Category Archives: Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Anubhav Mukherjee, Founder of “The Kolkata Buzz” shares how he fell in love with City of Joy

Kolkata, the City of Bongs that has stood the test of time, has much to offer to anyone who has been or lived there. Just when you enter the place you feel a kind of warmth that you may not have felt anywhere else. This applies to anyone and everyone irrespective of where they come from. If you have an open heart or are trying to open your heart, this is the city where you should be. 

Despite the political unrest and slow pacing developments, the City of Joy still attracts almost everyone who visits Bengal or India at large. 

One such person is Anubhav Mukherjee, founder of The Kolkata Buzz who came to the city from Chhattisgarh. Though he intended to learn filmmaking, the city’s charisma turned him into a wanderer who would try and capture the bursting streets on his camera and post it on Facebook. He had no idea that people will fall in love with his content and that he would create an entire platform based on Kolkata. 

“When I came to Kolkata I was an outsider despite being a Bengali. So, to explore the city, I would often set out on foot and take pictures and videos. I found a lot of subjects to capture that looked ordinary but had a Bong connection. Then I started to post them on Facebook. To my surprise, it was received well by the audience and thus was born, ‘The Kolkata Buzz’ “, shares Anubhav.

In 2016 during Durga Pujo, the page was all over the place and this made Mukherjee pursue a full-time career in digital media. And all that he could do had only one USP – Kolkata and Bengali culture.

“Kolkata has been the soul of all our content. When I started the platform there was no one else who was so focused on Bengalis. So, I always made sure that my content was attractive and connected with what the public loved and I guess that is what has clicked,” explains Mukherjee.

Initially, the page had all original pictures taken by Anubhav but gradually he found and showcased pictures and quotes by several other Bengalis on his page.

“While I was working on my page, I started to spot others who were posting some great content on our theme. Although my growth mattered to me, I wanted to showcase what others tried to narrate in their posts and give them a shout-out,” says the platform’s founder.

Also, Anubhav felt the need to bring some changes to the work culture in Kolkata. Having studied the market, he knew the worth of digital and wished people to join him. So, he started pooling freelancers and professionals who now work under him to make the page even more amazing.

“I wish that Kolkata’s youth is directed towards the new age, shedding the traditional opportunities. There’s a lot to do out there other than what we are taught to aim as kids. Also, the city needs to build its startup culture and professionalism. I am doing my part and also trying to inspire my colleagues,” said Anubhav.

On today’s date, The Kolkata Buzz has 215k Followers on Instagram, and 1 Million + on Facebook. They are also into videos and are starting a website. The page’s success propelled Anubhav to start his agency – Buzzaffair ventures (OPC) Pvt. Ltd. The company is into brands, Influencer marketing, event promotions, and social media management. They have covered 1000+ brands till now.

www.facebook.com/thekolkatabuzz 

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Brandspot> PR Spot / April 27th, 2021

The Radio Star

One little Santhal girl was sent away to the city for a better life. Years later, she returned to her roots, astride air waves.

Shikha Mandi / Courtesy – Shikha Mandi

Shikha Mandi was barely four years old when she came to Calcutta from Jhargram’s Belpahari village. Her parents, both farmers, sent her to the city in the hope that she would get a better education, be safer than in a region routinely in the news for Maoist activity.

“My paternal uncle lived in north Calcutta’s Ariadaha with his family. I was told that my elder sister and I were going for a vacation. I was very eager to see a big city. The next thing I knew was that we would be living with them and not return to the village,” recalls Mandi.

Shifting from a village wasn’t easy, not in the least because of the language switch. Mandi, now 27, grew up in Calcutta among Bengalis but retained a love for her mother language, Santhali. Santhals are the largest tribal community in Bengal and Santhali is spoken by over 70 lakh people across Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and Assam.

At the city school, Mandi had to speak in Bengali. She says, “In our village we barely knew Bengali. Even in Calcutta, we would speak Santhali at home. But to fit in with the rest I had to prioritise another language over my own.”

