ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

CALCUTTA, Dec 13, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Gautam Ghosh, the world-famous film-maker from India, directed yet another masterpiece on film in MONER MANUSH (Bengali, 2010) - a film about the Bengali poet, singer, song-writer and folk-song icon Lalan Fakir. Tollywood movie super-star Prosenjit Chatterjee has delivered the role of Lalon in a way that critics are saying from now on, whenever they think of Lalon, Prosenjit's image will flash across their mind.

Subhomoy Mukherjee caught up with Goutam Ghosh in Kolkata and had a little informal chat about Moner Manush just after Ghosh returned from the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa,  where an international jury presented the revered Golden Peacock award to the film. The master film-maker talks about Lalon, Rabindranath Tagore, Prosenjit and Moner Manush in this exclusive audio broadcast.

Germantown, Maryland, Dec 9, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Subhomoy Mukherjee had a blast at the rehearsal pad of Kolkata's Hindi Rock Band SOULS and recorded informal chit-chats and practice sessions of the band on video.

Vocalist Nilanjan Sen  introduces Souls in his own words as the front-man and tells us about the history of the band, the genres covered and how currently they have transformed into a Hindi rock band singing songs about a wide range of subjects from the challenges facing Indian and global economy to the sport of cricket. Nilanjan shares with us his thoughts about how and why the band is currently focusing on songs in Hindi - one of the ways to try to ensure the band's music reaches across India and even the world.

Guitarist Avik Chatterjee says that right from early childhood, he and his fellow band members of Soul have grown up listening to everything from Pop to contemporary rock, as well being in West Bengal, a lot of ethnic Bengali folk and baul songs as well - and the sound of Souls is an assimilation of all these influences. Avik also mentions the pervasive culture of Bangla Bands in Bengal that encourages experimentation and original composition.

Bass Guitarist Sudip Kundu talks about how the members of Soul dedicate time to music in spite of having professional careers in unrelated fields, and dwells upon the difficulty in contemporary Kolkata of earning a living purely by performing music. Sudip also shares with us the impact of band members leaving and new members joining, and how Souls has endeared such events that have to be faced by a vast majority of bands across the world.

Sayan Mukherjee, who is about to start is professional career with a degree in engineering, adds that music is his first passion, and how he joined Souls as one of the younger members. He also talks about how his senior members in the band who seem to successfully strike a balance between their work and the band show him the way to do it.

The newest band member Sourav Chatterjee tells us how coming from a musical family (one of his father's uncles was a founding member of the Calcutta School of Music) has helped him in terms of support from his family for his music, without sacrificing his academic career. Sourav would like take up music as a profession.

Read all about SOULS, listen to their music and watch their band members sharing with us their backgrounds, thoughts and aspirations in an exclusive video feature on Washington Bangla Radio.

Germantown, Maryland, Dec 5, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Mainak Biswas is one half of the director-duo of the critically acclaimed Bengali film Sthaniya Sambad (2010) along with Arjun Gourisaria (WBRi exclusive interview »). In this WBRi exclusive audio broadcsast of a chit-chat with Arijit Chakraborty, Mainak talks about his background, film-making, Sthaniya Sambad and the real or perceived resurgence in contemporary Kolkata Bengali cinema and Tollywood film industry.

Listen to the director of Sthaniya Sambad on Washington Bangla Radio exclusive audio-on-demand broadcast service.

Germantown, Maryland, Dec 4, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Arjun Gourisaria and Mainak Biswas have directed the Bengali film Sthaniya Sambad (2010) that has received rave reviews and audience reactions across the board. In this informal, comprehensive and intimate audio chit-chat with Arijit Chakraborty, Arjun talks about his background, thoughts, experience and career in film making leading upto the spectacular Sthaniya Sambad.

Listen to the complete interview on Washington Bangla Radio online on-demand audio broadcast service.

Germantown, Maryland, Dec 3, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Parijat Chakraborty is a young and upcoming actress-model from Kolkata who is also well-known for her charismatic anchoring as the MC of events and  shows. Parijat's first full-length Bengali feature film Kache Acho Tumi (2010) released on Nov 19, 2010 directed by Pallab Ghosh co-starring Jishu, Swastika, newcomer Tollywood hero Rohan and others. Newcomers Parijat and Rohan have lead roles in Kache Acho Tumi along with established Tollywood artists Jishu and Swastika. In this exclusive, informal and comprehensive audio chit-chat with Arijit Chakraborty, Parijat talks about her background and experience and shares her thoughts for  the future.

