The flavour of Kolkata

The flavour of Kolkata
The city is known for its old alleys. One such is shot by Atanu Pal.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Roopa....by Anurag


Here's the elegant Roopa Ganguly for you....shot impromptu by Anurag Basu at Darjeeling where he was shooting Barfee with Ranbeer Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Roopa plays a role in the film, her first Hindi film in a long time.

Sincere thanks to Roopa Ganguly for the permission for the photograph, sourced from her Facebook album.

Challenge Nibi Na : a brief look

Am not being able to catch up with Challenge Nibi Na - the reality show with celebrities on ETV Bangla at 9 pm due to work schedule. Caught just 2-3 episodes.

The celebs are being put through really unfamiliar and challenging tasks in a village. Like catching fish, collecting dry leaves and filling sacks with them, collecting eggs from under small baskets spread over an area, fun games like a quick run to and from a point and cutting a gourd in between and blindfolded team games. Some are finding it more challenging for their excess weight and lack of fitness while some are smoothly sailing through for being fit and in shape.

The fit brigade : Rimjhim Mitra, Sampurna, Dibyendu, Silajit.
The fat pack : Kamalika, Arindam Sil, Sohini Paul, Swastika Mukherjee.

It was surprising to find Sohini awfully fat, with her bulging stomach hanging in a white t-shirt. Swastika too looked too fat for a lead actress. Both of them really need to go through a strict fitness regimen to get back to reasonable shape.

Nondinee promo



Here's the second promo of Nondinee, the upcoming film by Subrata Sen after a long gap, starring Swastika Mukherjee. Mir and singer Dibyendu have played the male leads.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona

Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona is touching, bold and straight from the heart. Abani Sen, though a Bengali rockstar of that age is not really credible, is certainly amongst Anjan's best as an actor. Parno is impressive and so is Ranjana's voice - Somlata.

The film, though it has some elements too typical and repetitive of Anjan, takes off from where Anjan's Madly Bangalee ended and goes deep into the creative crisis of a rockstar and also has a brief but ruthlessly honest look at today's rock music and people making it. A fresh and interesting take. Recommended.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Srabanti's item number




Was pleasantly surprised to read about Srabanti's first item number in a Munni badnaam hui-resembling costume in Soumik Chattopadhyay's under-production film under the banner of Venkatesh Films on t2 Tollywood page today. It will be interesting to catch how so far the 'only seen as cute 'n' glam' Srabanti fares in the item number space.

Should be a treat to numerous netizens looking up Srabanti on the net and occasionally landing up on this blog, making the page views of the posts featuring her topping the most other most-viewed pages. Would love to have some comments from them here.

Picture sourced from : t2, The Telegraph 25 June 2011.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Jagorone jai Bibhabori...

The remade Rabindrasageet with guitar and drums in the background from Anjan Dutt's 24 June release Ranjana Ami Aar Ashbona is filling up my senses.....after Rupam's Beche thakar gaan (from Autograph) did it last Puja and Babul and Shreya's Pherari mon (from Antaheen) the year before that.

Loved Somlata Acharyya Chowdhury's voice, and Kabeer Suman's too (after a painfully long time on playback) in Jagorone, and especially the western orchestration superbly composed by Neel Dutt. Neel is keeping up with his successful experimentation with Rabindrasangeet since the brilliant Pagla hawa in The Bong Connection.

Eagerly awaiting the film.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Star Ananda 20:20

Loved the panel discussion of an eclectic mix of participants from Bangla film industry on Star Ananda 20:20 telecast last evening. The topic was : Paglu and Shotru (two recent big releases) did business worth crores. What did the industry get?

Moderated by Suman De, the panel had Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Anjan Dutta, Raj Chakraborty, Anindya Chattopadhyay, Sujan (Neel) Mukherjee, Rahul, Mahendra Soni and Jeet Ganguly. The last two were refreshing additions to such a debate, and thanks to Star Ananda for that.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The sorry state of the stadium

It felt bad to know the sorry state of our showcase Salt Lake Stadium in this Times of India report published today. Always knew that the stadium gets a step-motherly attitude from the state government when it comes to maintenance and the ground has never got a much-needed overhaul in it's history. It's a shame for the last state government that despite earning from the stadium through hire charges for private functions, the upkeep always received a royal neglect.

Thankfully the new Minister of State for Sports (with independent charge) Madan Mitra has got into action soon after assuming duty and has ordered a maintenance drive. There are good reasons too, for if everything is upto the mark, the stadium is going to host the Argentine football team this September with Lionel Messi as the star attraction.

Also shocking to know was the state of a pride of the city - Rabindra Sadan (See this adjacent report in The Times of India).