Jalpaiguri:

Kalachand Darbesh, who is presumed to be the last Darbeshi singer of Bengal, passed away at his home in Gobindapally of Dhupguri on Sunday morning.

The 84-year-old singer, who has earned several national and international accolades for his songs, was suffering from breathing problems and renal complications.

Family members said he had fallen ill on Saturday and was taken to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri.

Later, doctors advised that he could be taken back home but around 6.45am on Sunday, he breathed his last. He is survived by his wife, son, daughter-in-law and a granddaughter.

“He was the last Darbeshi singer in Bengal,” Rup Das, his son, said.

In his lifetime, Kalachand had worked with maestros like Pandit Ravishankar.

In 1990, at London Bharat Mela, he had performed with Zakir Hussain and sung Darbeshi songs in Scotland, France and Africa.

In 2013, he was awarded the Nazrul Puraskar by the state government. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had handed over the award to him.

The same year, he was conferred the Sahajiya Samman by Sahajiya Foundation. The foundation had also made a documentary on his music and life named In Search of Darbeshi Songs.

“He was one of the few persons who had kept the Darbeshi style of singing alive and had worked on it in a consistent manner for decades. His demise is a loss for the state and all Darbeshi song lovers,” north Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh said.

Ghosh, who visited Dhupguri to attend some government functions, said they would mull over a proposal of setting up a statue of Kalachand.

“His contribution and works on music should be remembered,” the minister said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India/ Home> West Bengal / by The Telegraph Correspondent / December 04th, 2017

Calcutta:

More than 200 Calcuttans strung together their impression of the city through keepsakes and stories at a crowdsourced event in GD Birla Sabhagar on Friday.

A month-long campaign on Facebook and Instagram prompted artistes, professionals and students to join Kolkata 100/100. Centre Stage Creations presented the art installation project as part of the Sabhagar Theatre Festival.

Various shades of city life were brought alive through stories of love, struggle and fight for justice. “I was the outsider who would come here to visit grandparents during vacations,” Rajashree Bose, a professional, said.

Her story traced her metamorphosis from an outsider watching Chuti chuti and loving mithai during vacations to a true blue Calcuttan who complains about the lack of job opportunities yet enjoys its comfortable lifestyle.

Many stories focused on optimism. Rupkotha Mukherjee spoke about her fight with depression and her love for writing poetry. “I look at depression in a positive light. It has helped me write better,” the student said.

Some traced the city’s dark side. Activist Ekaboli Ghosh spoke of the abuse that she and her mother faced at home and the daily crime against women in the city. “I am very disillusioned with the city,” she said.

The storytelling session – I Am #NOTA FACEINTHECROWD – was peppered with nostalgia, confessions, political views and humour.

Shahidul Islam’s account of how he fought against taking dowry and managed to convert his village won plenty of applause.

Stories also came out through objects. Every object came with a note about its importance in the owner’s life.

A red letter box, a prop used in a play Priyo Bandhu by Mad About Drama, was one of the first objects to grab eyeballs. Perched on top of it was an Old Monk bottle, a remnant of Alokananda Mandal’s college days. Student Priyadarshini Mukherjee had contributed a No Entry signboard, a 21st birthday gift from a bestie who had stolen it on his 21st birthday.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutt / by Chandreyee Ghose / December 03rd, 2017

Kolkata :

The Platinum Jubilee Memorial Building coming up on the West Bengal Legislative Assembly premises will be a treasure trove of rare documents, books and historic files. The documents will be accessible to general public.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, while laying the foundation of the building, requested assembly speaker Biman Banerjee to keep a separate entrance for common people, students and scholars to access the documents. “We were the first to make public the Netaji files, which were in possession of the Bengal government. We believe in transparency and accountability. There are several rare files from the pre-Independence and post-Independence era in possession of Kolkata Police, state police and the assembly,” said the CM.

She urged the Kolkata Police and the state police to digitize all these rare documents and make them available online. The CM also said that an e-library can be made. “If the MPs want to do some research for preparing a note before addressing Parliament, they get adequate information within a very short time. There should be similar mechanism in the assembly as well,” she said.

The chief minister also asked if the documents and archive material can be translated into English with the help of British Council. “You should also look into possibilities of exchange of documents and other materials with the Parliament of Bangladesh,” she said. The proposal was made since Bangladesh holds a huge number of documents before and after the Partition. “Bengali is the fifth widely spoken language in the world and second in Asia. The e-library will benefit a huge number of students,” she said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News> Politics / TNN / November 30th, 2017

Exhibition at KIFF chronicles contributions to mainstream cinema over 80 years

Over the past few years, while delivering the inaugural lecture at Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), superstar Amitabh Bachchan has emphasized the contribution of Bengal’s film makers and artistes to Bollywood. And this year was no different.

Speaking at the inauguration of the 23rd edition of KIFF earlier this week on this year’s focus on music and songs in Indian cinema, Mr. Bachchan said, ““The biggest revolution in journey of film song happened in Bengal when in 1935 director Nitin Bose and his brother Mukul Bose… introduced pre-recorded song in the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra and its Hindi remake Dhoop Chhaon.”

And ‘Bengal in Bollywood’ is the theme of an exhibition organised by the State Information and Cultural Affairs Department at Nandan during the ongoing festival.

The exhibition chronicles the contribution not only of Bengali directors and actors but also technicians and singers through 30 unique and rare original posters, 22 lobby cards and 10 informative posters over 60 years from the 1930s to the early 1990s.

Rare glimpses

The earliest posters are of director Nitin Bose’s Chandidas and Dhoop Chhaon from 1934 and 1935 respectively while the latest is from the Mithun Chakraborty starrer Ghar Ek Mandir from 1984.

The posters are largely from the personal collection of statistician-turned-film buff Somnath Ray who has curated the exhibition.

“Most of the posters are 40 x 30 inches or 30×20 inches but there is one poster of the 1958 comedy Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi which is one-third of the size of original. These are called ‘one-third’ and were kept in the office of the producers,” Mr Ray said.

The posters reveal little known links between Bengal and Bollywood. Among the posters is one of Bollywood’s iconic director Raj Kapoor’s Awara. Mr. Roy explains that the film was shot by a Bengali cinematographer, Radhu Karmakar.

Iconic faces

Other than the posters, there are about 22 lobby cards, which were printed by film studios to promote their films till 1960 and are now part of film memorabilia.

Lobby cards of Basu Chaterjee’s Shaukeen starring Ashok Kumar and Utpal Dutt, Shakti Samanta’s Anand Ashram and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Mem Didi are on display.

The 40×30 inch poster of another Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Anupama starring Dharmendra and Sharmila stands out given its unique style of painting.

Along with the film memorabilia, there are at 10 large black-and-white photographs of Bengali directors, actors and singers featuring Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutta, Devika Rani, and Hrisikesh Mukherjee among others.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Movies / by Shiv Sahay Singh / Kolkata – November 12th, 2017