Parijat was born at and spent her childhood in Dhanbad in the present state of Jharkand, and moved to the Lake Gardens area in South Calcutta over a decade ago with her family. She has been participating in skits and dramas as a student, and studied English at college. Parijat then had a portfolio made towards initiating a career in fashion modeling and acting. Barely a year after starting, she has alrady has a substantial number of completed modelling assignments and brand endorsements all over India and many forthcoming asignments as well.

Listen to the complete interview via Washington Bangla Radio on-demand audio broadcast.

Dec 1, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Arin Paul - the smart young and talented director from Kolkata, talks to Arijit Chakraborty about his background and career in this exclusive, informal and intimate audio interview broadcast on-demand from WBRi.

Arin Paul was born in Belur but moved to the picturesque mountain town of Shillong with his parents when very young, and grew up in Shillong. He returned to Calcutta where he graduated from high-school and went to college. Soon after graduating from college, he studied at the famous Asian Academy  of Film & Television (AAFT) of NOIDA, and started assisting directors in making films, initially at New Delhi and then in Calcutta. Read on ...

Calcutta, Nov 19, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Acclaimed Bengali film-maker Anjan Das talks to Subhomoy Mukherjee about his own comprehensive experience in making films and cinema in Calcutta and Bengal in this informal and intimate interview video.

The latest film, Bansiwala, released on 19th November, 2010 in theaters in Kolkata. Apart from Bansiwala, he is ready with two more films Bedeni and Swarger Niche Manush which will release very soon.

A few of earlier films by Anjan Das are:

• Sanjhbatir Rupkathara - Strokes and Silhouettes (2002), starring Indrani Haldar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Ferdous Ahmed, Ketaki Dutta; Music: Jyotishka Dasgupta (Buy DVD Online). After completing his studies, Anjan Das was busy with Ad World. After working there for decades, he read “Sanjh Batir Rupkathara”, a powerful novel by eminent poet Joy Goswami and started to think again about making a feature film on that novel. He spent four years with the script and selecting the casting. Then due to his reputation in the Ad World, he got his producer and started his dream project Sanjhbati. Sanjhbati has become very popular with urban audience, specially elite Bengali class throughout the World and Anjan has got the desired reputation also by winning several prestigious awards all over the World.
• Jara Bristite Bhijechilo (Buy DVD) - also based on a long poem by Joy Goswami. Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Indrani Haldar, Rupa Ganguly, Alaknanda Roy, Churni Ganguly, Biplab Chatterjee etc, Music by Jyotishka Dasgupta
  
• Faltu (DVD) - Starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Indrani Haldar, Yash Pandit, Manjari Fadnis, Nirmal Kumar, Sumanta Mukherjee, Debesh Roy Chowdhury, Masood Akhtar etc; music by Syed Mustafa Siraj
• Iti Srikanto (DVD) Based on the classic Bengali story by Saratchandra Chatterjee, Starring Soha Ali Khan, Reema Sen, Adil, Pijush Ganguly, Nirmal Kumar etc. with music by acclaimed percussionist Bikram Ghosh.
• ACHIN PAKHI starring Subrata Dutta and Manali Dey (famous for her role Mouri in popular Bengali TV Show Bou Kotha Kao)
  

Phaltu and Jara Bristite Bhijechilo again prove the immense directorial talent of Anjan and establish him as a popular and respected film director of class in Tollywood.

We wish all the success for him and his films.

Calcutta, Nov 19, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) On behalf of Washington Bangla Radio, Soumitra Talukdar and Mou Sanyal talk to Babul Bose, the famous Music Director of Mumbai & Kolkata in a comprehensive, intimate and exclusive interview.

