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Chobi Mela begins today
Cultural Correspondent
A three-week international photography festival featuring works of noted artistes from home and abroad will begin in Dhaka from today.
Mahasweta Devi will inaugurate the festival themed 'Freedom’ today at 4:00pm at Shahid Zia Auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum in Shahbagh in Dhaka.
Works of noted photographers will be on display at the Chobi Mela V, Asia’s largest and world’s most prominent photography festival, said the organisers recently at a press briefing at the Drik Gallery in city’s Dhanmondi area.
Festival director Shahidul Alam and Rezaur Rahman, among others, attended the briefing.
Countries including South Africa, Argentina, Bangladesh, Nepal, France, UK, Denmark, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Lebanon, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Iraq, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Russia, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, The Netherlands, USA, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and Sweden will participate at the festival, they said.
The organisers will honour Mozambique photographer Ricardo Rangel, who photographs street scenes, landscapes, everyday activities of individuals and night scenes in the cafes and restaurants in Mozambique, with the lifetime achievement award on the opening day.
Shows will be held at the different galleries including the galleries of Bangladesh National Museum, British Council, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts, Alliance Française, Goethe Institut, Asiatic Gallery of Fine Arts and Drik Gallery.
Besides two mobile shows by 10 rickshaw vans, some works will also be on display at unconventional galleries, including Karwan Bazar underpass, Kalpana Boarding, Shakari Bazar and Chhabir Haat on the Dhaka University campus.
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Tabriz Int’l Cartoon Contest
chants 'No War’
World cartoonists will be participating at the 8th Tabriz International Cartoon Contest entitled 'No War’ and cartoons on Gaza will be given a warm welcome.
The contest will be hosting works from 45 countries including Spain, Lebanon, Argentine, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cuba, Columbia, France and Germany. So far, China with 10 cartoonists, Turkey with 7, and Italy and Serbia each with 4 are the countries with the largest number of participants entering the contest.
Interested applicants are asked to submit their works before February 3. The entries will be judged on February 14, and results will be announced during the award ceremony on February 17. The winners will also be listed on TabrizCartoons.com on the same day. Mikhail Zlatkovsky (Russia), Vladimir Kazanevsky (Ukraine), and Bayram Hacizadeh (Azerbaijan) are among the jury members of the 8th edition of the contest.
The selection board members include Rahim Baqqal Asghari, Sadeq Baqeri, Sevda Jannati, Naeimeh Nikuray, and Davud Panahi.
- Tehran Times
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Dhaka in October
Cathy Jo Faruque
Indignant droplets fall upon dirty rooftops
Seems fitting today the rains would come
Covering the stench of rotting garbage
Outside and across from the open window.
Perfectly fitting for this day
Overcast sky and menacing winds
Gray and heady rain making music as it
Pounces heavily on tin roof tops
Dampening the spirits outside while
Soaking to the bone the rickshawallahs
As they seek shelter in tea stalls
Waiting for liberation and opportunity.
The rain is a glorious occurrence
To wash away the shedding of tears
Securely cleansed
Unseen by those who wonder for the cause.
The rain is simply a magnificent affair
To cleanse the spirit dampened by loss
Forgiveness and compassion found within
In an effort to renew again.
If the rain could only wash away
The pain of the broken heart
Pounding and racing in its blood felt path
A good mile a minute with no reprieve.
If only the rain could cleanse
Bittersweet and tedious memories
Dancing about with haphazard abandonment
Tormenting the imprudent mind.
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Of Rickshaws and Rickshawallahs
Cultural Correspondent
Till the early seventies, rickshaws were the normal mode of transportation in Dhaka. Even today, this inexpensive, environment-friendly, non-polluting form of transportation is a way of life for thousands of people. Decorated rickshaws have been called "moving masterpieces." Their colourful backplates reflect both male desire as they do contemporary politics, and serve as a useful barometer to gauge the mood of the people.
Today, however, the rickshaw is viewed as a traffic hazard and an anachronism and is being increasingly threatened by rapid urbanization and mechanization. Will Santiniketan be the only place where rickshaws continue to be the predominant form of transportation along with cycles?
Edited by Niaz Zaman and published by the University Press Limited, Of Rickshaws and Rickshawallahs is both a paean to the rickshaw and the rickshawallah as well as a sobering look into their world.
This miscellany includes, among others, stories by Rudyard Kipling and Humayun Ahmed, photographs by G.M.B. Akash and Tanvir, paintings by Farida Zaman and Rokeya Sultana, poems by Mahbub Talukdar and Kaiser Haq, essays by Syed Manzoorul Islam and Sudeep Sen.
The editor has masterfully woven the available literature on the subject to make this anthology a unique presentation. It projects a three-dimensional look at the rickshaw and those who depend on it, encapsulating a way of life that may, in a few years, disappear altogether.
Niaz Zaman, who recently retired from the Department of English, University of Dhaka, has written on literature as well as folk art. Her book on kantha, The Art of Kantha Embroidery, was the first book written on the subject. She has also written numerous articles on folk art and rickshaw art for journals and encyclopedias, including Banglapedia, of which she was consulting editor, arts and humanities. She has edited a number of anthologies, including The Escape and Other Stories, 1971 and After, Under the Krishnachura, From the Delta, and New Age Short Stories. She is also a creative writer and has published The Crooked Neem Tree, No Lilacs Bloom, The Dance and Other Stories, and Didima’s Necklace and Other Stories.
