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National poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s 106th birth anniversary will be celebrated by several cultural organisations across the country on May 25. The programmes will feature discussions, cultural shows and the Nazrul Book Fair.
   The cultural ministry has chalked out a three day programme to commemorate the day from Jaishtha 11 (May 25). Other organisations, including the Bangla Academy and the Nazrul Institute, will also celebrate the day.
   A rally will be brought out from the Matsya Foara from city’s Farm Gate area at 6:30 in the morning. State Minister for Cultural Affairs, Begum Selima Rahman will lead the rally. Marching on different roads the rally will end at the tomb of the poet in the Dhaka University campus. The minister will place a wreath at the Mazar at 7:30am.
   The main function will be held at Darirampur in Trishal, where the poet had passed some years of his life. Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, Barrister Jamiruddin Sirker will inaugurate the function at 3:00pm on the day. A three day long Nazrul book fair will start at the premises of the Central Public Library at Shahbagh. It will continue till May 27.
   Programmes will also be held at Chittagong and Doulatpur in Comilla, which are also rich with memories of the National Poet.
   
   Nazrul Institute
   Nazrul Institute will organise a discussion on the poet followed by a cultural programme at its auditorium at 4:00pm at the Kabi Bhaban in Dhanmondi on May 26.
   State Minister for Cultural Affairs, Begum Selima Rahman will be present as the chief guest. Professor Wakil Ahmed, Professor Abul Kalam Manjur Morshed, Khilkhil Kazi and Rawshan Ara Mustafiz will take part in the discussion. Secretary of the cultural ministry Ehsan Shamim will deliver the welcome speech and Dr Sharif Uddin Ahmed will give the vote of thanks.
   A number of Nazrul Sangeet singers, both young and senior, will participate in the function. Jayanta Chattapadhaya and Sima Islam will recite poems in the cultural function. Kabirul Islam Ratan and his troupe will present a dance programme, choreographed, and based on Nazrul’s songs.
   
   Bangla Academy
   Bangla Academy will pay tributes to the poet by placing a wreath at the tomb of the poet at 7:00 in the morning. The Academy’s main programme, featuring discussion and a cultural function, will be held at 5:00pm on May 28.
   Noted Nazrul researcher Shahbuddin Ahmed and Professor Najma Begum will take part in the discussion programme and Professor Wakil Ahmed, the Chairperson of Bangla Academy, will preside over the discussion.
   Nazrul Sangeet artiste Shabnam Mustari and Yakub Ali Khan will sing in the cultural programme, while Dilwar Hasan will take part in recitation. The students of Hrital Shilpi Goshthi, a Dhaka based cultural group will dance in the function.

‘As senior artists, we have reached our prime. It is time for us to move aside and make space for the newcomers to take our places in the world of music and entertainment. If we do not create the opportunity for them, they will not be able to shine in their respective fields and may feel frustrated,’ said Kamruzzaman Mani, a great exponent of tabla, at the celebration ceremony of his 79th birth anniversary. It was organised by Shuddha Sangeet Prasar Goshti at the Biswa Sahitya Kendra on Sunday 22.
   A committee should be formed with veteran artistes
   to judge the quality of upcoming performers in different organisations and the media, such as the television, radio, the academies and institutes, he added.
   Despite being a senior government official he finds time to practise the tabla on a regular basis. He has taught many students, who in turn are teaching tabla at different institutions in the capital.
   In the second phase of the event Yakub Ali Khan who was assisted by Kamruzzaman on the tabla. Yakub Ali Khan, a Nazrul Sangeet singer and Din Mohammad, a tabla player honoured their ustad, Kamruzzaman through the event.

The Jatiya Rabindra Sangeet Sammilan Parishad, organised an evening of Rabindra Sangeet to celebrate Tagore’s 144th birth anniversary at the Bengal Shilpalaya in Dhanmondi on May 22.
   The music was followed by recitations from Tagore’s poetry. Jayanta Chattapahdaya, Kazi Tamanna and Zinat Jahan Anita participated in the recitation.
   Bulbul Islam, Aditi Mohsin, Salma Akbar, Sajed Akbar, Laisa Ahmed Lisa, Azizur Rhman Tuhin, Fahim Hossain Chowdhury, Tania Mannan, Ilora Ahmed Shukla, ATM Jahangir, Mujibul Kaiyum, Khairuzzaman Kaiyum, Jhuma Khandakar and Rukaiya Hasina sang Rabindra sangeet.
   Enamul Haque Omar played the tabla, Doulatur Rahman was on the keyboard and Almas Ali was on the violin.