In his childhood , there was not particularly an atmosphere of music in his family .But he felt an enormous interest in music .When asked how Babul Bose started his career as a guitarist ; he said that there lies a fun story behind .In their joint family of , his cousin had a Spanish guitar and had been learning guitar in a music school in Kolkata. His brother was very possessive about his guitar and no one was allowed to touch it.Babul Bose took opportunity of his elder brother’s absence when the latter would go out and started secretly practicing on his brother’s guitar , taking help of his cousin’s notation paper. He would return the guitar in the place where it was exactly kept before his brother returned home and nobody found out that he was stealthily playing his brother’s guitar. Suddenly an opportunity came .His brother was asked to play the guitar in a Band by an uncle as the guitarist of the band was absent on that day. But his brother was just a beginner and did not have the confidence to play guitar in such a big function .Babul Bose approached the uncle confidently and all the musicians and family members were astonished to watch him playing guitar like a professional guitarist.

Watch the complete interview video online exclusively via Washington Bangla Radio.

Germantown, MD, Nov 14, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) AVIRAJ (Jayajyoti Dasgupa) is a talented and upcoming Tollywood Bengali movie hero. Arijit Chakraborty of WBRi talks to Aviraj in this comprehensive but informal and intimate audio interview.

Jayajyoti (the name AVIRAJ came later on with the launch of his career in films) studied at the famous Rahara Ramkrishna Mission school and then studied Chemistry, graduating with Honors from Gurudas College in Calcutta. Jayajyoti grew up in an environment of arts and theater in his family and has been involved with theater groups from a young age.

Jayajyoti had the opportunity of working with the iconic drama troupe Nandikar around the same time he started pursuing undergratuate studies. Jayajyoti worked and studied acting as an apprentice at Nandikar for around four years, subsequently being absorbed as a full-fledged member, performing in Nandikar productions at home and abroad. He attributes his learning of the art of acting to his years in Nandikar.

After around six years with Nandikar, Jayajyoti auditioned for and made into the final top five candidates for a Hindi reality show on the popular Indian ZEE TV channel. Though ZEE TV recognized his performance as the best among the candidates, his somewhat lack of proficiency in the Hindi language caused ZEE to reluctantly let him go.

However, during this time, he caught the eye of some top Bengali television directors and producers, particularly T.Sarkar Productions, and was offered lead roles in popular Bangla TV shows.

Jayajyoti was offered the lead role in ZEE Bangla TV show "Ei Ghar Ei Songshar". There were many characters in the TV serial, and when Jayajyoti read the profile of the antagonist of the show, he found the role fascinating and requested he be given the negative role rather than the lead protagonist. He also proposed some special ways he wanted that character to be portrayed as.

Jayajyoti Dasgupta's request for playing the negative role in ZEE TV Bangla channel's Bengali Mega-serial EI GHAR EI SHONGSHAR was subsequently granted happily by the production team. The name of this character was AVIRAJ SINGH - and the name stuck!

The character ABHIRAJ was wildly popular across entire Bengal and very soon Jayajyoti took on the name of the character he played.

Subsequently, heavyweight Bengali commercial cinema director Swapan Saha called Abhiraj into his office one day and told Aviraj that he was ready for debuting as the hero in mainstream Bengali commercial feature films and need not do small-screen roles in TV Serials any more. That too, Swapan Saha told him Aviraj would act opposite Tollywood actress Priyanka Sarkar, whose previous film (Priyanka's debut) "Chirodini Tumi Je Amar" [buy DVD online] co-starring Rahul, Tamal Ray Chowdhury, Gita Dey, Rudranil Ghosh and directed by Raj Chakraborty with music by Jeet Ganguly was a box-office superhit. The name of the film that Swapan Saha had in mind for Aviraj and Priyanka (Priyanka's 2nd movie and cinema debut of Abhiraj) was "Ei Prithibi Tomar Amar".

"Ei Prithibi Tomar Amar" (Buy Bengali Movie DVD) was shot during January to March of 2009 and released in June 2009. The film was a hit and Aviraj started to be well-known now as a Tollywood movie hero. Rudranil Ghosh also starred in Ei Prithibi Tomar Amar along with Abhiraj-Priyanka and Ashok Bhadra composed and directed the music of the movie.

The next film JIYO KAKA starring Abhiraj, Rahul, Saswata Chattopadhyay, Kaushik Ganguly, Rituparna Sengupta, Rudranil Ghosh and others is directed by acclaimed actor turned film-maker Parambrata Chattopadhyay and is awaiting release at the time of writing.

