Time: 18:30-21:30
Location: Shilpakala Academy Experimental Theater Hall
I just came back home watching Aronnok Natyadal’s play “Raarang”, which (almost) bored me to death. I wouldn’t have been there if one of the actresses on the play wasn’t my friend. Bengali literature never really touched me, nor did this play.
It was the first time I watched a theater play, and probably the last. Gee, it’s so khet!
An apparently mild mannered young man, frustrated by rampant corruption and lack of opportunity in his society, decides to take drastic action. Armed with an explosives packed briefcase, he takes a group of provincial bureaucrats and politicians hostage, threatening to blow them and him up unless his demands are meet. He calls for an immediate session of Parliament to pass new legislation putting an end to corruption, injustice and poverty.
His hostages are thrown into desperation and chaos: all of their innate greed, pettiness and hypocrisy surfacing in the course of dramatic night in captivity come out drastically. With the progress of this hostage-drama, we start revealing a miniature of Bangladesh through the action & reactions of the people captivated there. In other layer, we come to face a pristine equation of “power”. What’s the source of power? And what’s power either?
The movie “Made in Bangladesh” is ad attempt to capture the contemporary political and economic crisis of Bangladesh, and the pervasive frustration of ordinary people whose thwarted aspirations for peace and prosperity are like a ticking social time bomb, ready to explode.
Directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and written by Anisul Haque, this movie stars Zahid Hasan, Shahiduzzaman Selim, Tariq Anam, Tania, Tinni, Marzuk Russell and others. Now showing at Star Cineplex and Balaka Cineworld. Go watch it!
While passing Anondo cinema hall at Farmgate, the large backdrop of the newest Bangla movie caught my attention. One of the girls on the backdrop looked familiar. I went in for a closer inspection and recognised her. She was none other than Jenny, my friend Farhan’s fiance.
I called up my friend who was in a state of shock. We decided to watch the 6 o’clock show. The movie itself was totally crap, but not as vulgar as we thought it be. It’s just that there was an attempt-to-rape scene on Jenny, a moderately-erotic song where she wore shorts and tight blouse, and some touch-hug-kiss-fondle scenes. Can’t call it too obscene since topless and make out scenes are becoming norm in the latest Bangla movies.
Just to mention, it’s the second time I’ve been to a Cinema hall in Dhaka. The first time was in 1998 when I watched Titanic in Modhumita.
মেয়ে তুমিতো আমার নও চেনা
পলক তবু কেন আর পরেনা
জানিনা আজ আমার কি হলো
যেওনা যেওনা কিছুতো বলো…
যদি কথা না হয়
যদি দেখা না হয়
হারিয়ে যাও এক ঝলকে
মেয়ে কথা না কও
মেয়ে ফিরে না চাও
সঙ্গী করে নাও আমাকে…
(more…)
I finally finished working on my first “complete” Bengali site. Check it out and let me know what you guys think about it. I’m looking for criticisms, so please be honest and let me know the truth.
The site has been tested to work under Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, and Windows, with Firefox, Konqueror, and IE.
