Indulgences(Cinema post 2009)

Hollywood+NYTimes=
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/12/magazine/14actors.html#1
Health Disclaimer:This video be watched before reading down below.

Many of us, who have fled to this country have (re)discovered our passion for "good" cinema
and "good" food, intensity of that passion got reduced on our pursuit to professional and social developments, while we were in the sub-continent. Adherence to "good" art  and "good" food (and may I add beverages as well) is our passport stamp of being elegant. Some might not be willing to confer on this, and those who won't, will be under the Sword of Damocles of being called non-elegant.
Snobbery is good and it works wonders as it injects a humongous sense of self-empowerment within.
 And this be told, the purpose of sharing the video-link above, was to trigger on the feeling of elegant-ness(throw out the word "elegance",  its too short to convey the enormity within).

Thus ends my Prologue.

The purpose of penning down this Blog is tad bit different.  I am badly seeking for recommendations for watchable movies, that got released post 2009. I am tending to believe many of you are Netflix,Redbox, Internet (devouring youtube specifically) users who hook onto movie channels at the slightest opportunity. Some of you are festival-goers and come across many avant garde movies. There are some, who would have had put premium on entertainment value rather than anything else. So what's your List of recommendations?  Here's my mine and this is why I recommend.
Hollywood
Inception (Director:-Christopher Nolan, Lead Actor-Leonardo di Caprio):-Its a movie based on dreams. The convention did not have much to play here. This is no good versus evil plot, there is no mission to be accomplished, there is no villain, no hero, no lost-love to be found out. Serious philosophers might find this one, as a trite talk on dreams.
Inglourious Basterds(Director: Quentin Tarantino):-Fictionalized history on World War II. Taut screenplay. Hitler gets murdered by the side-kicks in the movie.

The Ghostwriter(Director:Roman Polanski) :Fictionalized history. British PM, out of office, finds himself, assassinated. Best thriller I had seen in recent times.

Bengali Movies
Shukno Lanka(Mithun Chakraborty in the lead): A Bengali movie made with an universal appeal, that can cut across the board, irrespective of financial, social, rural, urban,professional status. Bengali movies are not known to be made of this kind, the only other instant I can think of is Goopy-Gyne Bagha-Byne. It has its own share of technical and non-technical flaws, condition yourself to overlook them.

Hindi Movie
None I can think of recommending. A close miss would be Rock On(Farhan Akhtar in lead) (just for intelligent production design).


Foreign Movies
The White Ribbon(German movie that won  in Cannes 2009, for the best film):-A dramma movie, set in a village, just before World War I.  I liked it because, it did not boldly underline the drammatic moments in the movie with  background score accents. Actually, no background score at all.
A month back, I watched a south-Korean movie at the South-Asian Minneapolis Film Festival, "Poetry" which had used the same technique of no background score.  Guess, that is the order of the day.

E-version of BSSM 's Magazine 2010

Journal of Durga Pujo Collector's Edition Vol V.

Thanking the Crew and Feedbacks/Comments are welcome

Usual Suspects:
An acknowledgment has been made to some in the Magazine, at the very first page.
Officers:-Basabdatta, Subhrajit and Shameek.
Protima Design:-Kaushik, Rahul, Ayan, Soumyadeep and Arpan.
Pujo Proceedings:-Nilanjana, Debasish, Aditi, Devleena, Payel, Joon, Meenakshi, Amit, Taraswi, Arpita,
Dipta, Sonia and Shankar.
Cultural Program:-Aniruddha, Projjwal, Rajes, Sauptik, Sandeep, Nandini, Puja, Shilpi, Diya, Subhabrata, Sharmishtha, Baishali, Sayan and Sohini.
Printing:-Abhijit, Aman and Snigdhanshu.

Beyond the Usual Suspects:
Bhog:-Purnima Ganguli

Cultural:-Rajarshi Guha Niyogi,
Registration Desk:-Ajay Yekkirala, Partha Sarathi Mukherjee
Protima Design:-Sanjoy De,
Dinner:-Vijay Srivastav, Saif Rahman, Ishtiaque Ahmed,
Video Recording and Photos:-Sandipak Bagchi, Lilia Pataky, Sounak Basu.