In the meanwhile, Abhiraj is shooting for the lead role in upcoming Bengali new film Ei To Jiban with Paoli Dam, newcomer Komal Gautam, Chinmoy Roy and others. Ei To Jiban is directed by Swapan Panja.

Germantown, Maryland, November 7, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Rabindranath Tagore wrote his famous short story Laboratory very late in his life. Laboratory is one of the three stories by Tagore which are entiely different in character and tehnique from his earlier short stories many of which are well-known in English translation, the other two being Sunday and Last Word. These three stories - "Sunday", "Last Word" and "Laboratory" - have been newly translated and published together in a single volume in English for the first time. (Buy Tagore's Three Companions Online).

Acclaimed Kolkata, India based film-maker Raja Sen (www.rajasensfilms.com) has directed the new Bengali film adaptation of LABORATORY starring Arpita Pal Chatterjee, Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Ranjit Mallick and others. This is the Bengali cinema debut of Raveena Tandon.

Raja Sen was in the USA recently on the occassion of the North American premiere of Laboratory (Bengali, 2010). Laboratory was actually screened in USA at San Francisco, Houston, Washington DC and Cleveland Ohio even before it was released in India. Raja Sen talked to Marian Chatterjee in Cleveland, Ohio in this exclusive and informal interview while staying with his relatives Nitish and Chandana Sarkar in Cleveland.

^{Raja Sen with Bengali-Americans at North American Premiere of Bengali Film Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio}

Raja-da talks about his career in film-making, his prior visits to the USA and given the remarkable cultural consciousness, education and taste of Bengalis in USA, how he realized releasing Laboratory in USA first on the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birthday is highly appropriate. Raja-da also talks about Bollywood and Bengali films, serious and popular.

^{Marian Chatterjee, Raja Sen at Premiere of Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio}

Marian Chatterjee, the presenter of this unique interview, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and has been studying Rabindrasangeet for 11 years primarily under Mrs. Rama Banerjee of Pittsburgh and also under Sri Rano Guhathakurta of Kolkata. She learned Bengali at the University of Washington, Seattle, under the late Dr. Carol Salomon, renowned translator of Lalon Giti.  A clinical and forensic psychologist by profession, Marian has participated in numerous cultural programs with the Bengali Cultural Society of Cleveland and has also served on the board. Other passions include translation of Rabindrasangeet.

  ^{Raja Sen, Jayanta Mukherjee at Premiere of Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio} 

Raja Sen, winner of three national awards in India, has previously directed Krishnakanter Will (2007) [BUY DVD] adapted from the Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay classic, starring Jeet, Soumitra Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee, Monali Thakur, Dulal Lahiri, Papiya Sen and others. Raja Sen's other memorable films include Atmiyo Sajan (1998) [DVD] starring Soumitra Chatterjee, Supriya Choudhury, Rituparna Sengupta, Tapas Pal, Sabyasachi Chakravarthy, June Malia, Dipankar Dey, Shakuntala Barua and more.

Raja-da's previous films include:

• A Documentary on Suchitra Mitra (National Award winner - best documentary)
  
• Damu (1997) - Cast: Raghuvir Jadav, Satya Banerjee, Monoj Mitra, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Rimi Sen (Child Artist) (National Award winner - best feature film)
  
• Atmiyo Swajan (1999) - Cast: Shakuntala Barua, Alok Mukherjee, Ashok Mitra, Asit Mukherjee, Chaitali Ghoshal, June Malia, Papiya Sen, Piyush Ganguly, Pradip Chakraborty, Rimi Sen (Child Artist), Tridib Ghosh (National Award winner - best feature film)
• Chakrabyuhya (2000)
• Desh (2002) - Cast: Jaya Bhaduri, Abhishek Bachchan, Sabyasachi Chakravarthy, Subhendu Chatterjee, Gyanesh Mukherjee, Nayana Das, Monu Mukherjee, Koushik Sen, Rajesh Sharma, Dulal Lahiri.
• Debipaksha (2004) - Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta, Satabdi Roy, Koel Mallick.
• Krishnakanter Will (2007) - Cast: Jeet, Soumitra Chatterjee, Swastika Mukherjee.
• Tinmurti (2009) - Cast: Ranjit Mallick, Dipankar Dey, Manoj Mitra, Paoli Dam.

