Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

A-daylong theatre fair titled ‘Rangamatan Solaiman Mela’ will be held today at the premises of the National Theatre Hall of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city. The programme will begin at 10:30am and will continue till night.
   The quarterly theatre magazine Theatrewala organises the fair to commemorate the contribution of the eminent theatre icon SM Solailam. About ten theatre groups will present their respective works and display theatre materials at the stalls at the fair.
   Among the theatre groups Prachyanat, Theatre Art unit, Aranyak Natyadal, Subachan Natya Sangsad, Palakar, Prangane Mor, Udichi and Janmasutra will take part at the programme.
   According to the organisers, the participating groups will stage the plays, written and directed by SM Solaiman beside their own productions.
   The organisers will also arrange programmes of music and recitations from plays, screening of ‘Khyapa’ – the documentary film on Solaiman, art installations and a discussion programme titled ‘Ei bazare ki niye keno kibhabe natak’.
   The organisers will also stage the critically acclaimed play ‘Golapjan’, written and directed by SM Solauman.
   SM Solaiman, who was born on September 29 in 1953, died on September 22 in 2001.
   The editor of Theatrewala, Hasan Shahriar says that we have a plan to commemorate SM Solaiman last Friday in every September.‘We are arranging this programme, first of its kind in Bangladesh, to commemorate SM Solaiman,’ says Shahriar.
   ‘SM Solaiman’s contribution has enriched the Bangladeshi theatre. He is one of the great theatre personalities, whose works has long influence among the people of the country,’ he adds.
   The organisers hope that the fair will create enthusiasm among the young theatre activists and will also uphold the contribution of Solaiman to the general people.

Former Miss World Aishwarya Rai will play the role of Queen Mumtaz in a film on the Taj Mahal –– the white marble mausoleum built in memory of the fabled 16th-century beauty.
   ‘I had spoken to Aishwarya last year while we were working on ‘The Last Legion’ and she very generously agreed to do the movie with me,’ said British actor Ben Kingsley, who is co-producing the film.
   ‘The romance will also include Shah Jehan’s abject isolation for years in a prison cell,’ after the death of his beloved wife giving birth to their 14th child, he told the Times of India.
   Kingsley will play the lead role of Emperor Shah Jahan in the movie, which will be shot next year in Agra where the Taj Mahal stands on the banks of the river Yamuna.
   Kingsley – born Krishna Bhanji to a father of Indian extract and an English mother – is best known on the sub-continent for the Academy-award winning 1982 hit ‘Gandhi’.
   Emerald-eyed Rai, who played Indian warrior Mira in The Last Legion, is already in the role
   of a Mughal princess in Bollywood film Jodha Akbar, which is due for release in January 2008.