Snehashish Chatterjee is a strange man. A man who has dedicated most of his life to creating a wonderful musical archive comprised entirely of the music of Lata Mangeshkar. A career government servant, he has not allowed his job to interfere with his passion, and
When it comes to contemporary Bangla cinema, quite a few young directors are seemingly no longer bothered about theatrical releases of their films, apparently content with screening them at film festivals - big, small and unknown - both for short and full-length feature films. Or
The film industry in Bengal is flooded with young filmmakers with stardust in their eyes, desperate to cut their teeth in film-making with a striking debut. Arun Roy recreates history by fictionalizing it through the language of cinema, but does a brilliant job of it,
Hunger The Kalpanirjhar International Film Festival, held in December, began 19 years ago, founded by the Kalpanirjhar Foundation and Goethe Institut, and has continued its journey for nearly two decades under the able directorship of S.V. Raman, chaired by filmmaker Goutam Ghose and a board of
Razia Shabnam lives in a shabby shanty in Kolkata’s Kidderpore. She has been a boxing coach since 2001. She is also one of India’s first women boxing coaches and international referees. In case you still aren’t impressed, these bland sentences hide a wealth of meaning. Razia’s
Who is Joshy Joseph? He is a national award-winning documentary maker, a talented writer on cinema, and the head of the Films Division, Eastern Region. Recently, noted journalist Vidyarthy Chatterjee was awarded the prize for Best Writing on Cinema by the Chidananda Dasgupta Centenary Trust,
Asit Sen’s centenary came and went on September 24, with hardly a mention in the media. The reason is simple. He is among the pillars of Bengali cinema alongside filmmakers like Ajoy Kar, Pinaki Mukherjee, Niren Lahiri, Agradoot and others whose creative talents as filmmakers
A hollowed mango tree log about 2.5 to 3 feet long, covered at both ends with goatskin (now replaced by fibre or other synthetic materials) - that is a ‘dhaak’, the quintessential Bengali percussion instrument, inextricably associated with Durga Puja. One of many indigenous musical instruments
Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1922-2006) was a friend of both my parents, so he practically watched me grow up from a teenager right until I became a wife and mother. His completely unassuming and earth-bound disposition showed itself in the way he patted my head and asked
The International Culture Festival under the auspices of the International Culture Centre paid tribute to the memory of Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay in celebration of the iconic writer’s 127th birth anniversary on September 12. The tribute came in the form of a screening of the film Talnabami,