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Every celebration has its own charm and like most businesses, music industry during the Eid has also done business besides providing entertainment and joy to the music lovers of the country.
   For this Eid celebration, major music companies made a sincere attempt to provide quality tunes for people to be entertained during the festive period.
   The major music companies like CMV and Sangeeta had released several albums for their customers. According to a recent survey, during this Eid, the market was laden with numerous music albums of famous as well as new comers in the arena of music.
   CMV, the well admired music house, had released a compilation of two audio CDs and four music video CDs:
   Ashulia Rhaster Moray and Bhalobashi Gopone by Momtaj (VCD), Priya’r Biyer Card- a joint production of SA Khan and CMV (VCD), Chumki Remix- a mixed album (VCD), Pran Sojoni by Mamun (Audio CD),Tui je amar paran priya by Shanto and Momtaj.
   Among these compilations, the most rapidly sold and immensely popular are Priya’r Biyer Card and Bhalobashi Gopone.
   Sangeeta had also made their mark by releasing twenty-five audio and video CDs. The top selling ones are as follows: Tomar shopno niye bajbo by Sonu Nigam, Tumi je amar by Andrew Kishore, Parina bhule jete by Polash, Shuker Thikana by Kanak Chapa, Protarona by James and Ayub Bacchu (A duet).
   Although all the music companies are fairly satisfied with the outcome of the album sales, they all agree that it was not as profitable compared to the revenue of last Eid’s sales.

The following films will be screened today at the different auditoriums at the 9th Dhaka Int’l Film Festival organised by Rainbow Film Society.
   Venue: Central Public Library
   11:00am
   The Local Train, (12 minutes, children’s section), director: Forhad Mokhtari, Iran
   Butterflies are Just a Step Behind, (91 minutes, children’s section), director: M Ebrahim Moayeri, Iran
   1:00pm
   Year by Year, (45 minutes, short & independent), director: Liu Wei, Hong Kong
   Shadows of Tehri, (45 minutes, short & independent), director: Anirban Dutta, India.
   My Dad, My Mom, (30 minutes, short & independent), director: Iao Bo, China
   3:30pm
   Country Focus, Australia
   The Djarn Djarns, Green Bush, Plains Empty, and Sa Black Thing
   5:30pm
   The Goat Horn, (95 minutes, cinema of the world), director: Metodi Andonov, Bulgaria
   7:30pm
   Spanish Basque: Seven Spanish short films (total 74 minutes)
   Venue: National Museum Auditorium
   11:00am
   The Boys, (85 minutes, country focus), director: David Wenham, Australia
   1:00pm: Some Like It Hot, (retrospective), USA
   5:30pm
   Picture, (20 minutes, short & independent), director: Shen Yan Jun, Hong Kong
   Poet of the Wastes, (81 minutes, cinema of the worlds), director: Mohammad Ahmadi, Iran
   5:30pm
   Joyjatra, (119 minutes, Bangladesh panorama), director: Tauquir Ahmed, Bangladesh
   7:30pm
   The Peach Thief, (cinema of the world), director: Valo Radev, Bulgaria

The winner of the 2005 best actress Oscar, “Million Dollar Baby” star Hilary Swank, is to present an Academy Award at this year’s ceremony, organisers announced.
   Double Oscar-winner Swank, 31, is the first celebrity presenter to be announced for this year’s edition of cinema’s biggest night, which will unfurl in Hollywood on March 5.
   Swank won her second Oscar a year ago for her leading role as a female boxer in Clint Eastwood’s wrenching drama ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ which also won the best picture award. She walked off with her first Oscar in 2000 for her leading role as a gender-conflicted girl in ‘Boys Don’t Cry.’
   The actress, who last week announced she is separating from her husband of more than eight years, actor Chad Lowe, is now one of Hollywood’s hottest properties.
   Swank is the first in a traditionally star-studded parade of Hollywood personalities to be announced as presenters of the golden statuettes this year.
   Nominations for the 78th annual Academy Awards will be announced in a pre-dawn ceremony in Beverly Hills on January 31 and the most coveted awards in cinema will be handed out at a glittering ceremony at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre on March 5.

Besides screening of films, the organisers of the 9th Dhaka International Film Festival, Rainbow Film Society, will arrange five seminars related to cinema at the Goethe-Institut in Dhanmondi today in a daylong programme. The seminars will start at 10:00am.
   The subjects of the seminar are: ‘Spirituality and Cinema: A search’, ‘Fifty years of Pather Panchali: Realism Unbound’, ‘Henrik Ibsen’s plays: Chalachchitrer abiswaraniaya upadan’, ‘Relationship and social change in America: A retrospective of the comedy of Jack Lemon’, and ‘Thirty-five years of Bangladesh’s Independence: Movies of the movement’.
   The seminars will be followed by screening of ‘An Enemy of the People’, (91 minutes), based on Ibsen’s play. It is directed by Erik Skjoldbjerg of Norway.

Tens of thousands of Brazilian U2 fans were left empty-handed as the first day of ticket sales for a concert in Sao Paulo descended into chaos.
   Fans waited in vain for more than 12 hours as tills in the supermarket chain which was selling tickets broke down.
   Some 73,000 tickets were on sale with a limit of 10 per person for the 20 February gig. Demand for tickets far exceeded the supply, however.
   Organisers apologised and said an extra show would be added for the next day.
   Students could buy tickets for half-price, but the cheapest full-price ticket was 200 reais (£50, $88) - about two-thirds of Brazil’s minimum monthly wage.
   The show was marketed through a tie-up with the Pao de Acucar supermarket chain, which sold tickets through 10 Sao Paulo outlets and two in Rio de Janeiro.
   Angry fans shouted slogans against the chain’s president, Abilio Diniz, saying that in future they would shop at a rival chain.
   Police were on standby in case of crowd trouble, but none was reported.
   One fan, 29-year-old teacher Verna Zula, had waited since 0300 for the tills to open at 1000 on Monday.
   ‘I wouldn’t have bothered if I had known it would be like this,’ she said on Monday evening.
   ‘When I got here, there were 150 people in front of me.
   None of them have got tickets yet.’