Remembering Rukmini Devi
Thanks to Kathak exponent Ashimbandhu Bhattacharya and his team consisting of Avik Chaki and Subroto Pandit, rasikas got a glimpse of their excellent Kathak rendition.
Thanks to Kathak exponent Ashimbandhu Bhattacharya and his team consisting of Avik Chaki and Subroto Pandit, rasikas got a glimpse of their excellent Kathak rendition.
Imagine curating a celluloid cruise, cherry-picking from the treasure trove of monochrome marvels straight out of the swinging ’60s silver screen! It might look like finding a needle in a haystack, but, fear not, because Srijit Mukherji is here to show us how it’s done.
The Uttam Kumar mania, or craze, has not waned even after forty-four years since his demise in 1980. Dubbed at one time the “Mahanayak”, his presence is still felt in the hearts of cinephiles in Bengal even in this new millennium. His film premiere, Oti Uttam, directed by Srijit Mukherji, was screened on Wednesday, 24 March.
Oud and its exotic aromas have enchanted humanity for aeons. It’s today, back with a bang.
One of the biggest follies of Indian cinema is its tendency to stretch—and stretch beyond. Director Blessy's Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) in Malayalam (although it is also available in Tamil, Hindi, etc.) is a classic example of this.
The aesthetically designed studio-theatre of Chidakash Kalalaya, an Ashram-like institution founded by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award recipient scholar-guru Piyal Bhattacharya, is a haven of research, restoration, and practical application of music, dance, and drama as scripted in Bharatmuni's Natyashastra and its precious commentaries by scholars of yore.
We have seen films in which stories are narrated through songs. The classical examples of this are Hamilton, Cats and Tommy, among others. There are others, like My Fair Lady, that are not completely devoid of dialogue.
The old tradition of buying fountain pens on Poila Baishakh has come back with a bang, with more young people buying fountain pens to celebrate the first day of the Bengali New Year.
No matter how much we follow the Gregorian calendar and centre our lives around it, for a Bengali, 14 or 15 April is not just another day of the year.
The roots of some traditions are so deep, like the roots of ancient Banyan trees, that they have persevered despite the advent of modernism and its attempts to overshadow them.