Global Bangla Natok Radio Broadcast

Toronto, Canada, May 31, 2011 (Washington Bangla Radio) Rabindranath Tagore's DAKGHAR ( ডাকঘর ) is one of the worlds most enduring and enchanting theatrical works. Pleiades Theater's production "The Post Office" is an English adaptation of the famous Bengali play by Tagore performed by the theater troupe from May 7 through June 4, 2011.

The Post Office incorporates dance and music along with the spoken word as is common in Indian theater. The production will be part of the Indian Government’s 2011 Canada-wide celebration of Indian arts and culture, highlighting the growing bonds between India and Canada.

StanfordBongs is a cultural interest group of Stanford University students representing the culture of Bengal and the Bangali diaspora. They are a community of Stanford students, post-docs, staff and faculty drawn together by their love and pride of all things Bengali from the banks of River Ganges to the banks of River Padma. They serve as a Bengali social network and cultural tether for new and existing students and others at Stanford by organizing cultural and social events celebrating Bengal and the Bangali way of life.

SYNOPSIS

Kolkata@crossroads.com is a futuristic science fiction narrative that delves into the glorious future of a technologically superior Bengal. The story is set against the backdrop of a Bengali wedding at an age when marriages are made by DNA sequence alignments, when robots have replaced most human services and when cloned food products are commonplace. Yet, amidst all these changes, there is a bedrock of constancy in the Bangaliyana and Bengali way of life that pervades the future as well. The marriage ceremony is disrupted by an unexpected turn of events that soon reveal why this future world is in jeopardy of being shattered.

Listen to the full Bangla Shruti Natok via Washington Bengali Radio.

The Toronto Bengali Drama Group performed Suborno Onguli (The Golden Finger) on stage on Saturday April 16, 2011 in Toronto, Canada.

The play Suborno Onguli is at once intense, controversial and ‘unputdownable’. The play centres around a drama involving a sweet and innocent woman Preetika, who is about to be married when a medical procedure destroys her whole future.

The play raises important questions about the medical profession – is a renowned surgeon always right?

Watch the full Bangla Natok online via Washington Bangla Radio.

By Aditya Chakraborty
WBRi Special Correspondent, Kolkata

^{Shapnosuchana Bengali Drama Production KANYADAAN Press Meet - image © Aditya Chakraborty / WBRi}

Calcutta, Dec 25, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Vijay Tendulkar’s play "Kanyadaan" which actually deals with contempt for the dalits (a social group belonging to the lowest class of the infamous Indian caste system), a very contemporary subject of our daily lives which is usually kept under wraps, has been made into a Bengali theater production called Kanyadan for which the Marathi translation to Bengali has been done by Bina Alashe.

The play is about Nath Deolalkar who is a resident of Pune and Gandhian. His children also believe in their father’s ideology. Things change when his daughter Jyoti marries Arun Athole, a Marathi poet and a dalit. Deolalkar and his wife are forced to accept Arun as their son-in-law and also a lot of complexities arise because of this. Jyoti also realizes that her father’s beliefs and stances are actually a gimmick and that is not a true picture of what her father is all about!

Read the full press conference report on Washington Bangla Radio.

CALCUTTA, Dec 12, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Phalguni and Rumki Chatterjee are veterans in the field of Bengali Professional Group Theater and founders of the renowned Bangla Theater group Lokakrishti. Their latest production LABORATORY, staged in commemoration of the author Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, is successfully running and critically acclaimed in Kolkata. Multiple award-winning film-maker Raja Sen was inspired by the theater production of Laboratory to make a Bengali film adaptation with the script written by Phalguni Chatterji. Subhomoy Mukherjee, WBRi correspondent in Calcutta, recorded this audio chit-chat with Phalguni and Rumki that you can listen to by pressing the Play button in the full feature.

The actor-couple Phalguni Chatterjee and Rumki Chatterjee are involved with theater from their childhood. They have seen golden age of Bengali Professional Theater, and subsequently the falling standard and eventual closing of theaters along with diminishing Bengal’s Professional Theater. They have also seen the craze of the audience for the theater in it's heyday. At the same time, they have seen the pillars and pioneers of Bengali Group Theater movement, evolution and changes in the scenario of Group Theater. They have experienced first-hand the challenges facing Group Theater regularly as they are running their own theatre group Lokokrishti for last 22 years.

