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The month-long Zainul Abedin festival, to commemorate the Shilpacharya’s 90th birth anniversary, named A Saga of Man and Nature began with the inauguration ceremony at the Shaheed Zia Auditorium at the national Museum on December 12. The festival, organized jointly by the National Museum, the Shilpakala Academy and the Bengal Foundation, was inaugurated at 4.00pm, with the Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan as chief guest and State Minister Begum Selima Rahman as Special guest. Also present was Zainul Abedin’s widow Jahanara Abedin.
   Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin was born on December 29, 1914 in Kishoreganj. He studied at the Government Art School in Kolkata from 1933 to 1938 and in 1939 joined the faculty of the Kolkata Art School. Although his first works were scenic pieces on rural life, Abedin gained international recognition through his series of sketches on the famine that had spread through Bengal in 1943. After partition in 1947, Abedin came to Dhaka and played a pioneering role in the modern art movement in Bangladesh. He was also a key figure in establishing the Institute of Fine Arts in Dhaka and the Folk Art and Crafts Foundation in Sonargaon. In a land that lacked a long standing tradition and history of institutional art, the Shilpacharya emerged as a determining force. He died on May 28, 1976.
   Remembering Zainul Abedin as his own teacher Mahmudul Haque, Dirctor General of the National Museum said “I hope that Shilpacharya will be remembered fittingly through this festival.” He noted that while Bangladesh is not economically strong, it has a strong artistic movement. The Chairman of the Bengal Foundation, Abul Khair, and the Director General of the Shilpakala Academy, Ahmad Nazir, also expressed their hope for a successful and fitting retrospective festival.
   Special Guest State Minister Begum Selima Rahman said, “Zainul Abedin was able to bring out multiple faces of Bangladesh through his art: on the one hand he documented the simple people: farmers, fishermen and so on and on the other he showed the struggle of the people during the famine. His legacy shows a close connection to the people of Bangladesh.”
   The festival was inaugurated by the Foreign Minister who noted, “Zainul Abedin was a bright star in the history of Bangladesh’s modern Art. Without him, the art movement here would have been lagging far behind.”
   Zainul Abedin’s widow Jahanara Abedin expressed the hope that his works would be taken care of by the owners and said, “Although I am an ordinary person I had the honour to be so close to someone so extraordinary. I remember Abedin’s discussions with personalities from both at home and abroad about how best to help the people and society. I am happy to see that there are a growing number of exhibitions these days and that audiences too are growing.”
   The Zainul Abedin Festival will be held concurrently at the galleries of the three organizing organizations and will be open from 11.00am to 8.00pm daily (3.00pm-8.00pm on Fridays) and will run until January 7, 2005. The exhibitions contain 574 of Zainul Abedin’s works.

