Category: বাংলা

“Historical blunder” – ঐতিহাসিক ভুল

Yesterday, I heard the news that the former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Sri Jyoti Basu passed away. Commentators found some of his policies controversial, but no one could deny that he was one of the most charismatic Indian politicians of the last century. On a personal note, for most of my life, he was also the only Chief Minister I knew.  So  it was only natural that yesterday, I was thinking about his long political career and the futile stand he took against the leadership of his party in 1996. It was a brave move and as one friend put it, he will be remembered perhaps, as “the best Prime Minister that we never had.”

People from all walks of life from Bollywood film-star Amitabh Bachchan to Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina paid their respects to the fallen stalwart. The news made a lot of headlines in all the Kolkata-based newspapers too.

However, in their emotional state, some people might have gone a bit over the top. Anandabazar reports some comments of the common people in the newspaper today.

The following comment from a worker at the Birbhum Circuit-House was a bit surprising:

“শৌচাগারে বালতি অপরিচ্ছন্ন। আমরা তাড়াতাড়ি পাল্টে দিই। উনি পরে খুব প্রশংসা করেন।”

(“The bucket in the bathroom was dirty. We changed it quickly. Later, he [Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu] was full of praise for us“).

My honest question is this: if you had one chance to give an account of your last respect to one of the stalwarts of your state to the largest-circulated daily newspaper, would you freely say there was a dirty bucket in the bathroom under your charge?

© 2010-2013 Bhalomanush.com. All rights reserved.

Milk + Horlicks = rich folks in Bengali films … দুধ + হরলিক্স = বড়লোকেরা খাবার!

These are two melodramatic scenes from two hit Bengali/Bangla films. The first one is from Chhoto Bou and the second is from Mangaldeep. Apart from the common actors, you’ll notice a common formula.

(ছেলেটা সত্যি খালি খাই-খাই করে…)

দুধ + হরলিক্স = বড়লোকেরা খাবার!

Tora je ja bolish bhai, amar ghorar dim chai – তোরা যে যা বলিস ভাই আমার ঘোড়ার ডিম চাই!

Ashwadimba!The phrase “mare’s nest” is not used a lot these days. This is in contrast to the equivalent in Bengali, “asvadimba” (অশ্বডিম্ব) or “ghorar dim” (ঘোড়ার ডিম) which are both still commonly used to express disbelief at nonsense or fraud.

A more direct translation into English gives us something like “horse-egg.” Well, I   searched for the proverbial egg and found that it is a common motif in pysanka,  a type of Ukranian Easter egg decoration that relies on writing with wax. In parts of Eastern Europe, the horse is popular because it symbolizes both strength and prosperity.

In fact there are quite a few pictures of “horse-eggs” on the internet including one that is quite intricate.

With Christmas just around the corner, I’ve decided that I want a “ghorar dim,” and not just any will do. I want a stallion breaking out of an egg on a sweatshirt. If anyone wants to give one to me as a gift, I can tell you that you’ll find one online here.

© Bhalomanush. All content is copyright and may not be used without permission.

Finally Bengali films available for purchase online

While searching for Bengali films of Panchamda (R.D. Burman, রাহুলদেব বর্মন) I came across an excellent site that contains all the films released by Angel Video. Their price-structure is a bit weird: I mean in this day and age, who charges from 35 Rupees all the way to over 300 Rupees for VCDs of films? A VCD is essentially an outdated product, regardless of how you package it and to have a one order-of-magnitude price difference based for the same product seems counter-intuitive.

However, they do have an amazing website with at least a few hundred Bengali films. The nice thing about the website is that they have a search-engine that actually works. I’ve loaded up my shopping cart and will post my review of how promptly they process my order in a few days. So far, however, the process seems extremely efficient for people living in India. If you live outside of India, the best option is to have the VCDs and DVDs sent to someone in the country and pick them up when you visit. Right now, Angel is shipping anywhere in India for free as long as you purchase at least 500 Rupees worth of items.

The Angel Video website means now there are options. Before, we didn’t have that many and essentially had to purchase from retail websites that had very-highly marked up prices like Simindia. Simindia has virtually a non-existent interface and absolutely no search-engine. The only good thing about them though is that they deliver worldwide and they do so rather efficiently and promptly (I can vouch for this).

Anyways, I did a couple of searches on the Angel Video website and was excited with the results.

I was looking to increase my collection of Bhanu Bandyopadhyay films, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had many movies featuring Bhanu. It is quite a collection, indeed!

But most of all, I was happy to see that they carry a good stock of films in which Panchamda composed the music. Many of these bear the stamp of his assistant Sapan Chakraborty (স্বপন চক্রবর্তী ) too.

The R.D. Burman tribute site www.panchamonline.com mentions that he composed the music for 32 Bengali films and another 134 non-film Bengali songs usually released around the time of the Pujas. I checked for the ones that Angel carries and was elated to find that they are selling 15 including some as rare as Anando Niketan with Sanjay, Sabitri, and Suparna (if you know anything about who Sanjay and Suparna are, do give me a buzz!)

© 2010-2013 Bhalomanush.com. All rights reserved.

Khokon amar jadumoni… খোকন আমার জাদুমণি

Utpal Datta stole the show in the Bengali film, Bikele bhorer phul. Here are a couple of memorable teasers for purposes of review. Both clips are under one minute and courtesy of Angel Video. If you like these clips, I encourage you to buy the original VCD from them.

In the first, Utpal Datta gets emotional while reciting the poem he wrote, Khokon amar jadumoni.

In the second, as a special guest, he gives a completely unexpected speech (তোমরা মেয়েরা, তোমরা কি?)

Contai vs. Paris (কাঁথি বনাম প্যারিস)

Robi Ghosh had a short, but memorable cameo appearance in the 1968 Parthapratim Choudhury directed film, Hansamithun. In this short scene, Robi explains the difference between mime and being an actual mute to a rustic friend from Contai.

Contai, Contai, Contai. Tui na ekhon ekta gaainya roye geli! Kothay Contai aar kothay Paris?

Speechless!