By Subhomoy Mukherjee
WBRi Kolkata Special Correspondent

CALCUTTA, Nov 4, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) As all Bengali film-lovers are aware of, acclaimed film-maker Kaushik Ganguly is making the film RANG MILANTI which is currently on the floors. Washington Bangla Radio has already published exclusive interviews with the beautiful actress Elena Kasnatscheewa (listen here) and young actor Tanaji Dasgupta (listen online here) with more interviews of the cast coming up. Another eagerly anticipated film of Kaushik, Arekti Premer Golpo (movie info) is set to be released in December 2010 - a film about two gay film-makers which features acclaimed director Rituparno Ghosh appearing as an actor for one of the lead roles (the other played by Indranil Sengupta).

Kaushik Ganguly's earlier movies include Jackpot (DVD) starring Hiran Chatterjee, Koel Mullick, Rahul and Sohini Pal; Just Another Love Story and Shunyo E Bukey (DVD) starring Rupa Ganguly, Churni Ganguly, Koushik Sen, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Dipankar Dey. You can watch the full Bangla comedy movie Jackpot online here.

Listen to an exclusive interview of Kaushik Ganguly hosted by Subhomoy Mukherjee of WBRi in Kolkata available online by pressing the play button on the audio player via Washington Bangla Radio.

CALCUTTA, Nov 4, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Tapasi Roy Chowdhury was born and brought up in the environment of theatre and singing. She has started to act and to take training in singing from her child hood. She was continuing both her educational and acting career ( in theatre ) simultaneously till her marriage.

^{Actress Paoli Dam releases album Palte Gelo Din Sheddho Bhaate Kerosene by Tapasi Roy Chowdhury}

After marriage, she had shifted her base abroad. At the time of living in different countries of the World, she was feeling her thirst towards acting in theatre again.

When she was living with her sons and husband at Thailand, she decided to come Kolkata to act at least in one theatre for one day.

In 1990s she has come Kolkata temporarily to act in Bijon theatre. But that acting has changed the direction of her life entirely.

Read all about Tapasi Roy Choudhury and watch the complete video interview online at Washington Bangla Radio.

CALCUTTA, Nov 4, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Ritobina Chakraborty is a cute girl from Salt Lake AKA Bidhannagar, Kolkata who is barely in her teens. We discovered her talent when we happened to watch her dancing on stage at a Salt Lake Block Durga Puja Pandal. The young danseuse caught our eyes immediately with her impressive performance dancing to the song Fagunero Mohonaye popularized by acclaimed Bengali Folk-Fusion Band BHOOMI. Watch her dance performance video on Washington Bangla Radio.

Germantown, Maryland, October 24, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Writer, director, actor Tanaji Dasgupta is appearing in a Bengali film RANG MILANTI directed by Kaushik Ganguly. Tanaji's debut feature film as an actor was Anjan Dutta's 2009 film MADLY BANGALI (DVD release). In this exclusive, comprehensive and informal audio interview, Arijit Chakrabarty of Washington Bangla Radio caught up with Tanaji soon after he returned from a very busy shooting stint in Bangladesh.

Film-maker Kaushik Ganguly was actually Tanaji's Bengali language teacher for a year when Tanaji was in 9th grade at middle school !

Bengali film-maker Kaushik Ganguly's earlier movies include Jackpot (DVD) starring Hiran Chatterjee, Koel Mullick, Rahul and Sohini Pal; Just Another Love Story and Shunyo E Bukey (DVD) starring Rupa Ganguly, Churni Ganguly, Koushik Sen, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Dipankar Dey.

Germantown, Maryland, Oct 23, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio)  Little Angel is a master stroke of director Salil Sarkar who has directed a lot of telefilms and big screen movies for the popular TV channels and production houses. Little Angel is his recent effort. His last feature film was “Jhara Patar Bela” featuring Madhavi Mukherjee.

Little Angel tells us the tale of friendship between two little children, their captive lifestyles, dreams, and the reality of socioeconomic layers of the developing countries like India.

Read all about the film and watch the theatrical trailers online on Washington Bangla Radio^TM.