...

Sandip Roy, son of Satyajit Roy, is making a feature film with four short stories, out of which three by Satyajit Roy and the fourth story was written by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. Sandip Roy just completed the shooting of 'Bhoot Bhobishyat' written by Sharadindu at Raipur, a small village near Bolpur of Bengal. And at the same place, started the shooting of next film 'Anath Babur Bhoi' - a short story written by Satyajit Ray. Dwijen Bandyopadhyay is playing the lead role as Anath babu, who is a very interesting character with vast experience of ghosts and haunted houses. The rajbari of Raipur is the haunted house of Raghunathpur as stated in the story. The rajbari is now dilapidated as seen in this picture. It is originally the property of Lord Sinha family, who gave the lands of Bolpur to Tagore family to build Shantiniketan. A road in Kolkata named Lord Sinha Road. However, the stories of this film are purely ghost stories. And Tarini Khuro are the story...

Bengali film festival in London for the first time, at Harrow Arts Centre from 18-20 May 2012. Bengali film personalities like Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Rudraneel Ghosh, Paoli Dam, Swastika Mukherjee, Locket Chatterjee, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Aneek Dutta will present on the stage. The title, date & time (London time) of the films are:- Balukabela.com : (world premier) Saturday 19 May at 1pm. direction: Partha Sen, *ing Bratya Basu, Parambrata, Shashwata, Locket, Rudraneel. Egaro : Friday 18 May at 7:30pm. Direction:Arun Roy Aparajita Tumi : Saturday 19 May at 4pm. Direction: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, *ing Prosenjit, Padmapriya, Kamalini. Elar Char Adhyay : Saturday 19 May at 7pm. Direction: Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay, *ing Indraneel, Paoli Dam. Royal Bengal Rahasya : Sunday 20 May at 12pm. Direction: Sandip Roy, *ing Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Bhooter Bhobisyat : Sunday 20 May at 3pm. Direction: Aneek Dutta, *ing Parambrata, Swastika etc. Nobel Chor : Sunday 20 May at ...

Hundreds of singers across Bengal performed in the city during the last 10 days. Today is the closing function at Rabindra Sadan, in which more 4 veteran and popular singers of Bengal would be honoured with 'Sangeet Samman' (the honour in the field of music), they are: Juthika Roy, Madhuri Chattopadhyay, Jatileshwar Mukhopadhyay and Hoimanti Shukla. PS: The Honourable Chief Minister of West Bengal felicitated the veteran singers of Bengal this evening with prestigious 'Sangeet Samman' at Rabindra Sadan. The popular singer of yesteryears Juthika Roy expressed her gratitude to receive the honour and sang a line of popular bhajan 'mohe chaakar rakho ji'. Then Madhuri Chattopadhyay sang 3 songs publicly after long time: 'tomai aamai pratham dekha' and 'oli omon kore noi'. Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Jatileshwar Mukhopadhyay, Banashree Sengupta, Hoimanti Shukla and other artists also rendered several popular songs on requests. On 12 April, the State...

Today is the last day of Bangla year 1418 and tomorrow poila boishakh 1419 - the first day of Bangla new year. Wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. Enjoy the day with Bangla foods, songs and celebrate the new year with desired devotion, fun, frolic and respects. HAPPY NEW YEAR :) -- A. B.

Book advance tickets of Anjan Dutta's 'Abar Bomkesh'. Premier Show at Priya on 23 March and Special Premier Show at Nandan on 24 March. This Bangla movie released on 23 March at Nandan 1 (6.15), Priya (12.30, 2.40, 7.00), Roxy (3.00), Prachi (2.30, 5.15, 7.45), Basushri (3.00), Inox (City Centre 1 :9.30, 2.00, 6.15, 8.20 / Forum: 2.30, 7.30 / Swabhumi: 1.00, 5.30, 7.30) ; Durgapur: 12.00, 4.30, Rajarhat: 2.00, 6.30, 8.30, Bardhaman: 10.00, 3.00, 5.00, Shiliguri 1: 3.00, 5.10, Shiliguri 2: 1.30, 6.40, Liluah: 2.45, 7.15, Broadway: 12.00, 4.15, 8.45, Bioscope: 2.40, 4.40, 6.15, Fame(South City):9.00, 1.50, 4.00, 6.10, 8.20; Highland Park: 10.00, 2.45, 5.00, 9.30; Hind: 12.30, 7.30; Big Cinema: 2.00, 6.45;) and other cinema halls of Bengal. Online ticket booking websites: www.famecinemas.com / www.pvrcinemas.com / www.inoxcinemas.com / www.inoxmovies.com / www.paradiseroxy.com / www.priyaentertainments.com Releasing on 23 March in Mumbai, Bengaluru & Dhanbad a...

A fair of Bangla taant saris now running at Milan Mela of Kolkata. From traditional to fusion, heritage taant to silk kota - you can find everything here. There are traditional taant, jamdani, garad as well as cotton handloom, taant zardousi and Madhabilata made from resham and matka. And the prices are very attractive also. Taant saris will cost Rs. 200-5000 and taant zardousi starts from Rs. 900 whereas colourful cotton handloom saris will cost Rs. 1200 and Madhabilata Rs. 5000. Attractive silk kota will cost Rs. 1400 and tasar tangail starts from Rs. 1000. You can find embroidery saris on silk surface at the cost of Rs. 750. And discount also available. Not only saris, mekhla and dokhna of Assam are also available here. More or less one thousand taant shilpi or taant sari makers attended the fair this year and it will be a great success. The fair will remain open till 28 March 2012.-- A. B.

In the year 1899, on this day, the all-time modern poet lived in twentieth century - Jibanananda Das was born in Borishal in Bangladesh. Later he came to Calcutta for education. He was the student of Presidency College. After M.A. in English, he took the profession of professor and taught in various colleges. He always loved to write poems in Bengali. But never tried to imitate Rabindranath. His Bangla poems are the milestone of modern Bangla poetry. His poems are "Chitraroopmoy" (images through words) as Rabindranath said. Alongwith Bengal, his collection of poems also published in Bangladesh. Loneliness, sadness, helplessness of modern age, deep love for the soil and nature, feelings of history, geography - all the modern aspects of human tenderness are inside his poems, similar to the contents and forms of contemporary poets W B Yeats and Erich Maria Rilke. -- A. B.

Gorai Gandogol - a superhit pure laughter film again for Bangla cine-goers running successfully in Kolkata now. -- A. B.

Poulami Ghatak of Kolkata is again the Champion of National Table Tennis for the seventh times. She beat Samini in Lukhnow by 4-0 (11-9, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7) game. After 11 years, Bangla again the champion of National Junior Volleyball. They defeated Kerala in the final easily by 25-15 25-14 15-25 25-13 points at Durgapur yesterday. Bangla again the champion of B C Roy Trophy in football by average goal rate in Shiliguri yesterday. Although Jharkhand defeated Bangla by 2-1, but as the runners Mizoram beat by Karnataka, Bangla became the champion. -- A. B.