Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

BD Garga's 1963-documentary on Satyajit Ray is all set for screening at Nandan, the West Bengal film centre, this evening. This was the first documentary made on Ray, barely eight years after the release of Pather Panchali. The Kolkata branch of Films Division will screen this rare documentary to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema. Another interesting aspect of this documentary is the commentary by Ray himself. He shared in details his ideas on film making in this 35-minute documentary. Garga shot his film when Ray was busy filming his 11th film 'Mahanagar', and the documentary captures various moments of the filming of Mahanagar. The Films Division will keep screening various rare films throughout the year celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. -- A. B.

Indian Idol judges Anu Malik, Sunidhi Chauhan and Salim Merchant came here in the city yesterday to take the audition of this big popular reality show. Speaking about Kolkata, popular music composer Anu Malik said, "I grew up loving Bengal. I listened to a lot of Rabingrasangeet and Nazrulgeeti and also songs of Kishore Kumar, Hemanta Mukherjee, Salil Chowdhury when I was young. Being myself a melody composer, I connect Bengal with melody." Talking about the Kolkata auditions, he said, "This year we have raised the bar and we are searching that ´one´ voice and till now we have already got some amazing singers. "The girls are better this time and has a possibility to win. Moreover the good thing is that they have gone back to their roots and singing more classical and Lataji´s (Lata Mangeshkar) songs in the auditions." Music composer Salim Merchant praised Kolkata´s singing talents. -- A. B.

To celebrate the 200 years of existence, Indian Museum would get a new look. It'll break the idea of traditional museum and would come with a more visitor-friendly outlook. The authority have some projects to be completed by the year 2013. One of the project is the entire renovation of the buildings. The other projects are: re-open the Harappa gallery with a new look to the visitors, recruitment of guides for the visitors, training programmes relating to the museum, organisation of seminars, re-run of Museum On Wheels, more security arrangements etc. A community named 'Friends Of Indian Museum' already opened on social networking site 'Facebook'. Programmes on quiz, chat etc will broadcast on FM Channel. The official website of Indian Museum will be updated. A 6-months crash course on 'Cultural Heritage & Museum Studies' will be run shortly. Graduates in any stream will be eligible to apply for this course. Course fee only Rs. 1000. No ag...