But bigger struggles lay ahead. Mandi changed school when she was in Class V. She says, “Nobody wanted to be friends with me at Ariadaha Sarbamangala Balika Vidyalaya. I looked different and I was from a different community. They didn’t know much about Santhals. But they would associate tribals with certain things. They would say, ‘Look at her, even a buffalo is more fair-complexioned in comparison’ or ask ‘Do your people wear clothes made of leaves and eat raw meat?’ I would feel hurt. I kept thinking if only I was like them, I wouldn’t have to face all this.”

In hindsight, she wishes she had made a clean breast of her feelings to someone. She says, “My chacha would tell me we are different from the rest but we should not pay attention to anyone who slanders us. He is a government schoolteacher and he too had his fair share of struggles as a Santhal. Now when I talk about my experiences, I hear others say that they too have gone through similar things in life, because of their tribal identity.”

College was comparatively better, but it was difficult to be comfortable in one’s own skin, especially when compounded with her gender, it became an othering factor. “In the city, people seemed to believe that girls should be pretty and fair only,” says Mandi, and for the first time I hear her soft voice break into a laugh.

When Mandi arrived in Calcutta for the first time, she found a friend in the radio. Over the years this friendship endured. Every evening, there would be a Santhali programme on Akashvani and Mandi listened devoutly. “It had Santhali songs and chat shows. Listening to them was my home away from home. It made me miss my village and parents less,” she says.

“I would wonder what it might be to become someone like those people inside the radio — as I imagined them to be. I didn’t even know how it worked, what one needs to do to be on air, but I knew that I wanted to grow up and talk on the radio,” Mandi says.

After school, while the other kids played ghar-ghar, Mandi would pretend to be a news reader and a radio jockey. She would sing Santhali songs too. Over a call, she hums a song she says was her favourite: Hane biti Ganga gada dak do biti nel me, bai bai bai te, bai bai bai te atu kana. She says the song is by Lal Susant Sorenji from Dumka in Jharkhand. “It is a very old song and I’ve grown up listening to it.”

But when she spoke to her parents about her ambition, it didn’t go well. Mandi continues, “My parents were clear they couldn’t afford to spend much on me and insisted I complete my education and get a government job.”

After her school-leaving exams, Mandi joined an Industrial Training Institute in south Calcutta and after training, started preparing for an apprenticeship exam for Garden Reach Shipbuilding and Engineers Ltd.

And then, the tide turned and her ship changed direction.

Mandi saw an advertisement for a radio jockey for an upcoming community radio station in her hometown, Jhargram. Radio Milan 90.4 was starting a Santhali programme and she put in an application. She says, “My parents were not pleased with my decision.” Yet she appeared for the interview, gave a voice test and finally took up the job in December 2017.

Shikha Mandi thus became one of India’s first tribal radio jockeys, commanding the attention of thousands of listeners through her evening talk show Johar Jhargram.

For Shikha, shifting from a village wasn’t east, not in the least because of the language switch / Courtesy : Shikha Mandi

The programme was all about making Santhals feel connected. Says Mandi, “Everyone wanted to listen to their language on radio and television, it doesn’t happen very often for us. So people were very excited.” But years of living in Calcutta had had its impact on her fluency in Santhali. She adds, “People complained that I used Bengali words.”

Mandi spent the next many months brushing up her Santhali. She learnt the Ol Chiki script, re-acquainted herself with tribal customs, culture, rituals, songs. She started reading up about ground realities of Santhals. She would scour around for socially relevant topics for her show. “Every day I’d choose a new topic that people could relate to. I would invite guests for expert opinions on these topics. I even got Santhali callers on my show from other cities. There were conversations about love, friendship, tragedy, everyday struggles of being a Santhal, it was all about us,” she says. Mandi is soft-spoken, but I sense a firmness in her tone.

Mandi wrote her own script and made playlists. Broad themes were festivals, religion and gender, but everything was in Santhali. There was no place for any other language. If someone called in with a request for a Santhali song but spoke in Bengali, Mandi urged the caller to speak in Santhali, assuring that it was okay not to be entirely fluent. Soon from being a daily hour-long show, her show became so popular that it became a three-hour show.

