The New Nation - Internet Edition

Music News: Shironamhin’s 3rd album to release soon

Band members of Shironamhin

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Shironamhin, an alternative psychedelic metal band troupe with classical flavour, is going to release its third solo album titled 'Bondho Janala' next month. Tuhin, main vocalist of the band, said this recently.

Zia and Tuhin, both the then students of architecture department of BUET, started the band 'Shironamhin' in 1996. The band released two full albums and many mixed albums. Their debut album was 'Jahazi' in the year of 2004.They made a good use of Bengali instruments. Then it has been released its second album 'Ichchhe Ghuri' in 2006. Now Zia, Tuhin, Shafin, Rajib and Tushar are members of the present line-up of the band group. One of its key members Farhan, who plays sarod for the troupe, now in busy with his higher study in Australia. Prince has also left the group.

If we look into the background of the group we found that Zia, one of the founders of the band, was in the band name 'Threshold.' Then the band was officially dismissed. Then he started 'Shironamhin' with Tuhin. They started Shironamhin in 1996. They have made the band popular by using their own style of instruments and versatility of composition. Their debut album 'Jahazi' got a good popularity of the albums of the year 2004. After two years they made another album 'Icche Ghuri,' which earned a huge popularity. The last mixed album of Shironamhin was 'Bondhuta,' a band mixed coordinated by Zooel.

Zia said, "Shironamhin believes that it is possible to find a proper tune for a proper lyric. After Jahaji and Ichchhe Ghuri, 'Bondho Janala' will be our third album and it will be published first of 2008. It is being produced on our own works station called 'Pray Shironam.' Some 11 tracks will be in the new album. Of them, the song titled 'Bullet kimba kobita' which is quite different from its plotting and texture. 'Busstpedge' and 'Bondho Janala' can be a hit number. We have introduced an orchestral influences and 'Quoire' vocals by Simin and Elita there."

Shironamhin performed in many underground and mainstream. Recently members of the band have performed in mainstream open-air concerts mostly. It performed in the NAM Conference Hall with LRB and Renaissance for NTV's third anniversary as the representative of the third generation as LRB and Reneissance were playing the role for the other two generations.

Shironamhin got a good popularity from concerts. It performed another concert in the 'Nazrul Institute' on May 1, 2007 organised by the 3rd Generation Showbiz. It also performed in many concerts including at the Bashundhara City. It showed pretty music of Bangladeshi instrument in the concerts.

Shironamhin has been nominated as the 'Best Band in 2005 and 2006 by the CJFB (Cultural Journalists Forum of Bangladesh). It also won the Best Music Video Award for 'Pakhi' at the Citycell-Channel i Music Awards in 2006.

TV Watch: Last episode of Ek Jonome tonight

Dolly Zahur and late Abdullah Al Mamun in Ek
Jonome

Entertainment Report

The last episode (298th episode) of drama serial 'Ek Jonome' to be aired at 9:20pm on ATN Bangla today. Ferdousi Mazumdar, Tarin, Chumki, Joya, Zitu Ahsan, Sabbir, Abdul Kader, Shovon, Jamaluddin Hossain, Shirin Bakul, Oliul Haque Rumi, Shafique Sadeki, late Abdullah Al Mamun, among others, have performed in the drama serial.

Story of Ek Jonome:

Raquib Chowdhury is a noted figure in the country's cultural arena. He is a successful person in cultural field, but not in his family. His sons are of two types. Elder son is better than younger one. His elder son is also unsuccessful husband to his wife. His wife loved another person before her marriage. As a result, she does not like her husband. Raquib Chowdhury's younger son loves an aged woman. The story continues with various climaxes and incidents.

TV Show: Azad Abul Kalam, Sajal in Amar Ami tonight

Entertainment Report

Celebrity talk show 'Amar Ami' to be aired on Banglavision at 9:05pm today. Ushnish Chakraborty has produced the programme, while Munmun has moderated the show.

Popular actor, playwright and director Azad Abul Kalam and Sajal will be present as tonight's guests at the show.

The participant actors will discuss and share their experiences in drama arena. They will also take part in conversation with their family and personal life.

Event: Profile book of 100 business personalities, 100 celebs launched

Entertainment Report

Artokhonto Publications launched a book on profile of '100 business personalities of Bangladesh' and '100 celebrities' at a city hotel recently.

In the two separate volumes of the book, biography of 100 hundred celebrities and 100 hundred businesses tycoons and their achievements, suggestion to all how to be a successful man have been stated.

Commerce Secretary Firoz Ahmed was present as chief guest at the function, while Director of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) Kamal Uddin Ahmed was present as special guest on the occasion.

Country's top 26 ramp models presented a colourful fashion parade later.

Zahir Karim, Proprietor of fashion house Karims,' sponsored all the dresses for the fashion parade, while Krishan Bhuiyan choreographed the show.

Hollywood: 'Pal Joey’ returns to Broadway

AP, New York

Nearly 70 years after an unrepentant cad named Joey Evans first graced a Broadway stage in 'Pal Joey,' he's back, with his ambition and charm intact.

The musical, featuring a vintage Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart score, has been revived several times on Broadway over the decades, but none of the productions has been as thoroughly a refurbishing as the small yet effective redo that the Roundabout Theatre Company opened Thursday at Studio 54. Playwright Richard Greenberg, author of 'Take Me Out' and 'Three Days of Rain,' has given John O'Hara's original book (based on O'Hara's New Yorker short stories) a new sheen without changing the general outline of the story: punkish song-and-dance man scores big, gets his comeuppance but soldiers on.

Greenberg's rewrite is crisp and to the point. There is a hard-boiled briskness to his work, a film-noir sensibility in its punchy dialogue that ricochets lickety-split across the stage. That dialogue, under Joe Mantello's fast-paced direction, is handled with ease, particularly by its three leads, Stockard Channing, Martha Plimpton and, in the title role, Matthew Risch as the womanizing, opportunistic entertainer determined to succeed in the nightlife of late 1930s Chicago. They are qualities just right for attracting the worldly wise, older woman, socialite Vera Simpson, played here by Channing. The actress has a delicious, dry delivery. Her Vera knows the score, but even she is "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" by the young hoofer. Channing gets across this number, one of the most famous in the Rodgers and Hart canon, in what can be described as her best Rex Harrison "My Fair Lady" manner. It's half-sung, half-spoken but acted to the fullest, a consummate bit of musical-theater performing.

Vera and Joey were made to be used by each other. And Joey has used quite a few women, including Gladys Bumps, a tart, tattered club performer. Plimpton is quite a revelation in the role. Known in New York for her appearances in a parade of new and classic plays, the actress is a joy to watch as she dives into musicals. Greenberg has conflated the role of Gladys with a female reporter, and has given the journalist's big second-act number, "Zip," a parody strip number, to Plimpton. She pulls it off splendidly, so to speak.

The show's production values, especially the sets, are minimal; even the costumes for the chorus cuties are tackily appropriate and skimpy.

There is no huge orchestra, such as the large contingent on hand for the current revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific." Yet the "Pal Joey" score, which also includes "I Could Write a Book" and "You Mustn't Kick It Around," still sounds full.

Maybe that's because the songs, despite their lacing with a large dose of cynicism, still manage to sound glorious. That's the genius of Rodgers and Hart. Those fellas can even make a louse like Joey Evans sing sweetly.