The New Nation - Internet Edition

Festival: DU theatre festival to end today

Entertainment Report

The eight-day theatre festival, which is taking place at the Natmondal Auditorium of Dhaka University organised by Department of Theatre and Music of Dhaka University, will end today.

The festival started on August 12.

The festival has been organised as a part of the practical training of the students of honours final year.

Students of the department have selected 14 local and foreign plays for staging during the festival.

Today, at the concluding day of the festival, Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Prof Nazrul Islam will be present as chief guest, while Pro-VC of Dhaka University Prof Dr AFM Yusuf Haider, Head of Programme of Ekushey Television Atiqul Haque Chowdhury, Professor of Department of Bangla of Dhaka University Syed Akram Hossain, Litterateur Selina Hossain, Director General of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Shafiqul Haque Bhuiyan and Professor of Department of English of the North South University Abdus Salam will be presents as guests at the concluding session.

Eminent educationist Prof Zillur Rahman Siddiqui will give the concluding speech on the occasion.

Dr Israfil Shaheen, Chairman of the Department of Theatre and Music of Dhaka University, said the festival has created an opportunity for the local audience to enjoy the plays of world renowned and contemporary playwrights. The proceeds from gate money will go to the ailing theatre personality Zia Haider.

TV Watch: Daily soap Dolls House on ATN Bangla tonight

Entertainment Desk

Daily soap 'Dolls House' to be aired on ATN Bangla at 11:30pm today. It will be the 193rd episode of the daily serial.

Azad Abul Kalam is the advisory writer of the serial. Tazin Ahmed, Tanvir Hossain Probal and Chanchal M Rahman are in the script board of the daily soap.

Afsana Mimi and Badrul Anam Saud have jointly directed the serial.

Suborna Mustafa, Shampa Mahmud, Mita Chowdhury, Wahida Mallik Jolly, Tushar Khan, Chitralekha Guha, Dinar, Iresh, Al Mamun, Tropa Majumder, Saberi Alam, Farhana Mithu, Bijori Barkatullah, Prity and others are being performed in the serial.

Story of Dolls House:

Dolls House is full of with females of various professions and mentalities. A woman has her own world is the main theme of the serial.

After many incidents different incidents take place in the serial according to the demand of the characters. Dolls House remains a silent witness of those incidents.

Final round of BrandWitz 2008 held

Entertainment Report

The final round of BrandWitz 2008, the inter business school marketing competition, organised by IBA Communication Club (IBACC) and CLEAR, a prominent brand of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd was held recently.

This was the 3rd round of the competition where the topic was 'Branding for Democracy: Developing a Communication Campaign that Defines and Promotes Fair Candidates to the Electorates for the Parliamentary Elections.'

The three finalists teams were American International University Bangladesh, Khulna University and the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University.

Professor SMA Faiz, Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University, was present as the chief guest, while Syed Manzur Elahi, President of Dhaka University Alumni Association (DUAA) and former advisor of the Caretaker Government and Rakesh Mohan, Chairman and Managing Director of the Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, presents as special guests on the occasion.

Dr Muhammad Ziaulhaq Mamun, Professor and Director of IBA and Professor Munir Khasru, Moderator of IBACC were also present on the occasion.

Mushtaque Ahmed, Managing Director of NetValue and Mamun Rashid of CitiBank NA and Naushad Chowdhury, Director of Brands & Development of the Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, were present as judges at the function.

It was an evening filled with intellectual wit and thought, impressively presented by the participants. With notable performances from the participants it proved to be a pleasant occasion of upholding the belief of the young minds of Bangladesh. There was a tie between Khulna University and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) for the first place and the 2nd Runner-up team was American International University Bangladesh (AIUB).

24 teams from top 15 business schools took part in the competition. The recorded final will be aired on ATN Bangla on August 21 (today) at 8:00pm. All the team members of the winning team of the event will get the opportunity to work with the brand team of Unilever Bangladesh on an 8-weeks project.

TV Show: Banglavision airs Samudrajol tonight

Entertainment Desk

Banglavision will air drama serial 'Samudrajol' at 8:25pm on Thursday.

Mohan Khan and Sohel Arman have jointly scripted and directed the serial.