Says Mandi, “I didn’t just want to become a radio jockey to indulge some personal aspiration, I wanted to do something for my people, keep the Santhali language and culture alive among the youth. The pride for the language is fading among people of my generation and those younger to me. When they move to the city, they pretend they don’t know the language and don’t speak it even if they do know it. I wanted to change that.”

When Shikha arrived in Calcutta for the first time, she found a friend in the radio… After school, while the other kids played ghar-ghar, she would pretend to be a newsreader and radio jockey

Sometime during the pandemic, Mandi quit her job of a radio jockey. She seems to think that the channel had strayed from its initial commitment. She says, “It wasn’t doing what actual community radio centres do — work with the locals.” These days, Mandi runs her own podcast on Tumdah, an app to discover, stream and share Santhali music.

But from the sound of it, radio continues to be the love of her life. She cannot stop talking about her radio jockey days. She tells me, “I used to love the fact that I could connect with so many people through this medium… I couldn’t reduce anyone’s pain in life but I could always say two words of hope.”

She is sure that this is not the end of RJ Shikha Mandi. She says, “I want to start my own community radio centre where we will involve more tribal people and I am working towards it.”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> Culture / by Manasi Shah / April 25th, 2021

Poet Sankha Ghosh passes away at 89

Poet Sankha Ghosh. File   | Photo Credit: The Hindu

He had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in April

Eminent poet and critic Sankha Ghosh passed away in Kolkata on Wednesday. The Jnanpith awardee was 89 and had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in April.

He was under home isolation for the past few days, but his condition deteriorated late on Tuesday. He is survived by wife and two daughters.

Ghosh was one of most important names in Bengali poetry and, together with Shakti Chattopadhyay, Alokeranjan Dasgupta and Sunil Gangopadhyay, was said to have carried on the baton from the poets of the early part of the 20th century, such as Jibanananda Das and Buddhadev Basu.

He was awarded the Jnanpith Award in 2016 and the Padma Bhushan in 2011. In the shadow of the Rabindranath Tagore era, poets such as Ghosh took the legacy forward.

Considered an authority on Tagore, Ghosh was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1977 for his poetry collection Babarer Prarthana.

He was born on February 6, 1932, in Chandpur, which is in present-day Bangladesh. The poet graduated in Bengali honours from Presidency College in 1951 and did his post-graduation at University of Calcutta.

He taught at a number of educational institutes, including Visva Bharati University, Delhi University and Jadavpur University. He retired from Jadavpur University in 1992.

Silent protester

Ghosh was a man of few words. Though he was considered one of the greatest of poets, he chose silence even when protesting against the violence and violation of human rights towards the end of the Left Front regime. At the most, he would issue written statements.

The poet had also expressed strong opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act through a poem called Mati. His other well-known poems are Andolan, Mukh Dheke Jaye Biggapone, Chup Koro and Bohiragoto.

“Following the demise of Sankha Ghosh, we extend our deep condolences. I have directed the Chief Secretary and final rites will be performed with full State honours,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

Ms. Banerjee also added that since the poet was not in favour of a “gun salute,” it would not be part of the ceremony.

Noted Bengali poet Joy Goswami said Ghosh was the conscience of Bengali society. “The Bengali literary circle will feel a void created by his death more and more.”

Writer Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, recalling his decades-long association with the poet, said that despite several awards and laurels “there was not even a hint of pride in him”.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – April 21st, 2021

Gautam Sengupta and Yasmeen Sengupta talk about the inclusive Bengal where they lived and loved

At a time when politics of hate threatens to tear apart the inclusive social fabric of the state, such stories demand a telling.

The couple at their ancestral home in Park Circus on Apirl 6 / Debraj Mitra

Gautam Sengupta is 69. Yasmeen Sengupta is 65. He is a Hindu. She is a Muslim. Married for 46 years, the two have lived through many ups and downs. Their families have always stood by them. 

Till their health permitted, Yasmeen used to paint alpona during Saraswati Puja at her in-laws’ ancestral home in Park Circus every year and Sengupta broke bread with her during Ramazan. 