If names had been missed out and you are aware of it, do let me (saurav.mitra@gmail.com) know, I would re-edit this Blog entry.

Feedback and comments

Please post your feedback, if possible, in a detailed manner on BSSM's presentation of Durga Pujo 2010.
 Things that got your maximum/minimum attention, be it Pujo/Bhog or the Protima or the Cultural Program or the Lunch, Snacks, Dinner or the Magazine or the Publicity or the Reception or the Parking of cars or the Time Schedule, overall spirit and camaraderie etc.. If you were pleased or displeased, do let us know.
We encourage you to be as much critical as possible.
You are welcome to post the feedback in an unidentified manner, as "anonymous" if you are bit uncomfortable about it. It's our request, don't hold yourself back.
Your co-operation would help us to Audit ourselves and it would be widely appreciated.
With your help, your "Pujo" will be better than the best next time.
Thanking you in advance,
Sincerely,
BSSM

For Mahalaya follow tweets @birubhadra and RT them

"Soumitra Chatterjee omon daaksaaite obhineta, oto shundor gola, All India Radio onar gola-r byabohar na korey Birendra Krishna Bhadra-r gola-ta bar bar byabohaar korey keno bolun toh?" Lalmohon babu-r eirokom bekhhyappa proshne-y Feluda-r chokh-er opor aadh inchi-r bhuNru-ta ekbaar uthey nemey gelo. Amar haat-e tokhon Lalmohon Babu-ri aana gorom hinge-r kochuri, thik mukh-e dhokate jabo, tar agey hotat aie proshno.
 Radio-te Mahisahsur Mardini sesh hoyeche ghonta khaanek holo. Feluda protyekbari, niyom korey Mahalaya-r din-e or Emerson-er radio set-tai thik bhor chaarte-r shomoi chaaliye dei. Ebaro tai hoyeche. Tar por ek ghonta jog byam aar tar porey bibhinno khabor-er kagoz-e chokh bolano.
Ghori dhorey thik shaare saat-tai Lalmohon Babu-r bell baajlo. Pujo-r uponnyash joma kore diyechen prokashok-er kachey, boi berubey ponchomi-r din-e.  Sheite shokkalbela prakashok-er kache jante perei, chutte chole eshechen amader janate, haat-e gorom kochuri aar jilipi niye. Eshei janalen, apatoto tar jhaara haat paa, onaar gari-ta amra byabohar korte pari pujo-r shomoi-eo. Aar tar porei ei proshno.
Feluda bollo "jaanen toh Uttam Kumar-ke diyeo ekbaar chestha korano hoyechilo. Public sheta khai ni. Naturally, Akaashvani-o tar por aar sahosh korey Birendra Krishna Bhadra-r baire kauke bhabe ni." Lalmohon Babu, chaaar bar patro non, "Uttam Kumar-ke bangali khai ni ???  dhuuuuuur moshai, apni ki roshikota korchen naki amar sathe?"
"Two-two-four-eight-five-three-three-six, Topshe line-ta dhore de. Ring holei amake bolbi"-Feluda- je bepar-ta roshikota hishebe nei ni, shetar or konthwoshor shunei bojha gelo. Jani aie shomoi-e okey proshno korar maane hoi na, kar nombor, kisher nombor. Lalmohon Babu-i bollen "Nombor-ta aamar chena-chena thekche, kothau dekhechi khub recently.  Aribbbassssss, eta toh Kolkata All India Radio-r nombor. Apni ki okhane phone-y kotha bolben naki ?" Ami isharai Lalmohon Babu-ke chup korey jetey bollam.
Charminar-er dhoNa dhoNa chaarte chaarte Feluda bollo " Uttam Kumar toh morey bhuut hoye giyeche.  Jara achey taader moddhye Soumitra Babu thekey shuru korey haal-er Parambrata Chattopadhya-er gola-ke byabohaar korar kotha keno All India Radio-r  ekbaro money holo na  sheite janbar amaro ekta adbhut koutuhol hochche. Aaashi bochor dhorey cholche shei ek konthoswor, shei ek mannerism. Aaar public-o hoyeche temni. Ahaaaaahahaa Birendra Krishna Bhodro !!  ki udatto kontho !!! Arey aajker din-ey oti natokiyota chole na. Bepar-ta shekeley.  Bangali-r Chandipaath-tao  Vishwa-Bharati-r copyright-er moton aatke giyeche. Amra bhabi sudhu Rabindranath-kei aatke dewa hoyeche copy-right-e. Bangali-r notunottyo-ke bojhbar khomotau nei, ichchau nei. Na oder saathe ekta appointment thik kore ni. Dekhi oder ki motamot aie puro bishoi-tai, koutohol-ta besh tibryo hochche bhetorey bhetorey. Lalmohon Babu apnake osesh dhonnyobaad, apni ojante amar mon-er ekta janla khule dilen aaajker din-e."............