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Slumdog makes its debut in India
BBC News
Slumdog Millionaire, the Mumbai-based movie nominated for 10 Oscars including best film, has finally opened in India.
The rags-to-riches tale, which has already won four Golden Globes, is being given as big a release in India as any major Bollywood film. The film has won much praise in reviews in India but has also earned some criticism for exploiting poverty.
A fully dubbed Hindi version of the film has also been released to reach rural and small-town audiences.
The film, which was made on a budget of £7m, has already raked in nearly $50m at the box office in the US and Britain. The film’s music director, AR Rahman, has become the first Indian to get three Oscar nominations.
Rahman told the Times of India: 'I’m at the top of the world. Everything is a blur.’
The film has created discussion in India about whether it exploits 'poverty chic’. But the Times of India said film-goers should forget 'the twitter about aggrieved national sentiment’ and enjoy 'a piece of riveting cinema’.
Indian readers of the BBC News website have sent in mixed reactions 'Danny Boyle’s camera does not reach the face of the India of today. He misses the two main aspects of the country - the progress as well as the rampant consumerism,’ writes R Mukherjee.
'He seems to have wilfully restricted his film to either gaze lewdly at the navel or condescendingly at the dirty underbelly; both of which sell well in the West.’
But Tina Verma from Mumbai writes: 'I think this is the only 'positive’ film I’ve seen so far on the slums in Mumbai, and it makes me proud as an Indian that the film has received so much recognition.’ The film revolves around 18-year-old Jamal Malik, played by Dev Patel, who wins the jackpot on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Jamal participates in the game show not for money but to reach his missing girlfriend Latika, played by Freida Pinto, who watches the programme without fail.
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Nepal bans Bollywood film
Agence France-Presse . Kathmandu
Nepal has banned the Bollywood movie 'Chandni Chowk to China’ following protests over a scene suggesting the Buddha was born in India, officials said Thursday.
Siddartha Gautama, who became the original Buddha around 2,500 years ago, was born in southwest Nepal and is considered a national luminary, appearing on bank notes in the deeply spiritual Himalayan nation.
'We’ve banned the screening of the movie in theatres across the country considering the growing public protests over the controversial remarks in the film,’ home ministry spokesman Nabin Ghimire told AFP.
The offending section of the movie - a co-production with US studio Warner Brothers about a lowly Indian chef who is mistaken for the reincarnation of a fabled Chinese warrior - was cut at the request of Nepali censors.
But protests continued on Thursday in Kathmandu, where demonstrators burned tyres and shouted slogans.
'We deleted the scene after checking the movie from the authorised distributor, but we cannot remove the scene on illegal videos that is smuggled into the country,’ said Narayan Prasad Regmi, spokesperson at the Ministry of Information and Communications.
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DARLING COMPOSER A R RAHMAN
'Mozart of Madras’ wins int’l accolades
Mohammad Shahidul Islam
The 'Mozart of Madras’, as Time magazine dubbed him, A R Rahman won a number of prestigious awards in America.
After the grand success of the Bollywood film Roja for which he scored music, Rahman did not have to look back. He keept making music history one after another. And now that being the finest and highest paid Indian composer of his time he has earned fame and riches in plenty. So recognition of the highest order would be a logical culmination for the darling composer of a billion-plus population.
If the recent Los Angeles Film Critics’ Association’s Best Music Award, the International Press Academy’s Satellite Award for best score, Critics’ Choice Award by the Broadcast Film Critics’ Association and Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Award for the musical score of Slumdog Millionaire meant Rahman is almost there at the top of world stage.
This saga of musical success began on January 6, 1966 when the genius composer was born as A S Dileep Kumar to R K Shekhar and Kareema Begum (Kasthuri) in Chennai. He got his present name A R (Allah Rakha) Rahman after he had converted to Islam following a personal incident.
He performed as a keyboard player and an arranger in bands such as 'Roots’ and 'Nemesis Avenue’ along with friends including percussionist Sivamani, dabbling with numerous musical genres. He honed his keyboard and piano skills, in addition to synthesizer, harmonium and guitar knowledge, during those early days. As an 11-year-old boy, he joined composer Ilaiya Raaja’s troupe as a keyboardist. Later he also played in the orchestra of M S Viswanathan and Ramesh Naidu, besides accompanying Zakir Hussain and others on world tours.
Training
Rahman began his early training in Carnatic music under Master Dhanraj. Later he obtained a scholarship to Trinity College of Music in London, from where he graduated with a degree in Western classical music. He began professional music composing in 1991 when he opened his own music recording and mixing studio called the Panchathan Record Inn. He started out by composing advertisement jingles, music for Indian television channels and music scores for documentaries, among other projects.
Jackson linkage
Before Slumdog Millionaire propelled the 43-year-old music maestro to be a true worldwide phenomenon, he did give the global community a taste of his class through his performance with the Pop King for his 'Michael Jackson and Friends Concert’ in Munich in 1999, composition for his maiden collaborative stage production Bombay Dreams (2002) with famous musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, music for The Lord of the Rings theatre production (in collaboration with the Finnish folk music band Värttinä), composition of Raga’s dance for Vanessa Mae’s album Choreography (2004), score for the movie Provoked, and his role as co-composer for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Well, the Golden Globe won, now everyone’s eyes are on the Oscar Awards, which are considered to be the final frontier of Western recognition. It is just another feather in his glorious cap, where many more feathers are to be added. Hats off to A R Rahman for what he has done.
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