There are many like the Senguptas of Park Circus around Bengal. But such stories demand a telling because of the politics of polarisation that threatens to tear apart the inclusive social fabric of Bengal.

Gautam and Yasmeen Sengupta with daughter Rohini during a trip to Madhupur, now in Jharkhand, in 1979 / Sourced by Correspondent

Jesuit culture, Tagore

Yasmeen’s family shifted from Ballygunge Place to Circus Row when she was nine years old. Sengupta’s family home stood a stone’s throw from the Park Circus Seven-Point intersection. The two got introduced through a set of common friends and got married in 1975.

Sengupta, who did his school and college from St. Xavier’s, holds Jesuit principles close to his heart till this day.

Yasmeen did her school from South Point and graduated from Loreto College. Yasmeen’s grandfather, Rafiuddin Ahmed, is the founder of the R. Ahmed Dental College, the oldest such institute in Southeast Asia. 

But her inspiration is her grandmother Ayesha Ahmed, an alumnus of Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya. Later, Ayesha was part of a group of women who started a school for girls from marginalised families in Beleghata, which is now called the A.I.W.C Buniadi Bidyapith Girls School.

She made Rabindranath Tagore a part of the lives of the Ahmed family. 

Yasmeen and Sengupta got married in Brahmo tradition. “There was hardly any ritual. I remember my friends singing Tagore songs,” said Yasmeen.

“When we were growing up, inclusiveness was not just a textbook word. It was a part of our everyday lives. Every home had pictures of Tagore, Gandhi, Vivekananda and Netaji,” she said.
Sengupta remembered growing up in a neighbourhood where the president of the local Durga Puja committee was a Muslim and the treasurer a Christian.

Sengupta, who runs a manpower consultancy firm, has turned a part of his ancestral home into a guesthouse. The couple also own a flat in the Hastings area and keep shuffling between Hastings and Park Circus.

‘Heroic’ acceptance

One of Sengupta’s grand-uncles (father’s uncle), a doctor, was killed during the 1947 riots. “A man disguised as a woman in a burqa entered his chamber as a patient and shot him point blank,” said Sengupta.

But the past never came in the way of the Sengupta family embracing their daughter-in-law. “My family members always considered the incident an act of terror, an aberration in a moment of madness,” he told this newspaper.

“Their acceptance of me has been absolutely heroic. We (her parents and in-laws) speak the same language, eat similar food. It is not like I was wedded into an alien culture. But the way they rose above petty human instincts was heroic,” said Yasmeen.

The couple have a daughter and a son. Their daughter, Rohini, is married to a Muslim man. The two are settled in Sydney. The bride and the groom’s family had known each other for three generations and the couple knew each other from childhood.

“The marriage happened in 2001. It was such a happy occasion,” Sengupta said. His no-fuss demeanour drove a point home. That some of the stereotypes associated with interfaith marriages are based more on myths than reality. That an interfaith marriage can still be a normal and spontaneous affair.

Yasmeen, a social worker, keeps reading newspaper reports and seeing television programmes around “love jihad” — a Right-wing narrative of Muslim men marrying Hindu girls with the alleged intention of converting and radicalising them.

At least two BJP-ruled states have introduced legislation criminalising interfaith marriages if conducted for the ostensible purpose of religious conversion.

“Where is the individual freedom, guaranteed by the Constitution? This is a blatant violation of constitutional values. Not only is this bad in principle, it is also bad in law,” said Yasmeen.

Fear of tomorrow

“I am terrified of the future,” Yasmeen told this reporter bluntly. She is worried because she has heard plenty of stories of Partition from her elders and she dreads a rerun.

“Politics now thrives on polarisation, more so in the run-up to the elections. Bengal and Punjab are two states scarred by Partition. Both places have seen how polarisation brings out the basest instincts in people. I have grown up around people who saw best friends baying for each other’s blood during Partition,” she said.

Sengupta has spotted a change in the social fabric of Bengal. “A section of people now asserts their religious identity more strongly than before. Wearing your religion on your sleeve is the norm,” he said.

