The New Nation - Internet Edition

Music: Music Festival begins today

Entertainment Report

A three-day music festival will begin at the National Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy today.

A total of 25 music organisations and noted singers will perform at the festival.

Eminent artiste Ajit Roy is expected to inaugurate the festival at 5:00pm while Khan Sarwar Murshid will be present as chief guest on the occasion. The Bangladesh Sangeet Samannay Parishad and the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy will organise the festival in association with the Step Media Limited.

This was disclosed at a press conference at the Liberation War Museum in the city on Tuesday.

Artistes Tapan Mahmud, President of the Sangeet Sammnay Parishad, Mahmud Selim, Nargis Chowdhury, Fakir Siraj, among others, were present at the conference.

President of Abritty Samannay Parishad Asaduzzaman Noor, Chairman of Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation M Hamid, General Secretary of Sammilita Sangskritik Jote Golam Kuddus, President of Pathanatak Parishad Mannan Heera will speak in the inaugural session, with Director General of Bangladesh Shailpakala Academy Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam will chair the session, said Tapan Mahmud.

Cultural organisations including Wrishiz Shilpi Goshthi, Rabirag, Pratiti, Bhawaiya Academy, Mandira Shilpi Goshthi will perform in the evening, he said.

On July 25, a discussion meeting on music followed by a musical evening will be held, he added.

Banshuria, Cranti, Srijan, Sur Tirtha, Nazrul Sangeet Parishad, Sargam Lalitakala Academy, Ustad Mamtaz Ali Khan Sangeet Academy will present music of different genre, said the organisers.

The festival will end on July 26 with the performances of Udichi, Sangeet Bhaban, Baitalik, Swapnakunri, Surer Dhara, Rabi Rashmi, Padatik Sangeet Sangsad and Altaf Mahmud Sangeet Academy, they added.

Celebrity News:Mukti as model

Entertainment Desk

Siddique Food and Agribusiness Industry Ltd has made a TV commercial for their product 'Dalsi Chanachur’ recently.

Sekandar MA Dipu has made the jingle based advertisement film. Photogenic faces of Binodon Bichitra Mukti and Saif performed as models in the 30-second length television commercial.

Manik was beautician for the commercial. The television commercial was shoot at the Nandan Park.

Now the advertisement is being aired on Channel i, Ekushey TV and Channel 1.

It is mentioned that soon it will be aired on other television channels.

Poet Samudra Gupta buried

Staff Reporter

The poet Samudra Gupta was buried at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard yesterday.

Earlier his body was brought home from India on Monday and kept at the BIRDEM mortuary.

Samudra (Abdul Mannan) died in a hospital in Bangalore in India Saturday at the age of 62. The poet, ill with gallbladder problems, was taken to India on July 3 for better medical treatment.

The body of the poet was kept at his Kalabagan home for some time and later taken to the BIRDEM mortuary.

The body was brought to Aziz Super Market at 10:30am Tuesday and later taken to the Central Shaheed Minar for people to pay respects.

Another namaz-e-janaza of Samudra Gupta was held at the central mosque of Dhaka University.

Swapna Samudra, his younger daughter, said, "A minor surgery had been carried out at Square Hospital to remove a blockage from his gallbladder."

He had been taken to Narayana Hrudayalya Hospital in India, as his condition did not improve.

Samudra was born in Hasil village under Raiganj in Sirajganj on June 23, 1946. He wrote poetry, stories, critiques, essays and columns starting in mid-1960s.

His books include Rodh Jhalshano Mukh, Swapnamangol Kabya, Ekhono Utthan Achhe and Chokhe Choch Rekhe.

Event: Indian High Commission donates book to Asiatic Society

Entertainment Report

The High Commissioner of India Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty at a function presented a 55-volume work on the History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture that has been brought out by the Centre for Studies in Civilization in India as a gift to the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

The function was held at the Asiatic Society on Tuesday.

The books were handed over to Professor Sirajul Islam, President of the Asiatic Society. General Secretary of the Society Prof Mahfuza Khanam and other academicians, researchers, scholars and Council Members of the Asiatic Society were present at the function.

The 55 volume publication is a part of an inter-disciplinary research project presently being administered by New Delhi-based NGO Centre for Studies in Civilization, under the Chairmanship of Professor DP Chattopadhaya, and is expected to be spread over 100 volumes, said a news release of the Indian High Commission.

The scope of the work includes history of Indian philosophy; various Indian art forms including music, art, architecture, mathematics, science, and aspects of India's international relations, medicine and life sciences in India, Indian women and other issues, it added.

Asiatic Society is one of the two leading institutions in Bangladesh who have been presented with the publication as a gift. Earlier, on June 30 one set of publication was presented to the Central Library of the University of Dhaka. The Asiatic Society also presented some of its recent works to the High Commissioner.

Bollywood: What excited me to join the tour: Preity

There are few celebrities in Bollywood who can face up to the collective might of the Bachchan family and yet not feel awed -- Preity Zinta is one of them. The actress is currently on a 40-day tour with the Bachchans -- Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek and Aishwarya -- taking part in a singing and dancing extravaganza staged in 11 cities across North America, Europe and the Caribbean. Zinta said she knows having the Bachchan tag for the tour helps. "I have my own sensibility and I am confident of myself as an actor and a person. I am also sensible enough to know that when there are three Bachchans on a tour, people are going to talk about it much more than anyone else," Zinta told a news agency.

Zinta was not part of the original line-up announced for the Unforgettable Tour but was roped in after Lara Dutta and Bipasha Basu opted out. "It doesn't matter who's been on and off. What excited me was that the Bachchans were going and that different actors were coming on in different parts of the world and that's a treat to the audience," said the 33-year-old actress.

Zinta is confident the three-hour shows would also appeal to Westerners.

"It's not just the Indian audiences any more and that's the beauty of our cinema. The last show I did, there were people from Marrakesh, Africa, Germans, French. Our cinema has opened doors to different countries. It's not the conventional Hindi audience any more."

- Zeenews