Our Prayers Are With You ...

Reference: http://tiny.cc/57b8i

Medici of BSSM (410 6th St. S.E. connection)

Apartment 314, 410 6th St. S.E., Minneapolis, MN-55414 have thrown out luminaries of BSSM, Subhrajit Roychowdhury, Kalyanjit Ghosh,Saurav Mitra,Rajesh Mukherjee, Jami Hafiz, Shaikh Mubassar Ali, Rajarshi Guha Niyogi, Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and  Shankhadeep Das. Oldest among them all was Rajesh Mukherjee, who was a resident since the year 2002. Conscious efforts were made by each one them to preserve the BSSM relevance in terms of having direct or indirect modes of engagement with respect to the society.

410, 6th St. S.E. is a property which belong to Steven Scotts Management.In the same building, the other residents had been Paroma Chakraborty, Sombuddha Chakraborty, Baishali Bakshi and Snigdhanshu Chatterjee. People who know them are aware of their humongous significance with respect to BSSM. What Jorashanko was to Renaissance of Bengal, 410 6th St S.E. was similarly the epicenter of  BSSM.

It is widely believed that, ex-410 residents  made a concertedly serious effort, so that the focus of power of BSSM lies within them. So that, it had to never let it go. In some form or the other, they would try to hold it onto themselves. One would constantly see the above set of names crop-up in a more frequent manner as opposed to others in the public space and discussion. One can check it, if one goes through the list of names involved in past Pujo Committees on web (http://www.tc.umn.edu/~bssm/) and Magazines(issues of Journal of Durga Pujo.)
However, this 2010 May, the connection got severed. The last BSSM residents of Apartment 314, coincidentally were the last BSSM residents of  410 6th St. S.E. as well, namely, Subhrajit Roychowdhury, Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and Rajarshi Guha Niyogi, who  had to separate out on logistics issues. Thereby bringing down a warehouse that stood for 8 years.
A good question to ask, what kind of legacy did 410 leave behind ?

The Reset Button

Satyajit Ray in Minneapolis, Before and After and in between..!!

Exactly fifty years ago, after the worldwide recognition of Apu Trilogy, the then Prime Minister, Nehru saw in Satyajit Ray a visionary artist and the only Indian, who can successfully cross-over to the west seamlessly. Nehru asked Ray to conceptualize the commemoration of Rabindranath Tagore's birth centenary and if possible give it a global outlook.  At home,  Ray was still in his early days, critics were accusing him of making movies, which are dogmatically derivatives of the western models. He did not look into the offer made by Nehru very kindly, initially. That, a man of such mighty erudition, Nehru, could not see the huge blob of intellectual integrity of Ray had upset the latter more. Ray was ready to look beyond all of this, as he himself was more than an ardent follower of Tagore's life and he decided to take it up, without getting into arguments. What accentuated the whole dilemma in his mind, (getting tagged for his loyalty to the western art forms) he was actually conceiving his next movie based on the super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes' A Study in Scarlet keeping Laurence Olivier as Holmes and Marlon Brando as his Watson. In his mind, it would be a product of the West, in collaboration with his good friends, James Ivory and Ismail Merchant to help him out on production. He planned out a recce for outside shooting at Minnesota, USA. The obvious alternative for location, was Salt Lake City, Utah; as the second half of the story is placed there, but Minnesota turned out to be a favorable choice due to its proximity to Chicago, and it would reduce the burden on finances.