The next second, he gave a caveat. “I have never been too religious. Perhaps that’s why I notice these things more than others.”

Sengupta remembers some “flare-ups” in his neighbourhood in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and surrounding author Taslima Nasreen, who was eventually “expelled” from Bengal in 2007.

Sengupta stood up to a mob with sticks and flaming torches intent on setting a series of taxis on fire. “I managed to prevail on them. They were fuming but went back. Most of them were local boys,” he recounted.

Both the husband and wife said the ongoing polls are more than a battle for political power. “We don’t know if it is possible to get back the Bengal where we got married. But we still have a place where all kinds of people live together. We must try to preserve what we have,” Sengupta said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal / by Debraj Mitra, Calcutta / April 19th, 2021

Centre announces ‘Satyajit Ray Award’ ahead of West Bengal assembly polls

Well-known director Satyajit Ray | File  

Javadekar made this announcement at a programme organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in Kolkata.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday announced a national level film award after legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray.

Mr. Javadekar made this announcement at a programme organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in Kolkata, according to an actor who was present at the event.

At the programme in which the media was not allowed, the Union minister interacted with leading actors and directors of West Bengal where the Assembly election is due in April-May.

No detail is available on the ‘Satyajit Ray Award’.

Senior actor and BJP leader Roopa Ganguly, who was present at the function, said that it is great that an award is being instituted after Ray.

“It has been under planning stage for quite some time,” she told a news channel.

Director Arindam Sil said that discussions were held with the Union minister on how to develop the Bengali film industry.

Actors Paoli Dam, Abir Chattopadhyay, Ritupana Sengupta, director Gautam Ghosh, classical singer Rashid Khan, singer-turned-Union minister Babul Supriyo and others were present at the programme.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Other States / by PTI / Kolkata – February 23rd, 2021

First philatelic club for all ages opens

To be run by the West Bengal circle of the department of posts

Chief postmaster general, West Bengal, Mervin Alexander (right) shows department of posts secretary P.K.Bisoi (centre) around at the philately museum on Friday as postmaster general, Calcutta, Niraj Kumar looks on (Sanat Kr Sinha)

The country’s first circle-level philatelic club, to be run by the West Bengal circle of the department of posts, was inaugurated at the General Post Office on Friday.

“We started school philatelic clubs across the country last year before Covid to spread the hobby among students.  This would be the first for philatelists across age groups,” said secretary, department of posts, P.K. Bisoi after inaugurating the club.

“Our idea is to create a meeting ground which can be used for training and exchange of ideas. The members will include nominated representatives of government institutions like libraries, museums and universities other than young philatelists and winners of our philatelic contests. We will encourage members to suggest subjects for commemorative stamps which we will forward to Delhi,” said Niraj Kumar, postmaster general, Calcutta. The department plans to hold workshops and talks by eminent philatelists. Membership will cost Rs 500 per month.

A philatelic museum was also opened. “While we have a postal museum next door which chronicles the history of the postal system, this will be a temple of philately,” said Kumar. The museum houses a library of books on stamps that club members can use. 

The central exhibits showcase how stamps relate to our lives. Thus. a baluchari sari hangs next to a stamp on baluchari. Next to a stamp on Lalan Fakir hangs an actual ektara while a sarod, a violin and a shehnai are exhibited with stamps on Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Allauddin Khan and V. Lakshminarayana.

A touchscreen kiosk has information on select stamps. A trumpet is heard if one touches a 1951 stamp on elephants. Similarly a Hemanta Mukherjee stamp issued in 2016 is linked to his song Runner, on the predecessor of postmen.  Touching a screen with Netaji stamps plays the Indian National Army marching song Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja.

Debasish Sarkar, a postal employee, has contributed pastel drawings of some of India’s earliest stamps that look as life-like as photographs.

A gold-plated replica in silver of a stamp from India’s earliest series, Jai Hind, dating back to 1947, was released on the occasion.

“We plan to make smaller and affordable versions available soon,” Kumar said.

