Defying the shivering cold on Wednesday night, artistes enchanted the audience on the second day of a music festival arranged as part of the 25th founding anniversary of Dhaka University (DU) Music Department at the Teacher-Student Center (TSC).

Bangla songs from the era of Shakta Padabali to the contemporary time were performed by celebrated artistes from Bangladesh and India in the two-day long music festival.

Modern Bangla song artist Rafiqul Alam, also an artist of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, performed “Debona amar mather sabuj aar”, a song aired during the Liberation War to inspire the Freedom Fighters.

Celebrated artist Khairul Anam Shakil, also a part time teacher of Music Department, performed a popular Nazrul song and a folk song.

Before performing, prominent Bangladeshi artist Ferdous Ara said music flows through generation to generation and will remain forever.

A creative composition that captivated the audiences, a musical chart and depiction from the era of Charya Pada to the present time, was presented by teachers and students of Music Department.

“We did not get much opportunity as the present generation enjoying in practicing art and music,” said celebrated singer Hasina Mumtaz adding that they perform better than we do.

On the concluding day of the festival, Bangladeshi celebrated artistes Syed Abdul Hadi, Pradeep Kumar Nandi along with teachers, students of the department as well as two Bangladeshi bands also performed at the programme.

Before the evening session, experts took part in a discussion on the situation of music in institutional education, its success, contemporary crisis and plan to overcome those issues.

With the theme ‘Bangla Gaan’ (Bangla Songs), teachers and students of music department started the celebration Tuesday.

A colourful procession was brought out from the Arts Faculty building. DU Vice-Chancellor Prof M Akhtaruzzaman inaugurated the festival at TSC while Professor Emeritus Dr Rafiqul Islam and Pro-VC Dr Nasreen Ahmad, among others, were present as special guests.

The festival was co-sponsored by Diamond World and ABMT. United News of Bangladesh (UNB) was the media partner of the event.

In 1993, a subsidiary course on music was introduced directly under the supervision of Dean, Faculty of Arts, Dhaka University. A similar course on theatre was introduced in 1989, also under the Dean, Faculty of Arts.

Both of these separate units were brought under a single departmental administration on August 1, 1994 and named as the Department of Theatre and Music.

In 1995, the department introduced two MA programmes – one on music and another on theatre. In 1998, the Department of Music introduced four-year honours and one-year Master’s degree course on classical, folk, Tagore, Nazrul songs and instrumentals. MPhil and PhD degrees were also included and started from 2000.

In 2009, the Music Department started its journey as an individual department.

Currently, over 250 students are studying for Honours and Master’s degrees on Tagore, Nazrul and folk songs, and classical music.

The Chinese film "Sheep Without A Shepherd" led the Chinese mainland box office Saturday, according to the China Movie Data Information Network Sunday.

The film raked in about 75.42 million yuan (around 10.75 million U.S. dollars) on the second day of screening, accounting for over 35 percent of the daily total.

The film depicts the story of a father trying to cover up his daughter's crime, who committed manslaughter of a police officer's son, dragging the girl's family into struggles against the police.

It was followed by "Sky Fire," a Chinese-produced disaster film directed by British director Simon West, which grossed around 42.97 million yuan.

Coming in third was "Gone With The Light," a story telling the true meaning of love, pocketing about 20.77 million yuan on Saturday, its second day of screening.

Young singer and music director Prithwi Raj has passed away here. He was 34.

Prithwi went to his Dhanmondi studio around 10pm on Saturday, said family sources.

Finding no response from him till 12:30am on Sunday, family members went there and broke open the studio only to find him lying unconscious.

The singer was taken to City Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead around 3:30am.

Prithwi was also production in-charge at ABC Radio.
 

December 12 marked the 3rd Digital Bangladesh Day, and ICT division organized a gala concert on Thursday at the capital, celebrating the occasion with the day’s theme “Shotto Mittha Jachai Agey, Internet a Share Pore”. Thousands of youths took oaths on the occasion, promising to secure the country’s reputation as fake news and rumour-free nation.

State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak initiated the concert as the host, where country’s renowned musical acts Warfaze, Nemesis, Pritom Hasan, Oishee, Spondon and folk icon Momtaz performed.

Organized in United International University (UIU) permanent campus in United City at Madani Avenue, Badda in the capital- the concert was joined by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal as the chief guest who administrated the oath.

