Germantown, Maryland, October 19, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Kolkata Bangla Band KAYA known for their pioneering Bengali folk-fusion songs delivered a spectacular concert at the Sanskriti Durga Puja on Oct 16, 2010 in Washington DC, USA.

KAYA explain in this interview hosted by Tapan Bera, President, Sanskriti Bengali Association of Washington DC Metro area, how the experience of their 2nd USA tour is different from the first one, in terms of fantastic audience response and ambience. They convey their appreciation of the audience participation and the unique experience of having the audience singing along with them - aspects of their shows that are rare.

Watch the full interview video with KAYA band of Kolkata exclusively from Washington Bangla Radio.

The IIDR will gladly include any Puja Committee from USA willing to participate in IIDR Sarood Samman 2011.

Participation is absolutely free of cost and will be under a special category ...

The judges declared the winners of the Best Durga Pujas 2010 Sharod Samman IIDR Awards. The Nepalese Consul General presented the awards to the winning Puja Committees. Read all about the Sharod Samman 2010 Kolkata Durga Puja awards on Washington Bangla Radio - partners of the awards.

Will Big B Turn Kabuliwallah For Rituparno Ghosh?

October 19, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio / Pen Men at Work): Renowned Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh is planning to take forward one of the popular short stories of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Ghosh is planning to pay tribute to the poet on his 150th birth centenary.

^{Bisarjon marks the end of Durga Puja celebrations with Bijoya Dashami greetings. The following is a Bengali children's poem to mark the occassion, written by Santwana Chatterjee. The poem is in Unicode Bangla font.}

বিসর্যন

সান্ত্বনা চট্টোপাধ্যায়

কিছুই যে আর ভাল্লাগেনা, সদাই খারাপ মন
ফোস ফোস ফোস দীর্ঘশ্বাস ফেলছে সারাক্ষন
সর্বক্ষন চোখেতে জল দেয়না কিছুই মুখে
হ্যারে খুকি, কি হয়েছে, কে বকেছে তোকে ?

CALCUTTA, Oct 18, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Autograph has been directed by Srijit Mukherjee (exclusive WBRi audio interview), an economist by education who has directed an English play called Mindgames in the past as well as directed another successful and critically acclaimed play called Feluda Ferot based on characters from Feluda’s stories and is told from the perspective of Feluda’s arch rival Maghanlal Meghraj.

He is a huge fan of Satyajit Ray and it had been his dream all along to direct a film on the lines of Nayak - The Hero (Buy Bengali Movie DVD in USA) which featured the superstar of Tollywood of yesteryears – Uttam Kumar. One might also say that he is the only superstar of the industry whose mass appeal has survived even after so many years and appeals equally to the masses and classes whereas regarding the latter, he has mainly appealed to the masses. Anyways that is different matter altogether.

Srijit's Autograph is basically a film within a film that attempts to showcase the moods and character of one particular superstar – Arun Chatterjee and at the same time it ha s also tried to show the dark tales behind the stardom. This film is supposed to be a tribute to both Ray and Uttam Kumar as it is on the lines of Nayak. In fact so much so the central character of the film is called Arun Chatterjee (Uttam Kumar’s real name). Such is the influence and inspiration behind making the film. Srijit’s touches make this a different film and also the story is a significantly different from Nayak.

CALCUTTA, Oct 18, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) The beginning of Sudeshna Roy-Abhijit Guha on big screen was made with a sensible mainstream venture called Shudhu Tumi in 2004 (buy Bengali movie DVD) with the superstar Prosenjit in the lead and the rising Koel and famous television face Gargi Roy Chowdhury opposite him. In the movie they tried to strike a balance between their sensibilities and mainstream elements and had new age music scored by Jubin Garg, much before days of his Bollywood glory. Sudhu Tumi wasn’t a success story, and it was followed by the director duo with a realistic, no-starcast Tin Yaari Katha which is in the cans for years on end. However, the director duo proved somewhat third time lucky with a moderately successful new age rom-com Cross Connection (DVD release) in 2009.

After reading this review, do not forget to check out our exclusive audio interviews available on WBRi on-demand radio of Sudeshna Roy and Abir Chatterjee.

Germantown, MD, Oct 18, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Purbachal Bengali Association of Maryland celebrated their 8th annual Durga Puja 2010 on October 15 and 16, 2010 at the Argyle recreation building at Argyle Local Park on Forest Glen Road in Silver Spring, Maryland.

One of the approximately 6 Durga Pujas organized in the Washington DC - Baltimore MD metro area, Purbachal started off in 1995 when a small group, most of them students and researchers, organized a Saraswati Puja. It was celebrated in a home-like atmosphere, in Rockville, Maryland. The number of participants slowly increased in the following years, and eventually the small organization emerged as Purbachal. Though it has now grown into a much larger family, the organization still maintains the same tradition it had valued at its onset.

Also watch a video of a homely Rabindra dance performance from this years Purbachal puja.