A two-day exhibition on Netaji and the freedom movement is under way at the GPO Rotunda, showcasing the collection of Raunak Dutta.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Sudeshna Banerjee / Calcutta, February 27th, 2021

Of Marigolds and Salvias

My garden:

As one veers into FC Block one cannot but turn to the lush green bed in the midst of a concrete jungle and one is sure this must be the home of green thumb Mita Roy

Mita Roy with her Marigolds. / Saradindu Chaudhury

Her house bears a prominent plaque with her address but frankly, one doesn’t need to look at it. As one veers into FC Block one cannot but turn to the lush green bed in the midst of a concrete jungle and one is sure this must be the home of green thumb Mita Roy. The lawn has a hedge of pink Rangans, red Salvias and humungous potted Marigolds. No wonder locals know the house as the “niche gamlawala tob bari”.

I grew up in Baguiati where our plot had tall trees, colourful flowers and even ponds. I grew up loving plants and so when we moved into Salt Lake in 2000 I knew I would have a cozy corner for them in front of the house.

In winter, I gauge the temperature not by a thermometer but by my Marigolds. If they look sad I know it isn’t cold enough. But this year, they are smiling and I couldn’t be happier! The flowers have been in bloom for 15 days already and if the temperature remains low, will remain so for another fortnight.

Every year, I send my Marigolds to the flower show and they always fetch prizes. I hope to do the same this year too.

But along with seasonals like Marigolds and Salvias, I have some potted Chillies in my front yard. They will eventually be planted in the soil behind the house but that patch doesn’t receive sunlight in winter. So I’m keeping them in the front yard to soak in the sun during their nascent stage.

The adult Chilli plants in the backyard bear so many fruits that we never need any from the market. There is also a Mankochu plant that bears vegetables round the year. I prepare tasty dishes with them, using narkol baata.

I used to do up the terrace too but with the lockdown my gardener had got irregular and I couldn’t do it alone. But whenever I can, I shall redo the terrace with Tomatos, Brinjals, Lemons and Guavas. Brinjals used to grow very well under my care and we would eat delicious Begun Bhaja out of it. The taste of one’s own vegetables is way superior to the ones we get in the market anyway.

My husband and son do not have time to toil behind the plants but appreciate them. Our friends are always admiring them too and whenever they come over, they click selfies with the Marigolds outside.

My only worry is pilferage. Not just flowers but entire pots have gone missing from the garden and it breaks my heart. It’s become such a fear now that even if I wake up in the middle of the night, I go and peep outside to check if my plants are safe.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Brinda Sarkar , Salt Lake / January 08th, 2021

Lalbazar in West Bengal is now art hub, thanks to artist Mrinal Mandal

The villagers, who previously worked as labourers, are now trained in kutum-katum (handicraft made from twigs and roots), kantha stitching, pottery and wall painting.   | Photo Credit:  Special Arrangement

By settling there and teaching its people, he has demonstrated how art is capable of rescuing a neglected human settlement.


Two years ago, Kolkata-based artist Mrinal Mandal was so captivated by the charm of a tiny village — close to where West Bengal borders Jharkhand — that he decided to make the hamlet of some 80 people his second home. In doing so, he has demonstrated how art is capable of rescuing a human settlement from neglect and poverty.

Mrinal Mandal   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“I have been travelling in search of folk art from the time I graduated from the Government Arts College 20 years ago,” Mr. Mandal, 42, told The Hindu. “In 2018, I chanced upon this village, surrounded by forests, and I immediately took a liking for it. I decided to make it a beautiful village by teaching art to its people.”

Today, the residents of the village — officially called Lalbazar but christened Khwaabgram, or village of dreams, by one of the admirers of the project — earn a decent income by selling paintings and handicraft to tourists, whose increasing presence, in turn, has earned it the attention of the local authorities.

Tourists come to Khwaabgram, about 4 km from Jhargram, not just to buy handicraft but also to take a look at the village itself, where the walls of most houses are now themselves works of art.