Oscar-nominated German film ‘Downfall’ has been given a surprising critical approval in Israel by young, old and Holocaust survivors alike, for its mesmerising depiction of the last days of Hitler.
   The most deeply controversial of a wave of films made in Germany to mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi regime, the film has been loved and loathed alike for portraying evil incarnate with a human face.
   Swiss actor Bruno Ganz’s brilliant warts-and-all portrayal shows Hitler in previously unimaginable scenes: charming his secretaries, sharing a passionate kiss with Eva Braun, frothing at the mouth over the latest reports of the encroaching Red Army, spilling sauce at dinner down his steel-grey uniform.
   The film doesn’t show Hitler in such a human light. The environment around him is humanised by children, the dog and women, but not Hitler himself. He was completely indifferent to his people suffering the Allied bombings.
   In the press, as anywhere else, there are those who laud its merits and those deeply critical of director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s portrayal of the Nazi Fuehrer.
   ‘This was a very specific, short and transient time in history, but the film does not
   glorify Hitler as some people said. He was a man, psychotic, but not an animal,’ said Brazilian Jewish emigre Noah Milstein, 66.

Nominations for the 59th Annual Tony Awards have been announced. Some of the top nominees are:
   Best Play: ‘Democracy’, ‘Doubt’, ‘Gem of the Ocean’, ‘The Pillowman’.
   Best Musical: ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’, ‘The Light in the Piazza’, ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’, ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’.
   Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Philip Bosco, ‘Twelve Angry Men’, Billy Crudup, ‘The Pillowman, ‘Bill Irwin, ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ James Earl, Jones, ‘On Golden Pond, ‘Brian F O’Byrne, ‘Doubt.’
   Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play: Cherry Jones, ‘Doubt, ‘Laura Linney’, ‘Sight Unseen, ‘Mary-Louise Parker’, ‘Reckless’, Phylicia Rashad, ‘Gem of the Ocean’, Kathleen Turner, ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
   Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical: Hank Azaria, ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’, Gary Beach, ‘La Cage aux Folles’, Norbert Leo Butz, ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’, Tim Curry, ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot, ‘John Lithgow’, ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.’
   Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical: Christina Applegate, ‘Sweet Charity’, Victoria Clark, ‘he Light in the Piazza’, Erin Dilly, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, Sutton Foster, ‘Little Women’, Sherie Rene Scott, ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.’
   Best Direction of a Play: John Crowley, ‘The Pillowman’, Scott Ellis, ‘Twelve Angry Men’, Doug Hughes, ‘Doubt’, Joe Mantello, ‘Glengarry Glen Ross.’
   Best Direction of a Musical: James Lapine, ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’, Mike Nichols, ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’, Jack OBrien, ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’, Bartlett Sher, ‘The Light in the Piazza.’
   Best Choreography: Wayne Cilento, ‘Sweet Charity’, Jerry Mitchell, ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels’ Jerry Mitchell, ‘La Cage aux Folles’, Casey Nicholaw, ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot.’
   Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre: Edward Albee.

NTV will air Tiffiner Phakey, a magazine show at 3:20pm today. The event is scripted, directed and moderated by Mujahidul Islam Tushar and Priya dayes respectively.

7:00pm-8:00pm, Annimal Planet
   In Zebra-Nomad of Serengeti, viewers are treated to rare footage in the battle for survival of a zebra foal in the Serengen plains of Africa. As the grass becomes overgrazed and temperatures soar he must set off, together withthousands of others, on their annual march across the plains to greener pastures.

While passing through a small town, Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Stallone) is tortured and falsely arrested by a brutal posse led by sheriff Will Teasle (Golden Globe® winner Dennehy. Assault On Precinct 13). Rambo manages to escape. While Rambo's commander Col. Trautman (Emmy® Award winner Crenna, Out Of The Ashes) races to save him, Rambo puts his Green Beret jungle survival training to good use as he brings his tormentors down one by one in the Northwest wilderness.
   First Blood
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy
   Genree: Action