Manna Dey recently gave interview in Zee Bangla.

Manna Dey recently gave interview in Zee Bangla.

Manna Dey gave recent interview before Anurag Basu in a program held in Zee Bangla on 1st July, 2010. Anurag Basu had hosted the program for more than a month now. Notable celebrities like Pritam, Shaan, Prasenjit Chatterji, Konkona Sen Sharma had been interviewed in the program. Questions were asked to the fans of the celebrities.

Manna Dey when asked between himself, Rafi and Kishore Kumar, where would he rank himself. He said that he would keep Rafi at no. 1 because according to him no one had sung sugam sangeet to the level of perfection of Rafi. He had kept Kishore Kumar at 2 and mentioned that after Rafi he was versatile and modulated the voice brilliantly for decades. He kept himself at no. 3. He said his songs were difficult to sing as they were classically oriented, but listeners enjoyed them. He sang the song “hey bhai zara dekh ke chalo” from Raj Kapoor’s film Mera Naam Joker in the program. He talked about lyricist Pulak Banerjee who had died some time back, but had given majority of songs to Manna Dey.

Manna Dey had a very sweet relationship with Sudhin Dasgupta. He was used by almost all the leading composers of Bengal namely Anil Bagchi, Nochiketa Ghosh, Salil Choudhury and others. But probably his westernized andaz was used to the limit by Sudhin Dasgupta.

Sudhin Dasgupta used Manna Dey in Uttam Kumar’s film Goli Theke Rajpoth with the song “lag lag lag lag bhelkir khela”. Manna Dey’s songs “ami agantuk” and “ke prothom kache esechi” composed by Sudhin Dasgupta in Uttam Kumar’s film Shankhabela created sensation in Bengali celluloid in 1966. Manna Dey’s songs “ami kon pothe je choli” and “bachao ke acho” in Uttam Kumar’s film Choddobeshi became super hit as well.

In the 70s, Manna Dey’s songs “esechi ami esechi”, “lekha porata shikhe phele” and “paye paye joriye rakho” in Uttam Kumar’s film Har Mana Har created sensation as well. Uttam Kumar gave the lips of his lifetime in the film Har Mana Har. While major success of Sudhin Dasgupta came in Uttam Kumar’s films, he made major contribution in Soumitra Chatterji’s films as well. The songs “ei shohor theke aro anek dure”, “hoyto tomari jonyo”, “jibone ki pabona” in the film Teen Bhubaner Pare, composed by Sudhin Dasgupta and sung by Manna Dey showed the westernized orchestration of the giant composer.

Sudhin Dasupta’s songs in Soumitra’s films Prothom Kodom Phul and Bosonto Bilaap were equally successful. Manna Dey’s all round musical skills were used to perfection in these films. Even the song “ogo tomar sesh bichare asay” sung by Manna Dey in bayul andaz in Kali Banerjee’s legendary film Dak Horkora, and composed by Sudhin Dasgupta made the viewers speechless.

Manna Dey sang many numbers of solo songs as basic discs under the compositions of Sudhin Dasgupta. One of the notable songs included “ami taar thikana rakhini”. The songs of Sudhin Dasgupta and Manna Dey combination should be preserved and restored.

Manna Dey received Dada Sahab Falke award and really deserved it. He is probably the last living legend. Viewers and listeners owe their respect to the versatile singer.

Konkona Sen Sharma had remained down to earth.

Konkona Sen Sharma had remained down to earth.

Konkona Sen Sharma, one of the successful actresses of bollywood had remained down to earth. Recently she had given interview in Zee Bangla in a program held on 26th June, 2010, which was anchored by director Anurag Basu. She was born on 3rd December, 1979, in Kolkata.

In the entire program which determined the greatest fan of Konkona Sen Sharma, the honesty and humbleness of the talented actress was reflected. References came about the performances of the co-stars of Konkona Sen Sharma, where she admitted that she admired Irfan Khan. She started her career with the film Ek Je Ache Kanya in 2000. Then she got National Award for the performance in the film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer in 2002. It was directed by her mother Aparna Sen.

She acted well in the parallel cinema Page 3 in 2005. Then she received filmfare awards for best supporting actresses in the films Omkara in 2006 and Life in a Metro in 2007. Her performance in the film Omkara also earned her second national award in the category of best supporting actress.

She spoke about her experience of acting opposite popular actress Rani Mukherjee in the film Laga Chunari Me Daag. She said that her dancing skills were quite weak. Her tool flew off and hurt Rani Mukherjee on the first day of shooting. She also did a great job opposite Farhan Akhtar in Zoya Akhtar’s film Luck By Chance which was given positive reviews by critics.

Recently she carried her success in art films to commercial films as well. Her film Wake Up Sid opposite Ranbir Kapoor became a smash hit in 2009. She confessed that she was very comfortable working with the director Vishal Bharatswaj as he was organized and actor Ranbir Shorey who was very intimate to her. The Bengali audience expressed their sadness for not seeing her in many Bengali films. Her Bengali films were limited to only art films like Rituparna Ghosh’s Titli where she acted opposite Mithun Chakravarty and Aparna Sen and the film Doshor where she acted opposite Prasenjit Chatterji. She confessed that she did not get good scripts. But both Anurag Basu and Konkona Sen Sharma said that they will look forward to working in more Bengali films in future.

The viewers expressed their regards to the talented actress and wished her best of luck for upcoming films.

Kites did not get a good opening.

Kites did not get a good opening.

Hrithik Roshan’s new film Kites did not get a good opening after it was released last week. There was huge expectation from the film, with Rakesh Roshan being involved in production and Anurag Bau in direction. Anurag Basu, the director of the film experimented with a remote subject where the entire affair between Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori did take place without each of them knowing the language of the other.

The love story had a number of twists and turns with able support from the new actress Kangana Ranaut. Although Hrithik Roshan had played the role of a romantic character, the depiction of romance has been done in a serious manner. The film has been shot in different parts of USA and India.

Critics had argued that the reason why Kites got a slow opening was because most part of the film had the Spanish language and the English language. The affair between Barbara Mori and Hrithik Roshan took place in the Spanish and English language.

So viewers from the states in India who prefer the hindi language, like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, etc., could not accept the film in its totality as the language stood as a barrier. Hrithik Roshan played the role of a dance teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hrithik Roshan entered into deal with Kangana Ranaut who wanted to marry him. Kangana Ranaut was the daughter of Kabir Bedi, a rich casino owner in the place.

Kites had been released in the English version as well with the title Kites: The Remix. The music was composed by Rakesh Roshan. The songs “zindagi do pal ki”, “dil kyun yeh mera”, sung by KK got good response. The song “fire” sung by Vishal Dadlani also got good response.

Hrithik Roshan had shown a number of acrobatic stunts. There were many hot scenes between Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori.

The viewers should appreciate the film. As far as technical matters are concerned the film had been excellent. Let us hope that the film do good business in the days to come.