Contacts were established from Ray's team with Eric G Hoyer, the then Mayor of Minneapolis, with the proposal to set up a gallery for Rabindranath Tagore in Walker Art Center. The idea was to take Tagore to places other than the known and obvious and therefore bigger metropolises of the world. Hoyer in his letter personally addressed to Ray, ratified the plans and welcomed him to the city. Brando and Olivier were also asked to join Ray alongwith Ivory and Merchant at Minneapolis to zero down the plans for the movie. Both Brando and Olivier conceded, with the meeting plans, but they aired their minor reservations about the project as a whole.

April 27^th, 1960, middle of the week, Minneapolitans, fresh out of the spells of snowstorms of the season, greeted with open arms, the team of Brando, Olivier, Ray and his crew, Merchant and Ivory. Lou Torok, the manager of downtown Radisson arranged their stay. This is how, Ray had planned it out: will have two day-long meetings with Brando and Olivier and on the last day of the month he had scheduled a meeting with Hoyer. Come first week of May, he would do a recce for the movie and would travel to places within the state. The respectives were briefed accordingly.

Brando has a Kolkata connection, through his first wife, Anna Kashfi. He had provided his initial consent to Ray because of that overriding sentimental reason. But, then, cinematic instincts got the better of him, he could never convince himself that with his physique and an accent which is miles away from mainland Britain, he could ever in his dream essay the role of Watson. He conveyed the same to Ray on the morning of 28^th , and Ray could not end up winning that argument. Laurence Olivier took the cue from Brando and related he hasn't gone beyond Shakespeare in celluloid, audience might

not take it very kindly of him portraying the role of Holmes, which is revered by fans in galore all over the world. Ray was caught in a spot, not that he was prepared for all of this, he thought through the details, when the thought of casting them, occurred to him. But, something happened with him on that day which never happened before and after. He literally got tongue-tied for the one and only time in his Life, listening to the two stalwarts of the world movie industry. Being true to himself, he realized he never had directed movie stars before and never got the chance to learn how to cut the deals through arguments. He conceded to his own awe for them. Brando and Olivier realizing that they were putting down an acclaimed film-director of repute, kept their options open for any future projects with him. Ray, shattered, with all of this, informed the rest of his crew, 29^th is a free day and there won't be need for his planned recce. Ivory was kind enough to thank him, saying, dollars were saved. Torok, later on revealed on his interview to Star Tribune, that amongst all of them, it was he himself who was pierced the most, that downtown Radisson could not facilitate the greatest piece of film-history. “Maybe Brando was not served with the coffee with the right amount of sugar, maybe there was something wrong in the bed-sheets of Olivier, I am to be blamed for all of this.”

Did Ray take all of this as a premonition for his meeting with Hoyer, which was scheduled on 30^th ?

Funnily enough, Hoyer, a patron of world arts was more than eager with his meeting with Ray and in the course of meeting Hoyer promised Ray that he would do everything he can to set up the gallery for Tagore in Walker Art Center. Ray added he has changed his mind a bit. Ray insisted, that gallery is not a permanent feature, he would like to have something permanent for Tagore instead; a separate land to set up an institutionalized archive housed in a building separate from Walker Art Center. Hoyer, was taken back with this plan, since he had no idea that such a thing would come up in the course of this meeting. However, he said, Minneapolis might not be a good idea to go about setting up legacy for Tagore. Chicago would be a better alternative, since Chicago has a history of involvement with South Asia, whereas there is little instutional activity here of such kind. Hoyer promised he can set up a call with Daley, mayor of Chicago, and a fellow Democrat to talk it out. Ray was not to be budged. He insisted it had to be in Minneapolis only and he has other plans for Chicago to set up a legacy for Tagore. Hoyer was not willing to let go this opportunity called up Freeman, Governor of Minnesota, during the ongoing meeting with Ray. Quite naturally, as Freeman was not briefed about all of this before, he left it to Hoyer to take the final call, without giving him any kind of assurance of support on this from the State. Ray saw that it was not working out as he thought. He would not go back to the earlier alternative of setting up a gallery, which won't be there for long. Hoyer, called upon his secretary and signed a memorandum of understanding, which in plain words would say, that Minneapolis is committed to set up a legacy for Rabindranath Tagore; and as and when reasonable project proposals come from the state of India they would honor it. CC-ed to Governor of Minnesota, Govt of India and Govt. of West Bengal.