“Tumi jey tumi ogo
   shei tobo reen
   ami mor prem diye
   shudhi chirodin.”
   - Rabindranath Tagore
   The poet, the playwright, the novelist, the lyricist, the musician, the all in one Rabindranath Tagore, who had undoubtedly felt every human emotion from the core of his heart, had possibly predicted that even if centuries went by after he passed away, the place he would earn in the hearts of his devotees would only become more firm, the bond would strengthen between him and his idolaters and it would grow more intense with the course of time; and at one point they would become so overwhelmed by the greatness of his powerful gift, that they would feel indebted towards him; and at the same time he would want them to realize that the only way they could repay him or anyone they revere, would be through their precious love and their incomparable passion.
    Swanon, a well-known recitation group in Dhaka celebrated their 19th anniversary by staging a programme that proved unique in its concept, and quality. The event sponsored by Union Capital Limited was held on December 10 at the Shahid Zia Milonayton of National Museum, Shahbag. Rupa Chakravarty, besides being a reciter and a radio-TV anchor is the founder of Swanon.
   The program was inaugurated by Jamil Chowdhury who was honoured with an uttario by Professor Anisuzzaman. One attractive feature of the event was the presence of Partho Ghosh and Gouri Ghosh, two renowned personalities of Calcutta.
   After a small-duration of recitation by Gouri Ghosh, and Kazi Arif and Joyonto Chatterjee along with Rupa Chakravarty, Partho Ghosh took up the role of the MC. The first song of the evening, “Tomar Surer Dhara” was sung by Rezwana Chowdhury Banna. Partho has brought with him some records that are 85 to 95 years old. The playing of the records was followed by live rendering of the songs by the Bengali artistes.
   The main aim of this had been to highlight the differences of original tune and lyrics of Rabindra Sangeet with the altered notes and words by artistes of the old era. Pictures of these ancient singers as well as early recording machines like gramophones were shown on slide projectors with relevant information delivered by Partho Ghosh simultaneously.
   Mita Huq captured the hearts of her listeners when she sang melodiously, ‘Kano Jaminina Jetey’, written by Tagore in 1304 of Bangla calendar. ‘Ami chini go chini tomakey bideshini’, rendered by Tapan Mahmud in the programme was written by Tagore in Shilaidoho at the age of 34. He dedicated this song to one of his admirers Victoria Ocampo, a woman from Argentina
   The song, ‘Amar matha notho korey’, performed by Mohiuzzaman Chowdhury also has a background story to it. Once JK Sen, a high official of Gramophone Company had gone to his tailor’s shop where he heard someone singing aloud this very song. Sen asked this man, Kaiser Mohammad Mollik to come to his studio the next morning. Mollik was a very low-paid assistant working for a tailor but he had an unceasing passion for singing. However the next day when Mollik went to the studio, he was asked to perform the same song. Mollik didn’t even know that his song was being recorded. Though Mollik had made changes in the tune and words of the song, the album sold like a hot cake.
   “O jey maney na mana’ was recorded in the voice of Krishno Dashi Bhamini, a popular baiji of those days. The dwellers living near her residence in Shimla once sent a complaint letter to a police officer called Tigger Saheb. They demanded to banish her from the town if she did not give up her singing. Tigger Saheb went to her place to warn her. But after listening to her singing he felt that he could not do injustice to this artiste. Eminent singer Papia Sarwar sang this song. Rezwana C Banna enthralled the audience with her brilliant performance of ‘Sakhi oi bujhi bashi bajey’. Composed by Rabindra’s elder brother Jagindranath Tagore this song was recorded in the voice of a well-known theatre artiste, Ashchorjomoi Dasi.
   The last song delivered by Sadi Mohammed was the famous ‘Purano shei diner katha’. However, Partha pointed out that for the record that Purno Kumari Dashi apart from altering the original composition had also rearranged the words as ‘Shei Purano Diner Kotha’. The ending song of the show ‘Ganer bhitor diye’ was performed in chorus by Sadi, Mita and Tapan. A noticeable point of the event had been that the audience listened patiently to the history of each song along with the very ancient records. They highly appreciated the cumulative efforts of the organisers and artistes with their plaudits.

Ektar, a production house, released five audio CDs recently at the Amazon Club in Gulshan. Though the house is very new in the market, they want to deliver rock music to the listeners.
   Released CDs are Ekush Shotoke Renaissance, Sonabondhu, Trikal, Tomar Akash by Shaan and Sagorica from India followed by a remix album by Habib.
   Ekush Shotoke Renaissance comprises a number of good songs. Some are Tumi ki aaj bandhu and Alal O Dulal.
   Indian vocalist Shaan and Sagorica have released a mixed album and the songs are Tomar Aakash, Taxi and Aakabaka Path.
   Bappa Mojumder widely known for his soft melodies voice introduces his album Sonabondhu. The songs are Sonabondhu, Kande Hason Raja etc.
   Tuhin, an expatriate, has come with an album Trikal, based on some Bangla songs but rendered in a western style. The songs are Nari, Shubhechya etc.
   Habib’s album includes some of his previous popular compositions from Krishna and Maya. The album has the songs, Maya, Baula and Krishna.
   The function ended with live music performed by Renaissance, Habib and others.

Channel-i has begun a programme on contemporary agricultural, aimed at informing the public about problems related to the subject. Based on e-mails and letters received from viewers the Hridoye Mati o Manush invites experts to address issues regarding these problems.
   The programme began on December 9 and will be screened every Thursday at 3.15pm.

The sports programme i-Sports will be screened on December 14 at 5.30 pm on Channel- i. The programme will feature sports news from around the world, jokes and trivia.

The daily music programme Music Plus will be screened on Channel-i on December 14 at 6.00pm. The programme will feature songs from newly released cassettes, a countdown, songs from well known artistes, songs requested by the audience, film songs and songs by new artistes.

Slick, bewildering action that'll stop you in your tracks! A vicious 20th-century criminal is loose in the peaceful 21st century. Unused to dealing with violence, the police have no way to stop him. There's only one hope: get the killer's old enemy from 1996 - a cop so violent he was put in the deep freeze as punishment!
   Sylvester Stallone's (Get Carter, D-Tox) the lawman and Wesley Snipes' (The Art Of War, Disappearing Acts, Blade II) the prey in this explosive sci-fi action drama. You should check this movie out if you want to know what life is like without sex, smoking, drinking and vulgarity! Sandra Bullock (Forces of Nature) plays the quick-thinking policewoman who defreezes Stallone.
   Produced by Joel Silver (Lethal Weapon & Die Hard).
   Demolition Man
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes