Bangladeshi singer Resmi Mirza, one with a sharply grounded vocal prowess is also one with a tried and true love for folk music since the beginning of her musical voyage. Mentored by the celebrated Khulna Shilpa Kola Academy music teacher and founder of his own Music Academy Sa-re-ga-ma-pa, Mirza Golam Rasul, who also happens to be her father, Resmi found her direction. In a way, she found her calling having come from a musical family — her siblings are self-assured musicians too.
The country might have undergone an unprecedented shift in power this year, marked by various sacrifices that have, and will continue to, drive seemingly necessary transitions across all sectors.
The frameworks of portrayals of gender-based violence in our local productions have been birthed from the need to give voice to the oppressed Biranganas (war heroines)—as portrayed through several films or dramas throughout the years.
The arduous journey of Tamzid Islam Zarir, an ardent Shah Rukh Khan fan, reached its culmination this year during the SRK Day event on November 2. His story, as the current organising secretary of the devoted SRK fan club SRK Bangladesh CFC, gained significant attention earlier this month when he met the Bollywood icon alongside 400 to 450 other fans on the occasion of King Khan’s birthday.
As I stepped into the Central Shaheed Minar late in the afternoon, I was greeted with the jovial and embracing atmosphere of feminists from all corners of the city— and perhaps even beyond. Most were decked out in orange and red sarees, seemingly in line with a theme for the day. Some were even in work mode, going live on social media platforms to share updates on behalf of their organisations.
The intrinsically intricate nooks and crevices of the realities of living with mental health disorders can very well be deemed as being only ever harsher than those represented in media. Even the churning and voicing of these complexities via books or writing can only do so much to make people perceive mental health disorders for what they are. However, when push comes to shove, representations of psychological disorders in any form can mean a further step taken to bring awareness to them — and Bangladeshi projects seem to have touched upon two rather specific ways to represent them.
In all honesty, the filming of the hazed-up and sluggish diplopia, magnified mercilessly by the strong presence of hallucinatory colours resembling questionable club joints and sounds that first seep in vaguely until the individual under the influence, begins hearing properly — has become trite. The fact that an aware audience is easily able to predict the cueing in of an unnecessary drug-addled montage in a project that does not even necessitate such an addition has also become dulling — so much so that I instantly and almost mindlessly give way to a bout of onomatopoeia of disdain.
The feeling of exultation seems to be ripely dense in the air for Ryan Reynolds, who leaves no stone unturned to get back at 21st Century Fox in “Deadpool & Wolverine”, despite having fought for and won the desired final products in the form of the first two “Deadpool” films under its banner. The movie simultaneously and more importantly pays an almost necessary homage to its pre-existing and thriving Marvel heroes and franchises before the launch of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Since Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, I bet Reynolds had just been itching to finally spill his guts which he does in this more successfully done fan servicing movie after “Spider-Man: No Way Home”.
Savoir has been a soaring name in the furniture industry since 2020. The brand curates tasteful and minimalistic furniture for Bangladeshi
Entrepreneur Shafia Shama completed her second post-graduate degree from BRAC University after more than two decades of study gap. Her journey of finding herself during those years propelled her towards success and gratification.
Amir Hamza is the founder of Here We Play, a platform that promotes play as earnestly as schooling in the process and progression of teaching students at
Dip Medical Services & Dipasha Foundation, founded by Dr Farzana Rahman, started its journey in 2015 to provide medical treatment and support to underprivileged and low-skilled people, especially women and girls of Singra, Natore.
Sadia Rahman, Program Director of Light to Life, was the only Bangladeshi among the six voted winners of the 2021 Ingenuity Fund, developed by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health(Gates Institute), and supported by Pathfinder International and Bayer.
“D.P.”, the South Korean, webtoon-based series released on Netflix, is a fresh take on the kind of absurd realism which is revered in the Oscar- winning movie, “Parasite”. With that being said, the similarity between the two ends there. “D.P” is arguably one of the most critically acclaimed K-dramas this year, and for very good reasons.
For a newly initiated non-profit organisation, Briddhi is on the right track to taking measures for positive changes.
Treading into the waters of applying to study abroad can look vast and apprehensive for students, considering there is a surcharge of information on the internet about getting into foreign universities. There are, however, various educational consultancies around Bangladesh, most of which provide services from Dhaka.
A year ago, the youth-led platform Beyond Candid was formed with the intention of bringing stories about social injustices and gender-based violence to the forefront through candid lenses. For co-founder Masud Parvez, the platform is a means of getting to his dream of building a better tomorrow while ensuring a safer world for future generations. He received the National Debate Foundation Bangladesh’s Youth Icon Award from 2017 to 2019. We caught up with him to find out more about his work.
Sapnil Chowdhury is a passionate go-getter, who dabbled in acting, volunteering, and sports, among his other interests, throughout the years. He was born and brought up in Brahmanbaria until he moved to Dhaka to pursue a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from American International University Bangladesh (AIUB). We caught up with him to find out more about his work.
