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Adroit Collection is essentially an accomplished clothing store. The several tastefully decorated outlets of the boutique hold quite a large collection of shalwar kameezes, saris, punjabis, fatuas, kids wear and shirts. This award winning designer boutique has come up with some magnificent designs for all strata of people. Children wear, to men’s, to ladies; you name it they have it for you this Eid at very reasonable prices.
   ‘Every boutique around the country celebrates Eid, and that is what we are doing as well,’ says Syed Kamrul Hasan, speaking on behalf of Adroit Collection. ‘Eid is an Islamic festival, but in our country it has turned into a quintessential Bengali festival,’ he adds.
   ‘Handloom, colour and taste — we have concentrated on these three aspects in our new fashion line for Eid,’ asserts Kamrul. ‘Since its inception the boutique has earned a niche in incorporating the latest trends for fashion savvy people,’ he adds.
   Kamrul, who feels strongly for the use of colour, says, ‘Eid should be colourful, and so this time we experimented using different colours with tie dye, batik, vegetable dye, hand paint, embroidery and block prints.’ He feels that if people only wore the same shades of colour every year, they would soon get tired of it. By bringing a gradual change in colours, they can preserve the essence of the festival.
   ‘In our latest collection we have introduced handloom fabrics from Manirampur of Jessore, which has been a significant feat,’ says Kamrul, adding, ‘the durability of the colour texture of this kind of fabrics is 100 per cent guaranteed.’ Apart from that, dupian silk from Chapainawabganj, endi-cotton from Manikganj and khadi and cotton fabrics from Narsinghdi, clearly dominates the boutique’s new Eid product lines.
   ‘As people have become more fashion conscious for Eid, the different outfits worn on this day, from fatuas and saris to shalwar kameezes and kurtas, almost always have an influence of the bright festive colours — red, blue, maroon and violet,’ says Kamrul
   ‘We have created variations in colour by using natural colours from the extracts of vegetables, fruits and tree barks and introducing the combination of vegetable die and batik in our handloom fabrics,’ says Kamrul, who is one of those who feel that it is time to make this event more colourful.
   Apart from colour, the shape and cutting of the dress are also very important. As anything short is the ‘in thing’, the product range in Adroit is also dominated by the same phenomenon, whether it is kameezes, fatuas or punjabis. ‘Along with the cuts the eye-catching hand embroidery, zardozi, karchupi and sequins works give our products an elegant but trendy adage,’ says Kamrul.
   The boutique has a really good collection of saris. ‘This year our major attractions are the Jamdani, muslin and tissue saris with zardozi, embroidery and karchupi works added on them; some of them are priced over Tk 12000,’ informs Kamrul. Their kota and cotton saris are also eye-catching and display neat embroidery and work in sequins. The hand painted and block printed saris are trendy too. The prices of their saris vary from Tk 550 to around Tk 13000.
   Teenage girls who are not comfortable getting pinned up and wearing saris can definitely choose apparel from the boutique’s mixed range of short shalwar kameezes and short kurtas. The prices range from Tk 295 – 5000.
   The boutique also has a good collection of punjabis and fatuad for men, intricately designed with Luckhnow stitching, batik and appliqué works; prices for these vary from Tk 375 – 5700 and Tk 295 – 785 respectively. Adroit also tailors shirts from quality imported fabric, and prices will vary between Tk 395 – 825. The store also has a stock of very reasonably priced imported ties for men.
   Adroit’s kids wear collection is characterised by cosy cotton T-shirts, shalwar kameezes, frocks and fatuas that are ranged between Tk 100 – 625.
   At Adroit, you will also come across a limited yet fashionable collection of costume jewellery. Perfumes and deodorants are also available at this well-decorated store.