Postscripts

One year later:-Ray completed the documentary on Rabindranath Tagore, which Nehru had commissioned him.

Three years later:-Merchant-Ivory came out with their first production,” The Householder” in assistance with Ray.

Five years later:-Ray penned down his own version of Sherlock Holmes, “Feluda” that appeared on Sandesh. He would later, go on to make movie versions of it.

Brando, throughout the phase of 1960 was venturing on experimental roles was delivering commercial failures one after the other, till Godfather happened to him in 1974.

Laurence Olivier did not sign movies for next couple of years and went back to Shakespeare, which he knows best and joined the Othello crew.

April 27^t, 2001:-Buddhadev Bhattacharya, newly apppointed Chief Minister of Bengal, at his enthusiastic best, decided to reopen all the closed files, lying at the cabinets of Writer's Building. He came up on the Hoyer's file and called Rybak, reminded Minneapolis commitment to Tagore's legacy. Rybak confirmed that, and he promised that he would do whatever he can with this regard. He informed that a Light Rail project through the city is coming up and he would see if he can name a station in between Cedar Avenue and Franklin Avenue remembering Tagore.

(*):-References to Chicago and Minnesota's connection with Ray, came up on a personal email conversation with Professor Keya Ganguly, Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota.


Disclaimer:-
Leap of faith need to be considered.
Vitamins in the usage of proper nouns need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Satyajit and Rabindranath in Twin Cities (Part-1)

A google search will tell you that both Rabindranath Thakur and Satyajit Ray had been to Chicago, USA on multiple occasions, at different times. The follow-up question is,whether if, they had boarded a Greyhound bus from Chicago which took them on I-90 and I-94 to Twin Cities or not ? Knowing fully well, that not every day of their US days are documented; let's create a window of fantasy, assuming that they had been to Twin Cities. Okay, Greyhound is too austere to be true, let us put them on Amtrak instead :-)

Firstly, let's pick up the Big Guy, the Rabindranath. It can be confidently rumored, that during his visit in Mid-West, he was terribly disgusted with the likes of Al-Capone and John Dilinger and their exploits, so he wanted to be away from the wilder terrains and  in search of solitude, he ventured for upper Mid-west on Amtrak. The Great Depression was then too strong in its colors in cities like Chicago. The shores of Superior, the Ten Thousand Lakes must have offered him a greater and a calmer distraction to him, then.  He must have dropped by Walker Art Center, stalked around Nicollet Avenue and must have had a steamy coffee on Lake Harriet. He must have visited the University Premises as well, looked at the sprawling lawns and must have felt strongly, can I set up a student-exchange program with Visva Bharati, can I ? should I ?  "No, I shouldn't", he must have checked himself fearing that such a step might incite provoking questions from the swadeshis back at home," How could you do this to us, Gurudev; we are fighting with our blood to outsted the imperialist powers and how could you think of bringing in foreign investment/equity at this point of time ?" That will explain why Rabindranath had been in Twin Cities, yet there hadn't been a tie-up between Visva Bharati and University of Minnesota, but then, how could you never find a reference of "Minnehaha Falls" or of such kind in any of his works ? Is that even possible that Gurudev will forget to pen down some lines, which he normally never did. He needed to feel  slightest of the Nordic breeze, to dip his pen in the ink-pot.
"Arey boka, University-er Bookstore-tai bondho chilo tokhon, Gurudev eshchilen shoni-robbar korey, dokaan paat shob bondho, tar opor money rakhish tokhon abar Great Depression cholche,  kagoj-kolom-ta uni kinben kor thekey amai bolte parish tui?? tayi toh uni kono kobita ba golpo likhe jetey paaren ni re kono bhabei."
..................(to be continued on next part, how Satyajit Ray almost ended up opening a Rabindra Bhavan and Nandan in Minneapolis.)