University Grant Commission Chairman Professor Kazi Shahidullah, Senior Secretary of Home Ministry Mostafa Kamal Uddin and Bangladesh Police’s Inspector General Mohammad Javed Patwary, President of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Standing Committee AKM Rahmatullah and United International University Vice Chancellor Chowdhury Mofizur Rahman were also present at the event.

Implementing the necessity of safe internet, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said “We should always check the facts before sharing on social platforms, as we have seen how rumours and fake-news can cause harmful incidents in recent times. We are thriving as Digital Bangladesh and we need safe and secure internet so that we can utilize the full potential of the internet.”

Later, the minister administrated the oath, taken by everyone at the venue.

Concert host and state minister for ICT division Zunaid Ahmed Palak said “Under the prolific guidance of our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Advisor to the Government of Bangladesh on Information and Communication Technology Sajeeb Wazed Joy, we are successfully celebrating this day as Digital Bangladesh Day for the third time. We must ensure that no one can harm others by spreading fake news, rumours and negativity through the internet.”

“Its our internet, and we need to keep it clean”- he emphasized at the event.

The speakers also showcased the government’s success in the ICT sector in recent years, with services like national helpline 999 and establishment of several ICT industrials.

Not only the ministers, but the performing artists also pleaded to the audiences especially the youth not to pollute the internet sphere and spread negativity on the online.

The concert went on full swing with fireworks and tremendous performances by all the performing artists, who mesmerized the audiences with their popular tracks.

Started on December 12, 2017 -  the National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Day - this concert was part of the day-long celebration of the ‘Digital Bangladesh Day’, renamed in 2018 by the cabinet division.
 

Reese Witherspoon remembered when she met with several film production studios in 2011 to ask them how many movies were being developed for women.

The studios' responses nearly floored her.

"Of all the major seven studios, the answer was one," Witherspoon said after she received the prestigious Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at The Hollywood Reporter's Women in Entertainment breakfast gala Wednesday in Los Angeles. The Oscar and Emmy-winning actress was handed the award by her friend actress Kerry Washington for excelling in film and her philanthropic efforts.

Witherspoon said she was grateful to receive the award named after Lansing, the former Paramount Pictures CEO who was the first woman to head a Hollywood studio. While she called Lansing a "trailblazer," the actress hearkened back to her meeting with studios that felt "grim."

"One movie was being made with a female lead out of 140 movies," she continued. "As I was told by a studio head at the time, 'Well, we already have one female star this year. We can't make two.' Can you guess which year this was? 2011. Not 1911. ... 2011."

Witherspoon said the moment helped empower her to start her own production company, Hello Sunshine, which has produced Oscar-nominated films "Gone Girl," "Wild," and the HBO drama series "Big Little Lies" with an all-female leading cast.

The actress, who starred in films including "Legally Blonde" and "Sweet Home Alabama," told the packed room of about 600 people, mostly women, that "this is our time."

The star-studded event included Charlize Theron, John Legend and Mindy Kaling. It also had about 40 young women who are taking part in THR's Women in Entertainment mentorship program, established a decade ago.

"A lot of people can recognize a problem, look at it and complain about it," said Witherspoon, who is also a member of the Time's Up movement, an initiative for anti-harassment and gender equality. "But not everybody is going to do something about it. Leaders are really doers. Even though you don't think of yourself as a leader, or you're hesitant or you're hypnotized by words saying 'You can't.' Too bad. Do it anyway."

Around $1.5 million in university scholarships were presented to high school seniors from under-served communities in south and east Los Angeles. All of the seniors have taken part in the program.

Often shedding tears onstage, Theron said the gala "fed my soul."

Actress Olivia Wilde, a guest editor of THR's Women in Entertainment issue that was released Wednesday, said women should explore their feminine strength.

Ronan Farrow received the Equity in Entertainment award for his journalistic work against gender-based discrimination.

Political activist Stacey Abrams spoke during her keynote speech about storytelling holding an extraordinary power. She said she's witnessed moments when women and others who "look like me are often footnotes not chapters in stories."

Abrams, who is African American and once served in the Georgia House of Representatives, encouraged those in the room to make a difference. She also acknowledged that when she ran for Georgia governor in 2018, she went against the advice of those who told her she needed to "change my look and use smaller words."

Abrams encouraged attendees not to allow anyone to stifle them.

"This is power you all possess as leaders in Hollywood: With a word, with a scene, with a script, you become advocates for the voiceless," Abrams said. "You become the cyphers who tell the whole truth of who we are in society. As women, you can leverage to highlight our complexities, our strength and our capacity for redemption."