It was October 27, the 104th birth anniversary of music maestro Abbasuddin Ahmed. The Bhawaiya Angan, a cultural organisation that promotes bhawaiya songs, arranged a press conference and cultural programme to mark the day at the national press club in the city.
   AKM Mustafizur Rahman, the founder and the executive director of the organisation, answered different questions at the conference and talked about the organisation’s future programmes.
   The chairman of the organisation, Salma Mustafiz, music director Hafizur Rahman, Mohammad Mukaddes Ali, AKM Abdul Awal and Makbul-e-Elahi were present among others.
   Paying tribute to Abbasuddin, the executive director of the organisation Mustafisur Rahman said that the folk tradition of bhawaiya songs, which originated in the country’s northern region, is being lost to more popular culture. ‘Abbasuddin upheld this genre of folksong,’ he said.
   ‘We should come forward to collect, preserve and present these songs in a proper way,’ he added.
   According to him, as the dialect of bhawaiya songs are not used in the other parts of the country, singers from other regions need proper training to present this genre of folk song.
   He said that the organisation has taken five projects to research the songs, aiming to prevent the on-going distortion in this music.
   Rafiqul Haque Jhantu, a collector of folksongs handed over a long-play record of the songs of music maestro Abbasuddin Ahmed and Hafizur Rahman handed over a disc record of Damayanti Roy to the collection of the Bhawaiya Angan.
   In the second part of the programme, organisers arranged a cultural function dedicated to Abbasuddin Ahmed. Hafizur Rahman, Athi Rahman, Anima Mukti Gomez, Asad Babu and young singer Manika Mustafiz sang at the function.
   AKM Mustafizur Rahman and Salma Mustafiz also
   sang a duet. Mohammad Mokaddes Ali played dotara while Mohammad Hasan Ali was on flute and Mohammad Sirajul Haque and Sahas Mustafiz on tabla.

The word Bou Basanti is a synonym of Bouchi, a local folk game. The play, Udichi’s latest production, starts with the game and ends with it. With the game as a background, the playwright has presented incidents in a remote village during the war of independence.
   Using the national flags of Pakistan and Bangladesh, the play symbolically implies that, before the war, there were some people who dreamt of liberation, and after the war, there are also some who are against liberation.
   Depicting the poverty of some villagers, the play also suggests that the country’s independence has no meaning to some people unless it eliminated their poverty.
   The play’s message is like the bou of the folk game; both our national and individual dreams are being snatched away.
   In the span of nine months during the war, the play presents a village, where we are introduced to two thieves, Badar and Manu; a begger Motaleb and his young daughter Rizia; Main, an opportunist who served the occupying forces; and Sekandar, member of an aristocratic family.
   In a part of the Ganj, we see Halim, who buys stolen goods, his restless daughter Jotsna and a madrassah teacher Shafiq.
   The playwright Ratan Siddique very aptly interweaved the plots of each character. He has presented the sufferings and happiness of the villagers, their inter-sectarian relationships and overall simplicity. But at some points, the story seemed lengthy, with parts that could have been excluded.
   The playwright has also masterfully made use of slang and coarse dialect used by people of society’s lower strata.
   Though the images of the bloody war were not physically presented on stage, the impact of the war and curiosity of the people towards the war was depicted neatly.
   The performances of almost all of the actors were lively. The set design was effective in creating the ambiance of a village; the lighting also helped tremendously in this regard. But it had room for improvement, a fact that was very apparent in several of the scenes.
   This Udichi play, directed by Azad Abul Kalam, was staged in the evening on October 25 at the Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium of the Mahila Samity on Bailey Road.

The ‘flying’ Ford Anglia used in the Harry Potter films has been stolen from studios in Cornwall.
   Police said the rusting Ford Anglia, registration 7990 TD, went missing from the South West Film Studios in St Agnes on Wednesday night.
   Police said, ‘The thieves may not have known its connection with the films and just thought it was a classic car, or it may have been a Harry Potter freak.’
   The turquoise 1962 Ford Anglia was taken to the St Agnes studios, which went into receivership last year, for an exhibition.
   The studios were not used to film the Harry Potter films, which were made by Warner Brothers at Leavesden, Hertfordshire.
   The car’s magical properties are triggered by a silver button on its dashboard and as well as flying it has a Tardis-like expanding interior.

In George Pal’s version of the HG Wells classic, Rod Taylor stars as George, a young scientist fascinated with the concept of time travel. On December 31, 1899, George seats himself in his jerry-built time machine and thrusts himself forward into 1917.
   A dyed-in-the-wool pacifist, George is distressed to see that World War I is raging all about him. He moves past the 1920s and 1930s into the 1940s, only to be confronted by another, even more terrible war.
   Next he stops in 1966, just as London is destroyed in a nuclear explosion. Retreating to his Time Machine, George is sealed in his cellar by molten lava. By the time he and his machine manage to escape their tomb, the year is 802,701.
   Looking around, George observes a seemingly idyllic world populated by gentle people. But he also notices that the citizens of the future, known as ‘Elois,’ behave more like mindless sheep than human beings.
   The Time Machine
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Guy Pearce, Mark Addy, Samantha Mumba, Jeremy Irons, Philip Bosco
   Genres
   Action/Adventure