Gazi Rakayet, Lutfar Rahman George, Shahed Sharif Khan, Shahriar Nazim Joy, Sohel Arman, Litu Anam, Arman Parvez Murad, Bonya Mirza, Saju Khadem, Chandni, Tanima Hamid, Sharmin Shila, Ria, Nisho, Sajal, Rashed Khan, Rahi, Tania and others performed in the serial.

Story of Samudrajol:

Russo and Odhora loved each other and got married. They went to Coxes Bazaar and lost their money.

Russo then wanted to back Dhaka. Then he lost his memory in a road accident. In the meantime, Odhora was waiting for his return. The story went on with various climaxes.

Special: Nazrul Institute to arrange programmes for children

Entertainment Desk

The Nazrul Institute will organise a two-day art, recitation and Nazrul Sangeet competition for children to mark the 32nd death anniversary of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam on its premises at Dhanmondi in the city on August 24 and 26.

Children who are interested to take part in the competition are requested to enrol their names at least one hour prior to the beginning of the competition.

Competition for recitation will begin at 10:00am and Nazrul Sangeet at 12:00 noon on August 24. The art competition will begin at 4:00pm on August 26. Children aged between seven and 15 can enrol their names for competition.

Prizes will be distributed at a programme at 5:00pm at Shaheed Zia Auditorium of the Bangladesh National Museum at Shahbagh on August 27.

Hollywood: DMB sax player dies from ATV wreck injuries

AP, Los Angeles

LeRoi Moore, the versatile saxophonist whose signature staccato fused jazz and funk overtones onto the eclectic sound of the Dave Matthews Band, died Tuesday of complications from injuries he suffered in an all-terrain vehicle accident, the band said. He was 46.

Moore died at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centre, where he was admitted with complications that arose weeks after the June 30 wreck, according to a statement on the band's Web site. It did not specify what led to his death, and nursing supervisor Galina Shinder said the hospital could not release details.

On June 30, Moore crashed his ATV on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va., but was discharged and returned to his Los Angeles home to begin physical therapy. Complications forced him back to the hospital on July 17, the band said. The band went on with its show Tuesday night at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, where lead singer Dave Matthews dedicated the entire show to Moore. "It's always easier to leave than be left," Mat-thews told the crowd, according to Ambrosia Healy, the band's publicist. "We appreciate you all being here." Saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who played with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, had been sitting in for Moore during the band's summer tour. Moore, who wore dark sunglasses at the bands' many live concerts, had classical training but said jazz, was his main musical influence, according to a biography on the band's Web site. The band formed in 1991 in Charlottesville, Va., when Matthews was working as a bartender. He gave a demo tape of his songs to Moore, who liked what he heard and recruited his friend and fellow jazzman Carter Beauford to play drums, and other musicians. Fans who attended Tuesday's concert expressed sadness over Moore's death and concern about the band's future without him.

Bollywood: Bachna breaks box- office jinx for Yash Raj

Agency

'Bachna Ae Haseeno,' the latest product from Yash Raj Films Pvt, is a crowd-pleasing bid to regain the box-office magic that seemed to have deserted Bollywood's top production house.

The film's title, which means ``Beauties, Save Yourselves,'' is an exhortation to women to escape the attentions of the amorous hero Raj, but is better known as one of the songs from the gem-studded soundtrack of Hum Kisise Kum Nahin (1977). Raj breaks two hearts, then has the same thing done to him. In the second half, he seeks to make amends and is thus healed himself.

'Bachna' should have been a fairly enjoyable bit of froth but director Siddarth Anand ends up delivering a charm less film that appears to have been conceived by a committee of management experts. You can almost hear the words 'demographic' and 'core focus group.'

Featured in ``Bachna'' are two of the brightest new stars on the Bollywood firmament - the impeccably pedigreed Ranbir Kapoor, who plays Raj, and the gorgeous Deepika Padukone. He designs games for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox while she drives a taxi and works as a store cashier to pay her way through business school in Australia.

The film tracks Raj from 1996 to 2007, starting with the incurable romantic Minissha Lamba (Mahi) as his first conquest. Next up is the smouldering Bipasha Basu (as Radhika), who's left broken-hearted at the altar.