Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

The nation will observe Amar Ekushey with a month-long programme beginning today. Though the epicentre of all Ekushey programmes will be the Bangla Academy for the month long Amar Ekushey Granthamela, the book fair to recall the Language Movement of 1952, related cultural programmes will be organised at the premises of the Shahid Minar as well as other parts of the city.
   The Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, will inaugurate the book fair this afternoon. The director general of the Bangla Academy will welcome the audience. Among others, Mohammad Abu Taher, president of Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers’ Association, will speak at the function to be chaired by the Minister of State for Cultural Affairs, Begum Selima Rahman. The fair is jointly being organised by the Bangla Academy and the Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers’ Association.
   Besides being the venue of the fair, the compound of the Academy will be enlivened with seminars and cultural programmes throughout the month with regular functions starting at 4:00pm everyday.
   A discussion on the fifty-year history of Bangla Academy will be held on February 2, with former directors general, directors and secretaries recalling their times at the Academy.
   On February 3, another discussion on the contribution of the Academy in publishing glossaries, literary works and other publications will be held at the Academy ground.
   A painting competition for children will be held at 9:00am on February 4 and the role of the Academy in publishing dictionaries will be discussed at 4:00pm the same day.
   The role of the Bangla Academy in publishing books relating to higher studies and folklore will be discussed on February 5 and 6 respectively; a discussion on the role of Bangla Academy Library will be held on February 7 and another on the role of Bangla Academy in researching Bangla language and literature has been scheduled for February 8.
   On February 9, a seminar will be held on the birth centenary of Syed Mujtaba Ali. Seminars on the birth centenaries of Mohammad Mansuruddin, Maulana Akram Khan, Ismail Hossain Siraji, Kaliprasanna Ghosh, Haraprasad Shastri and Nabin Sen will be held on February 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 respectively.
   On February 16 a discussion will be held on the folk culture of Bangladesh and a focus on contemporary life in the plays of Bangladesh will be held on February 17, while a discussion on the depiction of the Liberation War in Bangladesh’s novels will be held on February 18. The practice of Bangla literature abroad will be deliberated on on February 19 and the spirit of Ekushey as reflected in Bangla essays will be discussed on February 20.
   The programmes on February 21 will commence at 6:00pm with the placing of wreaths at the Shahid Minar followed by a cultural programme at 4:00pm and recitation of poems at 7:30pm. Meanwhile, the Bangla Academy Sahitya Purashkar 2004 will be declared at 4:00pm on February 22.
   On February 23 and 24, the Academy will arrange two cultural programmes at 6:00pm and on February 25, a recitation and a music competition for children will start at 9:00am and 10:00am respectively. The prize giving ceremony will be held at 11:00am.
   The cultural functions on February 26 and 27 will begin at 6:00pm and the State Minister for Cultural Affairs will be present as the chief guest on the last day of the month long celebration. All the discussions will be followed by cultural presentations.

A week-long National Street Theatre Festival 2005, jointly organised by Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation and Bengal Foundation, begins today in the city. Renowned educationist Sarder Fazlul Karim will inaugurate the festival at 4:00pm at the Central Shahid Minar. The shows will also be staged at the Rabindra Sarabar in Dhanmondi.
   In this regard, a briefing was held at the Dhaka Reporter’s Unity premises on Sunday. Mamunur Rashid and Liakat Ali Lucky, president and general secretary of the Bangladesh Group Theatre Federation, Keramot Mowla, Saiful Islam Mahmood, Prabir Sarder, Akhtaruzzaman and others were present on the occasion.
   The speakers at the briefing said that people who believe in independence have been living an insecure life. Whoever is taking a stand for democracy, secularism and socialism, is being annihilated. The theatre activists of the country have been marching on the streets to establish democracy at the risk of getting threats from assassins. Many stages have been blown away by terrorists, killing a number of activists.
   A number of popular groups from out of Dhaka will also attend the festival. Groups from Dinajpur, Rangpur, Sirajganj, Jessore, Jhenaidah, Barisal, Hobigonj, Ashugonj, Chittagong, Bogra, Bhola, Chandpur, Magura, Sylhet, Narsingdi, Gopalgonj, Gobindagonj and Pabna will participate in the festival.
   Both the open stages will hold five shows a day and will present a total of seventy plays, starting at 5:00pm every day.

It was an incredible night for ‘The Incredibles.’ The Pixar Animation Studios film about a family of superheros who save the day swept the 32nd annual Annie Awards on Sunday, winning top honors for best animated feature, best directing and best voice acting for Brad Bird, the film’s director who voiced the diminutive seamstress Edna Mode.
   The Annie Awards are presented by the International Animated Film Society to honour outstanding animation in television and film. Winners, including last year’s ‘Finding Nemo,’ have typically gone on to win the Academy Award for best animated feature. The film was distributed by The Walt Disney Co.
   In the voice acting category, Bird beat Antonio Banderas, who provided the voice for Puss in Boots in the DreamWorks Animation film ‘Shrek 2.’ He also edged out Samuel L. Jackson, who was nominated for his voicing of the cool superhero Frozone in ‘The Incredibles.’
   The film also took awards for writing, production design and music for the throbbing score composed by Michael Giacchino.
   Two of the Annie nominees for best theatrical feature — ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Shrek 2’ — are nominated for an Oscar for best animated film at the February 27 Academy Awards.
   Among the other winners on Sunday were Nickelodeon’s ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ for best animated television production, and actress Brittany Murphy for giving voice to the character ‘Luane’ in the Fox TV show ‘King of the Hill.’
   The awards were presented at the Alex Theater. Among the presenters were comic book legend Stan Lee and Debra Jo Rupp, co-star of the Fox sitcom ‘That 70’s Show.’ The awards were hosted by Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants. –AP

