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The images of an owl or lilies in a pond, or a village courtyard surrounded with huts —are all soul comforting and eye-soothing. They take form in textured creations of clay on canvas in Manira Sultana Mukta’s third solo terracotta exhibition, My Country-My Clay, being held at the Zainul Gallery of the Institute of Fine Art of the Dhaka University from February 15. Ferdous Ara Begum, Additional Secretary of the government and the Director of Grameen Bank inaugurated the exhibition in the evening of the 15th. The exhibition will remain open from 12:00noon to 7:00pm till February 21.
   Mukta creates her art form taking ideas from images of village women, local flowers, vines, and birds. She uses her technique in making attractive showpieces and utilitarian objects like vases, baskets, table lamps and hand fans.
   Mukta has obtained her MFA on Ceramic in 1998 from the Dhaka University and so far has had two solo exhibitions on terracotta. She thinks that the art of terracotta should be revived in its sophisticated form and should not be kept within the constraints of just the potters.
   ‘We can make beautiful artwork using clay available in our country. I think people should acknowledge that we have this, centuries old tradition of clay art work,’ said Mukta. ‘I want to revive the tradition and popularise it again among the people of this generation. I want to present it in a contemporary way,’ she continued. ‘This tradition can also attract art enthusiasts in other countries.’
   Mukta uses local elements, such as the clay itself, and the colour. She wants to avoid using any sort of foreign elements in her artworks. ‘I think the quality of our local material is good enough to make any artwork and in the near future will easily draw the attention of art lovers at home and from abroad.’
   ‘I work with simple subjects because I want to attract the common viewers, who can relate to my art without difficulty,’ Mukta added. The artist has plans to arrange this sort of exhibition in other places of the country so that the people of those places can get a chance to enjoy her creations in clay. ‘Artists who like to work with clay in other parts of the country, can make it a popular art, and help in reviving the tradition and make this art form more attractive to others,’ she hoped.

Now that Bollywood has produced its first truly world-class film – Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnificently crafted Black – the Mumbai industry has more than ever before earned the right to talk about its global ambitions without feeling a tinge of embarrassment. Really, a film industry seeking universal pastures cannot get there by riding on films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham alone, no matter how enamoured the Gallic audience supposedly is with its French subtitled version, Le Famile Indien.
   A product like Black is just the sort of film that can carry the weight of expectations. Even if Bhansali’s remarkable cinematic creation does not go the whole distance and outstrip Lagaan and Monsoon Wedding as positive advertisement for a new kind of Indian cinema, it can show the world exactly what a Mumbai filmmaker is capable of delivering if he puts his heart, mind and soul into his craft.
   Black has raised the bar and it won’t be surprising if some of the more enlightened filmmakers currently active in Bollywood take the cue and get out of the creative ghetto that they find themselves trapped in.
    If Black does capture eyeballs globally – there is every hope that it will – Bhansali will deservedly get his all-access pass into the august league. He is already a name to reckon with, especially since his red carpet appearance at the Cannes Film Festival with Devdas in 2002. Black promises to put him on a much higher pedestal by demonstrating that he isn’t just another Bollywood filmmaker, but a true artist and an extraordinary craftsman.
   Now that Black has lit up the way, the next big move that Bollywood makes is bound to have far-reaching consequences. The days of half measures are gone. Bollywood needs more of SLB’s ilk, men with the guts and the gall to go more broke.
   — Hindustan Times

Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic ‘The Aviator’ was the big winner at the BAFTA awards in London on Saturday night, winning in four categories.
   ‘The Aviator’ was named Best Film, with star Cate Blanchett winning the award for Best Supporting Actress.
   The film also took the awards for Best Production Design and Best Make Up and Hair.
   Mike Leigh’s ‘Vera Drake’ followed ‘The Aviator’ on the awards tally, winning in three categories.
   Leigh was named Best Director, his Oscar-nominated star, Imelda Staunton, won Best Actress and the film also won the award for Best Costume Design.
   Jamie Foxx won the Best Actor award for ‘Ray’, with Clive Owen named Best Supporting Actor for ‘Closer’.
   The award for Orange Film of the Year, which was voted on by the public, went to ‘Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban’.
   ‘The Motorcycles Diaries’ was named Best Foreign Film and composer Gustavo Santaolalla took the Best Achievement in Music award for his work on the film.
   ‘My Summer of Love’ was the Outstanding British Film of the Year.
   Charlie Kaufman won the Best Original Screenplay award for ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, with director Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor winning Best Adapted Screenplay for ‘Sideways’.
   — Internet

Like the previous years, Natyadhara, a theatre group will honour a theatre activist with the Tanusree Padak award along with Tk 5000 on February 22 at 6:00pm at Mahila Samity, Dhaka.
   The organisation has been giving this award for the last four years and a young enthusiastic theatre activist receives the award every year.
   Geetiara Sufia Chowdhury will be present as chief guest while Ramendu Majumder, Mamunur Rashid, Nasiruddin Yusuf and Kabirul Islam Rattan will be present as guests at the function.
   The prize giving ceremony will be followed by a drama titled Atish Dipankar by Natyadhara.

British pop singer Victoria Beckham, wife of footballer David Beckham, and other women celebrities have been photographed nude for a book whose sales will help raise money for an AIDS charity.
   ‘Posh Spice,’ 30, wearing just Cartier jewellery and a pair of Jimmy Choo designer shoes, will appear in a book called ‘Four Inches,’ with 10 percent of the proceeds going to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the publisher Scriptum Editions said.
   Victoria Beckham, photographed in June just after she became pregnant with her third child, will appear in the book with former ‘Spice Girls’ colleague Geri Halliwell, the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson and supermodel Kate Moss.
   Other stars featured in the book are jet setter Paris Hilton, singers Christina Aguilera and Holly Valance, tennis ace Serena Williams and model Iman.
   The book will come out in May, but some of the pictures, including the one of Victoria Beckham, will be seen in Tatler magazine’s April issue.
   All the pictures were taken by female photographers.
   — AFP

A seminar is to be held on contemporary life in Bangla-deshi theatre today at 4:00pm at the Academy premises.
   Selim Al Din will present the keynote paper while Afsar Ahmad, Khairul Alam Sabuj and Saiful Islam will discuss it.
   Chashi Nazrul Islam will preside over the function.
   The seminar will be followed by a cultural programme.

John Kruger (Schwarzenneger, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop) does disappearing acts - he makes Federal witnesses under his watch vanish. With clean slates, their enemies think they’re dead and they can start lives anew. So if your name appears on Kruger’s list, you’re as good as dead. Pray you stay that way.
   But some lives are harder to erase than others. When Lee Cullen (Williams, Dance With Me, Pocahontas) discovers that her company is selling lethal weapons to international terrorists with the help of invisible hands in the government, she’s a marked woman. But Kruger’s got his eye on her.
   To flush his witness out so that the terrorists can have their toys for Christmas, Kruger’s up against top competition - his boss (Caan, Honeymoon is Vegas, Misery, The Godfather), who’s on the payroll. Soon, it’s Crocodile Dundee meets Drop Zone.
   In the end, he’ll have to do some permanent erasing, so his enemies don’t go showing up again. Deadly secrets. Double-crosses. Disappearing acts.
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams