| Folk cultural show Recently, a fortnight long folk  musical programme was organised in different parts of the Barak Valley by a cultural unit, headed by Dalit leader Anil Sarkar. Cultural programmes were presented by folk artistes, which included Baul songs by the well known Baul singers – Umadasi Baul from Kolkata, Chunu Miya and Raya Hasan of Tripura, and Zina Rajkumari Goswami, representing Assam. The programmes were highly appreciated by the audience and distinguished guests from the Ambedkar Seva Kendra, Sahai and Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Academy. They praised the artistes and the organisers. Special mention may be made here of Zina Rajkumari Goswami, who kept the audience spellbound with her folk songs, including Jhumur and Bihu songs. |
| Video film: Bukur Apon Bukur Apon, a full length video  film directed by young director Bishwajit Saikia, was recently released. The story of the two-hour entertaining film is written by the director. The cast includes Nipon Goswami, Hiranya Deka, Paul Phukan, Joy Kashyap, Sohani Goswami, Papori Phukan, child artiste Nabakishore Dutta and others. Sudipta Bharadwaz has scored the music, with playback singing by Kallol Barthakur, Barnali Kalita, Babita Sarma, Papori Phukan and Sudipta Bharadwaz. The photography is by Jitu Ahmed, while editing is done by Ankur Bishaya. |
| Distant Rumblings In 1942, during World War II, the  Japanese began their march towards India, and the North East became the ultimate battleground, where Allied forces stopped the Japanese march towards Delhi. However, the war had left its indelible mark on the North East. Sixty years later, the same place was revisited, where war and metal wreckages were found. Man is yet to acknowledge the counter-productive nature of violence and learn from his past blunders, and pledge for a peaceful world. This is the theme of Distant Rumblings, a 22-minute documentary in English, directed by Bani Prakash Das, selected for the forthcoming International Film Festival, to be held in Goa from November 22. Significantly, the film is an entry from Nagaland, the first ever from the State, and produced by a Naga lady, Rongsenkala. The script is by Pradip Gogoi, while the cinematography is by Pradip Sengupta and Sachin Das. The music has been scored by Sher Chowdhury and editing is by Manas Adhikary. The film was screened in various festivals like the 10th Mumbai International Film Festival, the third VIBGYOR International Film Festival at Trichur, first International Film Festival at Thiruvananthapuram and the Bollywood and Beyond fifth Indian Film festival at Stuttgart, Germany and, was widely appreciated. |
| Sur Digantar Grandmother. The term itself evokes  warmth and the tales of our past heroes like Lachit Borphukan and Joymoti, told by a grandmother, is all the more soothing and inspiring. The number Aita, meaning grandmother, revolves around this very theme, and it is among the ten soulful tracks featured in the audio album Sur Digantar, that is being released today.Sur Digantar has the voice of Diganta Goswami, who by profession is a teacher in the Assam Engineering College, Guwahati. The album has music by Abhijit Barman, with lyrics by Hiren Goswami, Dr Arup Sarma, Dr Bibhas Sarma, Prasanta Choudhury, Diganta Goswami and Kirtikamal Bhuyan. Use of Indian classical instruments in the music, that captures both slow mood as well as fast beat, makes the album a unique one. |
Apurba Kumar Das