FM মহানগর - Review of a play by StoryTeller

Typically a “reputed” drama staged in Kolkata fall within three limited genres. Period Drama & Greek Tragedies; Folklore  and ‘relevant’ Social Drama. Even the last genre when it picks up  contemporary social theme like ‘Old age homes’ tend to pick more on the breakdown of family relationships & subsequent suffering without  so much as an acknowledgement that  good old age homes that serve a social purpose exist and are redefining family relationships. The old saga of protest and rebellion play out their various expressions generally in most of the plays often  ending with a strong message to change the society without realizing that the society has been changing and has changed so much since last 2 decades  with advances in communication and overindulgent consumerism that messages are broadcast & shared eons before they are staged. If one is a viewer like me, who has been waiting for years for a play that captures the utter senselessness of all that is considered important and also demonstrates  how relationships are modified , almost instantly-gratified, by the mascots of embedded materialism; then one can feel sufficiently redeemed by watching Story Teller’s new production, FM Mahanaogor .

Piku- Review of a film by Shoojit Sarkar

Medical  science has  been talking lately of a second brain in the human body , whose upkeep is perhaps more important for a healthy body and life. Its the meters-long gastrointestinal tract that helps pass the waste post-digestion from inside of a human body. Khuswant Singh,the late journalist cum novelist , had said in an interview (just prior to his death at the ripe old age of 92) last year that the secret to one's long life lies in finding out one's own magic-potion that helps clear out gastro-intestinal tract every morning. For some it's pudina leaves , for others its isabgul  or paraffin but for Khuswant it was his evening quota of two large pegs of scotch whiskey that did the trick.

In the film , Piku,  the father of the protagonist - a retired executive at 70 & a widower living with his

84 bloggers are replaying Orwellian 1984 with their lives

In 1949, when George Orwell published his dystopian novel 1984   he was referring to a totalitarian state ruled by the socialist party that  "seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power."  The leader of the party was a quasi-divine personality called Big Brother . The party was constantly in war , engaged in constant  surveillance and disseminating current party-line by rewriting history  so that its in track with the current thought.

দূরত্ব

হৃদয়েতে লাগলে দোলা

নাকি বেশী বাঁচে লোকে

স্তব্ধ হোক তবে শব্দ খেলা

যেন মৃত্যু দূরে থাকে।

বকবকানি বিচ্ছু মেয়ে

কয়েক যুগ আগে

তাকিয়ে খালি থাকে চেয়ে

তার কবিতা ভালো লাগে।