Detective Feluda returns to big screen
Feluda, Bengali's favourite detective penned by maestro Satyajit Ray in the 1970s, returned to the big screen in December after nearly four years' hiatus, evoking mass nostalgia among generations of Bengalis who grew up on the sparkling wit of the strapping and refined middle-class private investigator. Filmmaker Sandip Ray, son of Satyajit Ray, is back with his father's detective Feluda series novel Kailashe Kelenkari (1974), subtitled in English as "A Killer in Kailash". Four years have passed since Sandip's earlier film on his father's Feluda series of detective thrillers, namely "Bombaiyer Bombetey", was a big box office hit in West Bengal. The Feluda-crazy Bengali audience are again queuing up Friday to buy tickets for Kailashe Kelenkari, a film shot in the Ellora Caves of Maharashtra. "The book was written in the 1970s and since then there had been huge technological advancement. We have updated Feluda- or the suave private investigator Prodosh Mitter. I think Feluda can be updated. You cannot update Sherlock Holmes because he was from a different period altogether but you can have liberties with Feluda," said director Sandip Ray who earlier had a tough time scouting for Lalmohonbabu, the other funny character from the book whose role was immortalised by the late Bengali actor Santosh Dutta. While Feluda is noted Tollywood actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty, upcoming Bengali actor Parambrata Chatterjee essays the role of Topshe, the assistant and nephew of Feluda, who along with the endearingly misinformed Lalmohanbabu or Lalmohon Ganguly completes the Feluda adventures. Lalmohonbabu, who is also known as the run-of-the-mill thriller writer Jatayu, the sidekick of Feluda, is played by Bibhu Bhattacharya.
Rituparno's new film stars Bipasha Basu and Prosenjit
Not to be stopped by three of his directorial films in temporary cold storage, Rituparno Ghosh has begun the shooting of his new Bengali film Shob Charitroi Kalpanik (All Characters are Imaginary) with Bipasha Basu and Prosenjit playing husband and wife. Based on a story penned by Ghosh who also wrote the screenplay, Shob Charitroi Kalpanik has an unusual structure beginning with the death of Indranil (Prosenjit) the protagonist. Indranil was an engineer-cum-poet separated from his wife Radhika (Bipasha Basu). The narrative opens with Indranil narrating the story of his life as it unfolds in flashback. As Radhika begins to read his poems, she discovers his imaginary muse, who spurred him on to his creative imagination. Pauli Dam plays this role. She begins to understand him through his writings, including his dream muse who does not exist except in Indranil's imagination and his poetry and falls in love with her dead husband all over again. Shooting for the film began on December 10 at Aurora Studios and will go on till the end of this month. The film is being produced under the banner of Big Motion Pictures with music by 21 Grams Band. Arghya Kamal Mitra is editing the film, Indranil Ghosh is doing the production design and Samik Haldar has taken the responsibility for the cinematography of the film.
Drik India launches image library
DRIK-India formally introduced Majority World online image library called majorityworld.com . It is a platform founded to promote sell and distribute images of indigenous photographers belonging to the global south. Rowan Watts, founder-director of Majority World's UK office came to India to speak to photographers about the purpose, objectives and future vision of the online organisation. Though there was a bandh in the city, several photographers turned out to attend an interactive meeting conducted jointly by Watts and Subhendu Chatterjee, director, DRIK-India. The photographers who attended the meet were inducted to the online organisation followed by an interactive question-and-answer session. This meeting originally scheduled for the Academy of Fine Arts, had to be shifted to DRIK-India's office at Bhawanipur because of the bandh. "Majority World is a new global initiative founded through the collaboration between The Drik Picture Library of Bangladesh and kijijiVision in the UK to champion the cause of indigenous photographers from the developing world and the global South – the Majority World," informed Watts. They followed up the Kolkata meet with two more meets in Delhi and Mumbai. Supreeta Singh, Communication and Project Manager of majorityworld, accompanied Watts and Chatterjee on their nationwide mission to bridge the communication and creative gap between the developed North (Europe, USA and UK) and the developing South comprised of Asia, Latin America and Africa. An exhibition of works of photographers who have registered in majorityworld was on show.
Horses retire with pension in Bengal
The horses retiring from West Bengal's police training school now have a new home to spend their twilight years- with pension. Fourteen ageing animals, which have served for years, did not end up pariah or slaughtered like their predecessor. Instead the green acres of ASHARI, the animal animal hospital-cum-shelter on the eastern fringer of Kolkata, run by Maneka Gandhi's People for Animal (PFA), is their now home. "They have served for years. Now it is only human to pension them off instead of slaughtering them after they turn infirm. So we have welcomed them in our shelter," Debasis Chakrabarti, the managing trustee of PFA Calcutta said. The news is heartening since even horses in Texas in USA, considered symbol of the West, were being slaughtered by the thousands, only to end up on the dinner tables of Europe. The 14 horses till the other day were residents of the Police Training College, Barrackpore, here. The West Bengal finance department has also okayed the proposal to contribute to the fodder fund of the horses of the riding school of the Police Training College. "In a way you can say that government is providing them pension. Because the PFA has pledged to take total responsibility of the animals, while suggesting that the police provide part of the feeding expenditure of Rs 32 a day per horse. Each horse will need Rs. 88 per day with funds coming from public donations in India, Australia and France.
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