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Born in 1946, Mohammad Alam got the honour of being the only official War Photographer of country’s Liberation War in 1971. He started his career as a press photographer in 1967 with Dainik Azad, one of the well-circulated Bangla newspapers of that time, after resigning from government service with PID.
   ‘When Azad had printed my photographs, I got the further inspiration to work in this field. Photographs, as usual, were very effective in creating public opinion during that period. Interestingly, the President used to take note of the photographs in the newspapers and take necessary accordingly.’
   ‘During our time we followed an ideology. The photographers emphasised on creative works. News photography was very powerful and there was always a competition among the photographers to present the reality of society. There were also feature photography but that was considered to be ‘seasonal’,’ Alam continued.
   ‘Nowadays, feature photography seems to be getting priority over news photography, and the photographers, I feel, of this generation are only interested in getting quick fame.’
   Alam left the Azad in March 1971 and joined the Liberation War. The Swadhin Bangla government recruited him officially as the War Photographer. His duty was to take photographs of the war and the refugees and then submit them to the Department of Information, headed by late MR Akhtar Mukul.
   ‘I submitted photographs at the office on Theatre Road in Kolkata which were sent to the rest of the world for people of other countries, so that could realise what was happening in the then East Pakistan.’
   Alam had taken combat training to fight against the occupants. Besides photography, he also fought in Satkhira district at Sector 9. He visited different sectors with the president and the prime minister of the Prabasi Sarkar to take photographs of the war and other government activities.
   ‘I had submitted all of the films of the photographs to Mukul bhai. In fact, I was so engrossed with meeting my duties as a government photographer that I overlooked the importance of preserving them. At the end of the day, I used to be sent to sell the newspaper Joy Bangla, the daily bulletin of the Prabasi Sarkar, at Sealdah Railway Station.’
   ‘We were not confined in a single job. We used to do whatever was needed to be done. As I could play the tabla, noted music maestro Samar Das called me to play tabla for the song Surya uthechhe purba digante, rakta lal for Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra.’
   After liberation, Alam came back to the country and joined Azad. Later, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman appointed him officially as his personal photographer. From 1972 to 1975, Alam worked with him and took photographs of many historical events.
   Alam submitted all of his films to the PID, which was expected of him as a government official and he did not bother to keep copies of the films for his own record. ‘Due to the lack of proper preservation, many the films of those photographs of the Liberation War and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have been destroyed and taken away by people.’
   After 1975, Alam joined at Dainik Sangbad and in 1983 he joined the Ittefaq, where he is still working.
   ‘Young photographers are doing well in feature photography but the news photography has not developed much. I think that the press photographers today are not getting much remuneration from the newspaper houses. The young photographers should also study the works of their senior colleagues. The government should also take an initiative towards the development of photojournalism and at the same time recognise the contribution of photojournalists in the political history of the country,’ Alam said.

Deshi Music and Krishnachura, both well-known production houses, have jointly made a mega serial titled Kachher Manush which will be aired on NTV on March 11. The drama serial comprises of 150 episodes based on the novel by Suchitra Bhatyachariya, an Indian writer.
   Afsana Mimi, head of Krishnachura and director of the production, organised a briefing on the occasion at Xindian Chinese Restaurant on Thursday.
   The crew of the productions along with eminent personalities were also present.
    Kamal Ahmed of NTV said that this is for the first time Krishnachura and NTV are working together. ‘I think, it will be a wonderful entertaining event’, he said.
   The mega serial is based on socio-family script, in which two central characters are led by the mother and her
   daughter and the people
   around them. Basically, the characters portray individual conflict.
   The different roles are played by Humayun Faridi, Subarna Mustafa, Aly Zaker, Alamgir, Azad Abul Kalam, Amirul Islam Chowdhury, Afsana Mimi, Shirin Bakul, Joya Ahsan, Tarin, Fazlur Rahman Babu, Shams Sumon, Dilara Zaman, Mamunur Rashid, Rumana, Sumaiya Shimu, Intekhab Dinar, Farhana Mithu, John, Tahsan, Sharmili Ahmed and others.
   The serial will be aired at 8:20pm every Thursday and Friday.

‘Godfather of Soul’ James Brown tops a star-studded line-up of jazz greats performing this weekend in Indonesia’s first major jazz festival in seven years, benefiting tsunami relief, organizers said.
   A portion of ticket sales for the festival that starts Friday will be donated to victims of the December tsunami, chief organizer Paul Dankmeyer said.
   Brown and jazz legend George Duke were among 80 bands and some 300 musicians from the United States, Japan, Brazil as well as Indonesia who are slated to perform at this weekend’s Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival, Dankmeyer said.
   Organizers will donate 15,000 rupiah (1.60 dollars) of each ticket sold to the tsunami relief effort, and are hoping to sell 30,000 tickets during the three-day event.
   ‘Now is the right time to bring international and Indonesian jazz stars together ... there is a lot of curiosity as to what happened to jazz in Indonesia,’ he told AFP.
   Artists including acid jazz outfit Incognito, Eric Benet, Tania Maria, Laura Fygi, the Earth Wind and Fire Experience and former Cassiopeia member Tatsuro Sakurai are on the bill, said Dankmeyer.
   A separate tsunami charity concert featuring the same musicians is also being planned, Dankmeyer said.
   Indonesia — which has faced a myriad of problems ranging from terrorism to natural disasters since the start of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s — last held a major jazz concert in 1997.
   The December tsunami disaster left more than 234,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia.
   –– AFP

BTV will air ‘Anandajhorna’, a fortnightly talk show at 10:30pm tonight. The event is planned, scripted and moderated by Professor Shaheda Obayed.
   Today’s episode deals with dowry. Deputy attorney general Fahima Nasrin and Mowlana Abul Kalam Azad will speak on the subject.

The students of Maple Leaf International School, Dhaka, organised a cultural programme ‘Ekush Amar Prerona’, based on Ekushey, on February 28 at the school premises.
   The students paid rich tributes to veteran folk singer and lyricist Abdul Latif, who passed away recently, and the martyrs of the Language Movement of 1952 as well.
   The events featured songs, recitations and dances which were performed by the students of classes IV to IX of the school.

Yet another classic television series from the 1960’s gets a big-screen update inspired by the Bill Cosby and Robert Cuip duo. A special stealth fighter jet that is invisible both to radar and the human eye has been stolen and sold to powerfu’ arms dealer Arnold Gundars (McDowell) Federal agent Alex Scott (Wilson) is assigned to find the weapon and thus enlists the help of flamboyant and loud-mouthed boxing champion Kelly Robinson (Murphy) of whom Gundars is a big fan. Alex’s eagerness and Kellys cockiness provide the laughs and spills of a misguided but successful team-up.
   I Spy
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Malcolm McDowell
   Genre: Action/Comedy