DECEMBER, 14, 8 pm ANANDA SANDHYA at Ananda Mandir
SMT SUGATA CHATTERJEE (vocal)
With Sri MADHU VORA on Harmonium, And Sri SHYAM MOHAN on Tabla
As usual, the ANANDA SANDHYA concert is FREE, Children come free. However, your kind donation is always graciously accepted.
For info, call Arun Bhowmik at 908-672-1452.
Few years ago, I met Partho Ghosh at a Kallol (of New Jersey) general body meeting. Initially I thought him to be a new member of Kallol. I watched him sitting quietly in one of the back seats and observing the proceedings of the meeting. Later, during a break, someone introduced me to Partho as a journalist from the “Pratidin” news paper house in Kolkata. It was then, when Partho disclosed to me his vision of a news paper that can serve as a bridge between us, the non-resident Bengalees (NRB) and our home land. I was a bit skeptic at first. Continue reading
UNITED STATES KOLKATA LITERARY EXCHANGE
at JANUARY 2008 KOLKATA BOOK FAIR
USKLE will be bringing a group of 12 to 18 distinguished
poets, writers, screenwriters, publishers, editors, translators
and playwrights to the 2008 Kolkata Book fair
please check USKLE.org
A Benefit dinner and
An evening of poetry reading by
Erica Jong
Yusef Komuniakaa
on Friday December 7th, 7 pm
at Nupur Lahiri’s house (BFA)
4343 Rt 27, Princeton NJ 08540
To sponsor travel expanse for the delegates to Kolkata
suggested donation $100.00 or more
Erica jong, author of eight novels including Fear of Fying, Fanny, Sappho’s Leap,
What do Women Want, A Midlife Memoir, Fear of Fifty and six volumes of poetry.
Yusef Komuniakaa won Pulitzer prize, William Falkner prize, Kingsley Tufts Poetry award
for his poetry and Bronze Star for for his service in Vietnam.
In 1999 he was elected a Chancellor of The Acadamy of American Poets
RSVP Nupur Lahiri 732-821-3949
Krishna Bhattacharya 732-536-6325
Goutam Datta 908-507-5998
Indian Institute of Performing Arts (IIPA) presents an evening of classical music and dance featuring
Brinda Guha (Kathak presentation)
Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik(vocal)
Mohan Deshpande(Vocal)
Accompanying musicians for the vocal recitals are Kedar Naphade on harmonium and Amod Dandawate on tabla.
8th December at 7 p.m.
Venue:
The Community Presbyterian Church of the Sand Hills
57 Sand Hills Road
Kendall Park, NJ 08824
Donation: $15.00 per person.
Contact information: (732)-821-8719.
email: suparnaguha@aol.com
ENAD, a theater group based in the Bay Area in California will be staging “Ron” on December 8, 2007 at Cubberley Theater in Palo Alto. “Ron”, a play written by Sudipta Bhawmik, has been staged earlier in the USA and Kolkata, India by Ethnomedia and has received excellent reviews from the critics and the audience. If you have friends living in the Bay Area, make sure that they don’t miss this play.
3.00pm and 6.30pm
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 at gate and $30 for VIP
Children under six are not allowed. Parental discretion advised due to adult content.
For tickets, call: Nisar Ahmed (510-708-0741)/Debankur Das (408-406-2184)/Rebanta Mitra (408-249-7633)
I recently had the chance of watching Wes Anderson’s “Darjeeling Limited”. I am not an Anderson fan by any sense, but few things drew me to the theater. First, I heard a lot of hoopla about Wes Anderson; second the crew included some familiar names like Lydia Dean Pilcher (the producer) and Cindy Tolan (casting director). And finally the title of the film – “Darjeeling Limited”. Somehow I had the feeling that the film is going to show some parts of the beautiful hill town Darjeeling and the magical “Darjeeling” toy train. But I was disappointed.
Continue reading
Once Satyajit Ray was asked, “Which of your films would you like to remake?” He answered that, if possible, he would have remade all his films except for “Charulata”. It was only “Charulata” that he thought was made “perfectly” and he would like to keep it that way. Well, now an expatriate Bengali film maker, Amitabha Neil Ray, is trying to recreate history. Amitabha is planning on making “Charu: Unspoken”, a modern version of Tagore and Ray’s Charulata set in current day America. To some, it may sound like sacrilege. To remake what most people think as a classic, to try to better one of the best film craftsman of all times, is what only few would like to dare. The stakes are too high, the expectations are sky reaching – almost impossible to meet, and failure seems to be inevitable. But, isn’t that what geniuses strive for? Isn’t the challenge to excel, to better the best, to pursue the dream to the end, what drives artists to create their master pieces? Didn’t Ray himself take the leap to recreate another master creators work and make it even better in many ways? Great works of art always inspires other artists, and that is why Ray’s “Charulata” drives artists like Amitabha Neil Ray to remake his own, “Charu: Unspoken”. Continue reading