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,
When I first read a major excerpt from Meghnadbadh Kabya as part of my board examination syllabus, I felt like re-reading again. Not because Michael Madhusudan Dutta had used international poetic tools in an age when Bengali poetry could least imagine such treatment, but because
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
The recent passing of Narayan Debnath, one of Bengal’s most iconic graphic illustrators, has perhaps revived several questions relating to Bengali cartoons and comic strips, and the differences and similarities between the two. In that context, the recent Cartoon Mela organised in Kolkata from December
Is it upturned? Is it twisted or gone topsy turvy? Never mind the Bengali name of the neighbourhood, Ultadanga is flat straight land, but might have got its name from an upturned boat or dingi, that were found in abundance here once upon a time.
In January of 1692 (1693 if we go by the modern calendar), Job Charnock died in Calcutta, a city of which many consider him the ‘founder’, if a city can actually have a single founder. That makes it 330 years since his death. Having arrived
When I first met Soumitra Chattopadhayay, he was a friend’s father. This was the early 1980s, and a poet friend of mine, Bitan Bhowmik, introduced me to another poet friend of his called Sougata, and we landed up at Sougata’s place to find that he
VEvery die-hard foodie of Kolkata has been to Tiretta Bazaar at one point or the other to savour the best home-made Chinese food and breakfast and enjoy a slice of Chinese life in the heart of the city. But a dig in history opens up
Matryoshka fish, inspired by Russian Matryoshka dolls A beautiful sunset, brilliantly coloured birds, pouring rain, undersea miracles. All part of nature, all designed to evoke wonder. But what do we really see when we witness these marvels? Do we truly appreciate their elemental nature? Or is
Come Makar Sankranti, the last day of the Bengali calendar of Poush and its not just about Ganga Sagar Mela. Far from the river, nestled in the tribal hills of Jhargram, Purba and Paschim Medinipur, this day has a special significance with respect to an