Over the next 30 days, trainee photojournalists from Oslo University College in Norway will be collaborating with fellow students from Pathshala, The South Asian Institute of Photography, in a first-of-its-kind collaboration that will see the students working on comprehensive photo stories.
   This is the second time that the OUC has had this kind of cooperation with another institution, allowing students to learn from each other as they work on real-life projects.
   The first part of the month-long programme is a week-long workshop which will be conducted by Jack Picone, an Australian photographer based in Bangkok.
   Situated in Panthapath, Pathshala is the educational wing of Drik Picture Library Ltd. It offers four educational qualifications: a four-week basic course in photography, a oneyear diploma, a two-year advanced diploma course and a three-year BA degree in photo journalism.

9:00pm -10:00pm, Discovery
   Extreme heat has devastating effects on the body and mind. Extreme Survival: Heat takes viewers on a journey to one of the hottest places on Earth, where temperatures soar to around 120 Degree Celsius and the nearest help is hundreds of miles away. But there are people who have lived in this heat for thousands of years. In this episode, a test is being conducted in Pilbara, a remote desert region in Western Australia, to assess the limits of human physiology to survive in this harsh environment. Ken Bradshaw is heading out into this hostile environment on a survival test, without food or water. Can he survive the perils and emerge a winner? Extreme Heat will push your body and mind to the ultimate limits.

9:00pm - 10:00pm, Animal Planet
   Animal Precinct takes viewers on patrol with the agents, tracking down neglected pets and changing their lives forever by rescuing them from continued abuse. In the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn, ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) Special Investigator Paul Romano and Special Agent Joe Pentangelo discover two most emaciated dogs. Special Agents Adam Gankiewicz and Richie Ryan investigate a complaint about a neglected dog in Queens, New York and Special Investigator Annemarie Lucas and Special Agent '[ma Salaks are assigned at Central Park to monitor the welfare of the carriage horses there.

A solo mirror and glass art exhibition by Kazi Rakib will start from today at the Gallery Kaya at House no. 20, Road no. 16, Sector no. 4 in Uttara.
   The High Commissioner of India Veena Sikri will inaugurate the exhibition, titled Reflection & Revelation, at 5:30pm. Noted actor Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, will also be present at the inaugural function.
   The exhibition will remain open from 11:00am to 8:00pm till February 7.

Budding Indian filmmaker Ashvin Kumar is nervous and excited as India’s hopes of winning its first Oscar next month rest on his shoulders.
   His 15 minute short film ‘Little Terrorist’ has been nominated in the Best Short Film category for the 77th Academy Awards in Hollywood.
   The nomination for the golden statuettes has come as a surprise to Kumar who has been struggling to establish himself in the Indian movie world, heavily dominated by the traditional candyfloss Bollywood potboilers.
   ‘This nomination means a lot to me, much more than if it had come later in my career,’ Kumar, producer-director of ‘Little Terrorist’ told AFP.
   ‘I have spent more than three years trying to establish my credentials in the international forum and recognition like this is a great catalyst.’
   Kumar is the second Indian filmmaker to have won an academy award nomination in the last four years after well known producer-director Ashutosh Gowarikar’s epic film ‘Lagaan’ made it to the Best Foreign Films category in 2001.
   ‘Lagaan’ was nominated but failed to bring home the coveted golden statuette as it lost out to ‘No Man’s Land’ from Bosnia.
   Kumar now hopes to make it with his ‘Little Terrorist’, a story about a Pakistani boy who strays into India and is suspected to be a terrorist. — AFP

Just Married chronicles the beleaguered romance of Tom Leezak (Ashton Kutcher) and Sarah McNerney (Brittany Murphy), a young couple unexpectedly swept off their feet after their first meeting. Tom is a late-night radio traffic reporter whose good looks, blue collar lifestyle, and unrelenting passion for sports makes him the ultimate alpha-male. Sarah is a beautiful, free-spirited writer whose family is as wealthy as it is snobbish.
   Much to the surprise of Tom’s friends and the dismay of Sarah’s family, the two quickly fall in love. Tom’s attempts to assimilate himself into Sarah’s world of privilege and expectations fall short, but Sarah ignores her father and sister’s incessant attempts to dissuade her from following her heart and marrying her knight in rusty armor.
   Following their wedding, the happy couple sets off — with the highest of hopes and ideals about love and marriage — on what they expect will be the perfect vacation in Italy.
   Star Movies
   7:00pm
   Starring
   Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy and Christian Kane
   Genre
   Romantic