Their recent production Laboratory, written by Rabindranath Tagore, is a homage to Tagore on his 150th Birth Anniversary. Though they are portraying Laboratory in it's original flavor, they include some contemporary thoughts within the play. The play is very popular now. The play has inspired renowned director Raja Sen (WBRi interview in USA) to make the film Laboratory (Bengali, 2010) and Phalguni has written the script for the film.

Calcutta, Dec 7, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) After a very successful association with theater as a genre, the next step was to further continue this association and take it a notch up. After a lot of research, meeting with the best minds in the theatre circuit, Ballentine's "Leave An Impression" brings to you a brand new under production play Dinner With Friends - an intimate play with a cast of four actors. This is a very eagerly awaited play from one of India’s foremost theater directors.

Dinner With Friends is a play about four friends - two married couples. We see both couples at different ages and stages of their lives. We witness the effects of the breakup of one couple on the other, who first feel compelled to choose sides, and then begin to question the strength of their own seemingly tranquil marriage.

The director Feroz Abbas Khan is a multi faceted man – theater director, film director, playwright and screenwriter. Every single of his theater productions have opened to a full house at the box office and continue to run even today. His past work include All the best, Saalgirah, Tumhari Amrita, Salesman Ramlal and Gandhi Viruddh Gandhi. His first film as a director ‘Gandhi, My Father’ won him critical acclaim. The film won him 2 national awards. After a long break he is back to his first love ‘theater’ with his much awaited play: 'Dinner With Friends'

Perizaad Zorabian, Tisca Chopra, Vinay Jain and Joy Sengupta form the cast of this much awaited play.

Sneak preview and interaction with the Director & the casts on Wednesday, 8th December, 2010 from 2:30 pm onwards at Saffron, Park Hotel, Kolkata.

For more information, please contact Debadrita Chatterjee: debadrita@cleapublicrelations.com, cell: +91 - 9874045100, www.cleapublicrelations.com

Note about the award-winning Hindi feature film Gandhi My Father (2007): The DVD Release is available worldwide - order online here >

The world knows about Mahatma Gandhi's role in the Indian freedom movement and as a social reformer. But there are large gaps in our knowledge of Gandhi as a person and a family man, particularly the tumultuous relationship with Harilal, his eldest son.

Set against one of politically most turbulent times in India, the film tells an intensely personal story of a father struggling to resolve the destinies of his county and that of his son. Not to be forgotten is the role of Gandhi's wife, Kasturba, who was caught between the traditional, unquestioning loyalty of a Hindu wife to her husband and her love for the son.

Mahatma Gandhi could transform the soul of a nation but could not save the soul of his own son.

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Shefali Shetty, Darshan Jariwala, Bhoomika Chawla, Daniel Janks, Ilanit Shapiro, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Zutshi, Gregg Viljoen, Rustom Irani, Nayan Shukla, Padmesh Rawal, Mona Ambegaonkar, Akhil Mishra.

Crew:
Director: Feroz Abbas Khan
Music Director: Piyush Kanojia

Calcutta, Dec 4, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) On 3rd December, 2010, British Council has organized a discussion on the History of Political Plays in Britain and Bengal comprising David Edgar from UK and Kaushik Sen from Bengal.

Following the fabulously encouraging response to our first two drama productions KONKAL and PROTHOM PARTHO, we are pleased to announce our third Bengali Radio Drama (Bangla Natok) produced by Shukti International and coming up on Washington Bangla Radio. 

SHUKTI ANTORJATIK SHILPI GOSHTHI : PROJECT 3 : MEGH

MEGH – SYNOPSIS

MEGH is a psychological thriller, written by the famous dramatist Sri Utpal Dutta.

The story is about a popular novelist Samaresh Sanyal, who suddenly started suffering from mental depression and the doctor diagnosed it as schizophrenia.

Madhuri, who was a big admirer of Samaresh and subsequently became his wife, acted as a guardian and nurse and gradually led him towards the path of recovery. During this period Samaresh engaged himself in writing thriller, crime and murder mysteries. All through this period of time he was mentally supported not only by his wife but also by the doctor, who is an old family friend.

At this juncture, when everyone was expecting Samaresh to come back to his normal life, Sujata, who was an ex-girl friend of Samaresh during his college days, came back to his life and tried to blackmail him and create further problems in the Sanyal family.

The “Megh” (cloud) of frustration, confusion, blackmailing, crime, murder, started covering the mind of still-not-fully recovered Samaresh and he struggles to clear the clouds away in order to salvage his pride, his family and to come out winner.

