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A six day long drama festival organised by Udichi Shilpi Goshti ended on Tuesday at Dr Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of Mahila Samity at 6:30pm with Chilekothar Sepai, a presentation by Udichi.
   The play is written by Akhtaruzzaman Elias, with direction by Kamal Uddin Kabir.
   Pather Badha Manbona Re Asuk Jhar Tufan –––with this slogan the group organised the festival in association with three theatre groups––Aranyak, Prachyanat and Padatik Natya Sangsad.
   The play centres on the historic mass upsurge of 1969. Ayub Khan, rules the Bangalis with an iron hand.
   Sheikh Mujibur Rahman leader of the Bangalis, lead his people to fight against the repression of the Pakistan forces.
   In the play, Osman, the protagonist lives in an attic and wants to do something as a Bangali, but doesn’t know how to.
   As a result, he suffers from a continuous inner feeling of guilt and looses the drive to join the others.
   On the other hand, Anwar along with his friends, who are the devoted activists of the Left, assure him of their dreams and plans, but Osman cannot accept their belief.
   The play turns dramatically when Khizir, a sharbahara comes into the scene.
   His courageous efforts help Osman to come out of the attic with the hope that he will get his own homeland, Bangladesh.
   That is the back drop of the play. Different roles are played by Prabir Sardar, Sumon Hassan, Munim Islam, Mamun Ur Rashid, Shahidul alam Ratan Dev and others.

A seminar is to be held on studying Bangla abroad today at 4:00pm at the Academy premises.
   Fazlul Alam will present the keynote paper while Babul Siraji, Mozammel Hossain Mintu and Salimullah Khan will discuss it.
   Fakhruzzaman Chowdhury will preside over the function.
   The seminar will be followed by a cultural programme.

A six member music band, Roots, has emerged with its maiden album Shuktara, produced by Kalatan Audio Vision. Comprising of ten songs, the lyrics are composed by Rudra Palash, Unmad Masud, Palash, Prince, Chanchal and Shubha.
   The band has composed the songs Gaite pari na and Dukher sathi to the melody of folk style. But they have used Western instruments and tunes. The other songs, namely, Jadi kokhono, Biday, Ektai to jibon and the title song Shuktara are composed in a way of melo-rock.
   The band members hope that the audience will enjoy the use of metal and rock for the song Ki dile akashke tumi. Another song Gagane Megh has been composed using folk fusion.
   The band has recently performed with noted folk singer Paban Das at the Cola Concert in Dhaka.
   Roots had won the title of the Best Band Award in 2003 in the Star Search competition, organised by the Benson & Hedges. The members of the band, Enayet, Prince, Chanchal, Tushar and Ratan, are all products of the competition.
   They have taken music as their profession and their performances in recent years have been well appreciated in the campus of the Dhaka University and in other places.

A long-standing taboo in France is to be broken with the release of a film that depicts the last two years in the life of Francois Mitterrand, the Socialist president who died in 1996.
   Not only is it the first time a modern-day French leader has been portrayed in the cinema, but the controversy that surrounds the Mitterrand legacy means the film has already caused ructions among the late president’s intensely loyal entourage.
   Starring one of France’s best-known stage actors ––the 79-year-old Michel Bouquet ––’Le Promeneur du Champ-de-Mars’ (The walker in the Champ-de-Mars) was shot last year at a cost of just four million euros by left-wing director Robert Guediguian.
   In a country that is both highly protective of the right to privacy and sensitive about the stability of its political institutions, there is no tradition of the kind of biographical theatre or cinema that is now commonplace in the English-speaking arts scene.
   But what makes ‘Le Promeneur du Champ-de-Mars’ doubly sensitive is its choice of subject matter.
   More than eight years after he died, Francois Mitterrand still inspires extremes of devotion and hatred among the public ––for whom he is either a left-wing visionary or a devious self-aggrandizer with a lot of dirty secrets.
   ‘Mitterrand is a personality who is very much still present in people’s minds,’ said Sarah Drouhaud, a journalist at the weekly magazine Le Film Francais.
   ‘Politics is not part of our film tradition, but on top of that this is a man on whom history has yet to do its task of weighing up and placing in perspective.’
   Previews of the film suggest it is short on action and long on dialogue, with Bouquet-Mitterrand followed around the country by a young journalist, played by Jalil Lespert, to whom he delivers musings on power, socialism and death. ––AFP

Just how does one of the most spectacular, eye-popping sci-fi mind-benders churn out a blockbuster sequel? Cool creatures. Cool cast. Cool gadgets. And that cool car. Get behind the scenes of Men In Black II', for the lowdown on the making of the end of the world as we know it -- our annihilation comes courtesy of the aliens among us. From script to screen, make-up to monster-makeover, CGI to celluloid. Men In Black H" comes undone in this out-of-this-world HBO exclusive creature-
   feature. Time to meet the monster makers, in the flesh.
   Men in Black 2
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones
   Genre: Specials