“These people are from the Lodha tribe, once outlawed by the British. Traditionally, they are very shy people; if you built a house next to theirs, they would shift elsewhere. It wasn’t easy for me to make friends with them, until I began making drawings related to their life,” said Mr. Mandal, who lives in Jhargram and commutes to Khwaabgram on a daily basis.

Tourists come to Khwaabgram not just to buy handicraft but also to take a look at the village itself, where the walls of most houses are now themselves works of art.   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Until he arrived on the scene, the villagers mainly worked as labourers in nearby farms and some of them were small farmers themselves. Today, they are trained in kutum-katum (handicraft made from twigs and roots), kantha stitching, pottery and wall painting.

“All these years, I survived on whatever little I made from farming,” said Sashti Charan Ahir, 46, who, in spite of a physical handicap, is today successful as a kutum-katum artist. An art form introduced by Abanindranath Tagore, it means making use of found objects.

“Every morning, I go out to the forest to collect twigs and branches, then I roam around there for a while to get ideas — should I make a bird today or some animal? People visiting the nearby deer park now often come to our village to take a look and buy our products — that has indeed made our life better,” Mr. Ahir said.

Residents of the village earn a decent income by selling paintings and handicraft to tourists, whose increasing presence, in turn, has earned it the attention of the local authorities.   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The public attention has led to improved conditions in the village, and what Mr. Ahir wants now is a school to be built there. “My daughter’s school is on the other side of the forest, and I spend a better part of the day taking her there and bringing her back. A school will really help — I believe they are considering the idea,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Bishwanath Ghosh / Kolkata – November 30th, 2020

Soumitra Chatterjee | The tree’s gone, the shade remains

SOUMITRA CHATTERJEE 1935-2020 | MOVIES

Soumitra Chatterjee. File   | Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

The actor, even in his mid-eighties, was not only active but also highly sought-after. Terms like ‘has-been’ or ‘yesteryear’ never applied to him

A piece of information, by itself, is dead wood – like a piece from a jigsaw puzzle – which comes to life only when you collate it with other pieces. Take actor Soumitra Chatterjee’s date of birth, for example. The fact that he was born on January 19, 1935 doesn’t say much about him. But if you place that date against October 1, 2020, when he last reported for a shoot before showing symptoms of COVID-19, you realise he was no ordinary actor but someone who was professionally active even when nearing 86.

Not many lead actors continue to work – or get work – at 86. None actually, if you discount Clint Eastwood, Kirk Douglas, Christopher Plummer and maybe a couple of other names that don’t lend to easy recall. Back home, there was exception in the form of Dev Anand, who continued to work until he died at 88, but by then he was long past his prime and was making those films only to feed his vanity.

But Chatterjee, even in his mid-eighties, was not only active but also highly sought-after. Terms like ‘has-been’ or ‘yesteryear’ never applied to him. Ernest Hemingway once said that no writer ever produced anything worthwhile after winning the Nobel; the same holds true for the Dadasaheb Phalke award in Indian cinema, in the sense that it invariably comes at a time when the awardee’s productive years are spoken of in the past tense. But not for Chatterjee. He got the award in 2012, and ever since then he got only busier by the year. In 2019, he had as many as 15 releases; and in the pandemic-hit 2020, almost as many of his films either released or are lined up for release.

So, how does one define Soumitra Chatterjee?

If you label him as a Satyajit Ray actor – they worked together in 14 films – his knowledgeable fans will instantly point out that he worked with numerous other directors too and that those 14, even though they brought him acclaim, form only a small percentage of the more than 300 films he did during his lifetime. In fact, with the notable exceptions of Ritwik Ghatak (whom Chatterjee claimed to have punched once, during a debate back in the 1960s) and Buddhadeb Dasgupta, he worked with nearly all directors, including Tapan Sinha, Mrinal Sen and Tarun Majumdar.

If you label him as a cinema actor, people will remind you that he did theatre too.

If you label him as an actor, someone or the other is bound to tell you that he was a painter, poet and an activist as well.

If you identify him as Feluda, there will be someone disagreeing: ‘No, he was more popular as Apu.’

If you classify him as a Calcuttan or a Bengali, they will say he was global, decorated twice by the French, with Order of Arts and Letters and with the Legion of Honour.

More an actor than a ‘hero’

But in debate-loving Bengal, one thing remains indisputable: that for several generations of Bengalis, the mention of the word ‘actor’ instantly brought two names to mind, Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee. There were the two colossuses. After Kumar, nearly a decade older and far more popular of the two, died at the age of 54 in 1980, Chatterjee became the lone flag-bearer of meaningful Bengali cinema.

Chatterjee was one of those very few Indian actors who, even while playing the lead in commercial movies, was acknowledged more as an actor than a ‘hero’ – a hero being someone one who can jump off a tall building without a scratch and can knock out a dozen bad guys with his bare hands.

While it was only fairly recently that some fresh air swept through Bollywood with the arrival of Irrfan Khan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rajkummar Rao – mainstream actors who could draw crowds even without fight scenes – Chatterjee was all of them rolled into one, right from the black-and-white era. And considering that he was around for 61 long years, almost every Bengali – from nonagenarians down to teenagers – lovingly preserves in mind his or her own image of Chatterjee: the innocent Apu; the charming Amal of Charulata; the daring Feluda; the resolute swimming coach in Kony; the middle-aged man next door; the genial grandfather. His very presence on the screen was assuring: for filmmakers and audiences alike.

His passing is akin to the falling of an ancient tree. But while the tree is gone, its shade remains. It wouldn’t be entirely wrong to say that the trunk of the tree was essentially made of the 14 films he did for Ray. For, one will always wonder how Chatterjee’s career would have fared without Ray. For that matter, one can also wonder how Ray’s films would have fared without Chatterjee.

That’s something Bengal can now debate.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Movies / by Bishwanath Ghosh / November 15th, 2020

Hum a tribute to ‘Oh Malda’

Amateur musicians sing of mangoes and memories

Members of White Canvas, the musical band based in Malda / Sourced by The Telegraph

Five amateur singers in Malda have become an overnight sensation with “Oh Malda”, a music video on the district that is the gateway to north Bengal.

On October 23, the video of White Canvas, their band, was released. Since then, the Bangla song “Oh Malda” has been widely shared on social media and has virtually become the “theme song” of the district.

Ophthalmologist Dhurjati Prasad Roy, college teacher Debraj Roy Chowdhury, entrepreneur Tanmay Das, student Sagar Saha, and engineer Jibangshu Das joined hands back in 2015 and formed the band, White Canvas.

Dhurjati Prasad said initially they would just “meet up and jam to have a good time”.

“But Soumitra Roy, a well-known folk singer of Bengal who happens to be my cousin, heard our compositions and encouraged us. We started to take ourselves a little more seriously as music-makers. This song, Oh Malda, is aimed at attracting tourists and rejuvenating the emotions of people who have roots in the district but live in various parts of the globe now,” he said.

Debraj said it helped that all of them were passionate about Malda. “This district was the capital of eastern India and undivided Bengal in the past. History and Malda are virtually synonymous. The district has mangoes, silks, a rich folk culture and many other things to offer tourists and visitors. That is why we decided on a music video tribute to showcase the uniqueness of Malda,” he said.

The first number of the album “Oh Malda” contains vivid digital presentations of the famous Jahura temple and mosques to showcase the syncretism of the district.

Monuments at Nimasarai, Foara More, which offer the possibility of numerous creative discussions and addas, have been shown in the video.

Dhurjati Prasad said many people with roots in Malda who live in other states and abroad miss the district. “They miss Malda, its heritage and culture. We want to keep them connected to their own land through music.”

Among the many people who’ve become fans of the band is Prasun Banerjee, the deputy inspector-general of police (Malda range).

“What Dhurjati, Debraj and their friends have started will surely touch the hearts of Maldaiyas (as Malda residents are colloquially known). If the district is creatively promoted, people will surely want to visit this place that has so much to offer,” the officer said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> West Bengal> Calcutta / by Soumya De Sarkar / Malda / November 04th, 2020