MEGH – CAST and CREW

Bangla Natok
PROTHOM PARTHO

(Part 3 of 3) 

The drama “Prothom Partho” was written by Sri Buddhadev Bosu and is based on the “War of Kurukshetra”, fought between the Pandavas and Kauravas for the power of Hastinapur, as per the great epic Mahabharat.

Karno is the central character of the story. We also come across two old Brahmins, who act as the narrator during the course of the radio play. The other characters in this drama are – Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), Draupadi (wife of the Pandavas) and Krishna (a person with great political & analytical mind and a well wisher & good friend of the Pandavas).

For making the broadcast more interesting, the radio play has been segregated into 3 parts, where Kunti will feature in Part1, Draupadi in Part 2 and Krishna in Part 3.

SYNOPSIS - PART THREE :

Ganesha on Sheshanaga Scripting The Mahabharata - buy this sculpture online »

In this part of the play Krishna enters the scene and tries his wits to throw Karno off his firmness and then realizing that Karno is not a person who can be uprooted from his mental strength, Krishna became very frank and described the way he will use magical powers to defeat and kill Karno in the hand of Arjun. Karno becomes frustrated at this but he did not lose his self confidence regarding his decision of fighting for the Kauravas. With Karno choosing to fight against Arjun, his death became inevitable and Krishna commented that Karno will be regarded as an “immortal figher, whose death will be hated by all future generations to come”. The War is beginning at dawn.

Cast of “PROTHOM PARTHO” PART THREE:

• 1st briddho : Sri Subho Basu
• 2nd briddho : Sri Arnab Roy Choudhury
• Krishna : Sri Arijit Chakraborty
• Karno : Sri Debashish Raychaudhuri

Bangla Natok
PROTHOM PARTHO

(Part 2 of 3)

The drama “Prothom Partho” was written by Sri Buddhadev Bosu and is based on the “War of Kurukshetra”, fought between the Pandavas and Kauravas for the power of Hastinapur, as per the great epic Mahabharat.

Karno is the central character of the story. We also come across two old Brahmins, who act as the narrator during the course of the radio play. The other characters in this drama are – Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), Draupadi (wife of the Pandavas) and Krishna (a person with great political & analytical mind and a well wisher & good friend of the Pandavas).

For making the broadcast more interesting, the radio play has been segregated into 3 parts, where Kunti will feature in Part1, Draupadi in Part 2 and Krishna in Part 3.

Bangla Natok
PROTHOM PARTHO

(Part 1 of 3)

Listen to free Audio Bangla Natok online via WBRi On-Demand Radio Service

The drama “Prothom Partho” was written by Sri Buddhadev Bosu and is based on the “War of Kurukshetra”, fought between the Pandavas and Kauravas for the power of Hastinapur, as per the great epic Mahabharat.

Karno is the central character of the story. We also come across two old Brahmins, who act as the narrator during the course of the radio play. The other characters in this drama are – Kunti (mother of the Pandavas), Draupadi (wife of the Pandavas) and Krishna (a person with great political & analytical mind and a well wisher & good friend of the Pandavas).

For making the broadcast more interesting, the radio play has been segregated into 3 parts, where Kunti will feature in Part1, Draupadi in Part 2 and Krishna in Part 3.

SYNOPSIS - PART ONE :

The play begins on the last afternoon before the great war commences. In this part the two old Brahmins and Kunti are trying to convince Karno that he should quit the side of Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava and join the Pandavas in the war, as, which revealed during the course of this part, he, like the Pandavas, is also a son of Kunti and his father is Surya (The Sun). Kunti’s other name is Pritha and that’s why Karno is referred to as “Prothom Partho” (the first child of Pritha). Though Karno initially became angry that Kunti abandoned him, as he was born before her marriage, and thereafter became emotional, as he came to know his real mother, but he held firm and decided to fight the war taking the side of the Kauravas.

Cast of “PROTHOM PARTHO” PART ONE :

• 1st briddho : Sri Subho Basu
• 2nd briddho : Sri Arnab Roy Choudhury
• Karno : Sri Debashish Raychaudhuri
• Kunti : Smt Aditi Gupta
  

Following the fabulous response to KONKAL, we are pleased to announce our next two Bengali Radio Dramas (Bangla Natok) produced by Shukti International and coming up on Washington Bangla Radio.

Michigan: July 29, 2010: The World’s most haunting love story is based on French writer Gaston Leroux’s novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra...a fascinating tale of desire, seduction, passion, betrayal, faith and love.