Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

No, it’s not a film by Mrinal Sen or Srijit Mukherjee, but, a date stuck in the root of Bengalee - the day when dearest poet Rabindranath Tagore was died. We know it is the day to ponder over sitting in the corner of room how the poet wrote all of his poems and songs mixed all the emotions, feelings, sentiments, experience and realisation one can gather lifetime. We silently hear his songs and poems and realise the profundity of a life he spent.      Rabindranath Tagore ignored all the sad deaths of his dear ones with a strong will that enriched his creations throughout. He had the philosophy "ভাল মন্দ যাহাই আসুক সত্যেরে লও সহজে" and never escaped.     At the age of 80, he died on "Baishe Shravan" when the monsoon sky wept too. It was the day, when a great life had stopped but, at the same time, the beginning of post-realisation of a great life whom the then society did not recognised.     80 years passed. But still, the humili...

Alka Yagnik was born in Kolkata, on this day, in the year 1966 in a Gujrati family. Her mother wanted to teach Alka singing. So, she started singing bhajans in Akashvani Kolkata at the age of six. At the age of 15 she sang that famous song "mere angne mein" in the film "Laawaris". But, Alka got big break in 1988 in the film "Tezaab" and the song was on the lips of Madhuri Dixit - "Ek Do Tin" which became an evergreen song.          In her career, Alka rendered innumerable songs in films and the duet songs with Kumar Sanu became most popular indeed. She also sang many songs with Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam.           She has sung 2486 hindi songs in 1114 films. She won many awards in her life for her songs. She admitted that her mother, Laxmikant Pyarelal and Kalyanji Anandji were her Gurus. Her inspiration is Lata Mangeshkar.

25 February, 2020 is the Janma tithi (জন্মতিথি) of Sri Ramkrishna Paramahansa. Every year, on Shukla Dwitiya of month Falgun, the janma tithi of Sri Ramkrishna is being observed. On this auspicious occasion, various rituals like Puja, Arati, devotional songs are the main functions use to held at Kamarpukur - the birth place of Sri Ramkrishna, organised by Ramkrishna Mission every year. The divotees use to come there on this day to witness the function and pay homage to Thakur Ramkrishna.        

'Heritage Bengal' will pay homage to legendary singer composer Hemanta Mukhopadhyay on the eve of his birth centenary by organising a function on 14th and 15th February, 2020 at Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata. A short film of 35 minutes duration on Hemanta Mukhopadhyay will be screened there. A book named 'Neel Dhrubatara' (the blue northstar) on him will be published there in which complete list of his songs with valuable articles on him by eminent artists are the main attractions of this book. His rare photos also will be there in the book. Shubhajit and Kalyan Sarkar will play some classical based songs on sitar. Hemanta Mukhopadhyay will be remembered ever for his popular songs which will sing Srikanta Acharya and Jayati Chakraborty there at the function. The car used by him shall exhibit there for all. The two-days long programme will be inaugurated by Arati Mukhopadhyay and Soumitra Chattopadhyay. The function will start at 4:30 p.m. daily.

        Today is 'Ghetu Sankranti', the fields of Bengal are covered with Ghetu flowers, the kids of rural areas are visiting households with lantern and garlands of Ghetu flowers by singing 'Ghetu Gaan' (songs in praise of Ghetu). It is the ritual and custom of traditional rural Bengal. On tomorrow morning they'll visit households to sing 'Basi' (old) Ghetu song ("Ghetu Bhai, Ghetu Bhai...).

Raj Chakraborty shoot 'Mann Bawre' song at Victoria Memorial, Maidan and Prinsep Ghat with Sayoni, Srabanti and Ankush for his new Bangla movie 'Kanamachi', playback singers Shreya Ghoshal and Mohit Chauhan. Kolkata always a favourite city of Raj. And it is very difficult to shoot in the crowd of the city. So, it was a challenge for him. And he shoot with excellence as his fame of a director is charismatic. The story of 'Kanamachi' on the backdrop of Kolkata handling the issue of taxi fares for NRI's.-- A. B.