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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Tollywood's Mega Event






Event: Charity Football Match between Filmstars XI (captained by Mithun Chakraborty)and Television Stars XI (captained by Sourav Ganguly)

The Cause: To raise funds for Aila victims.
Where: Vidyasagar Krirangan, Barasat, West Bengal.
When: Sunday, 12th July, 2009.


Event Description, in a nutshell:
Celebrities from all walks of life joined hands with the 25,000-strong crowd to raise funds for the people who were left homeless when Cyclone Aila struck Bengal in May.
The match between Mithun’s Film Stars XI and Sourav's TV Stars XI helped raise Rs 30 lakh, which was donated to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. State Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty upped the amount saying that he would donate another Rs 10 lakh to the fund.

The Chief organiser for the event was the West Bengal Motion Picture Artistes Forum which must be thanked for the earnest endeavour. However, the event was needed to be organised a tad earlier because of the exigencies of the disaster relief. Anyways, the reason behind the delay of about a couple of months was due to the arranging of the grand meet adjusting the dates of the busy stars and other such organisational hassles.
What was most noteworthy was Tollywood's solidarity to reach out to those in need.
The Filmstars XI team comprised of such big names as Mithun Chakraborty, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jeet, Ferdous and Jishu Sengupta, alongwith Tota, Sagnik, Rahul, Rishi, Biswanath, Kanchan, Vivek Trivedi, Sabyasachi Chakraborty etc.
The TV Stars XI team had ace cricketer and former captain of the Indian team, Sourav Ganguly, alongwith fellow cricketer LaxmiRatan Shukla, and television actors like Badsha Moitra, Neel Mukherjee, Saheb Bhattacharya, Suman Banerjee, Bhaskar, Parthasarathi, Riju, Jayjit, Debesh etc.
The TV stars had Subhash Bowmik as their coach. Whereas the filmstars had Subroto Bhattacharya as their coach.
The two goalies were the strongest team-members in both the sides, Atanu Bhattacharya and Debashis Mukherjee, both with goal-keeping experience at the national level.

Much missed stars at the event: Dev, Debasree Roy and Swastika Mukherjee, who were unable to adjust their schedules.
Conspicuous absence: Tapas Paul and Satabdi Roy, the star-turned-politicians who reportedly reached the venue only to leave immediately in a huff. Also absent were Aparna Sen and other members of the rebel political brigade.

Most of the cheering came from Usha Uthup, the noted singer. Also seen cheering were the likes of Rituparna Sengupta, Koel Mullick, Hiran Chatterjee, Priyanka, Ranjit Mullick, Rimjhim Mitra, Rimjhim Gupta, Debaleena, Ushasie, Rupanjana, Kanchana, Mithu Chakraborty, Jayanta Dutt-Burman, Dolon Roy, Debdoot Ghosh etc.

Entertainment at half-time was provided by Jeet Ganguly, the music director whose popular tracks have continually been riding the Bangla soundtrack charts.
The theme song 'Manush manusher jonye...' sung by Usha Uthup and others was apt.


Football quotient:
It is suffice to say that the audience lapped up the match proceedings enthusiastically regardless of the quality of football played. At the end of the scheduled time the score was 1-1. But in a decisive tie breaker, Filmstars XI won (by 3-2).

Fun trivia: The maximum number of offsides could be credited to Mithun 'Mahaguru' Chakraborty, the most enthusiastic though futile display came from Jayjit, and the one who was there the whole time yet was hardly seen putting his soul in the gameplay was none other than Sourav 'Maharaj' Ganguly.

[Pics: courtesy- Star Ananda, the event broadcaster, banglatorrents.com,
and ilovekolkata.in]
Video footage on
ilovekolkata.in (All rights reserved by the said portal)
URL link:
http://www.ilovekolkata.in/index.php/component/option,com_seyret/Itemid,568/id,1263/task,videodirectlink/

Star blogger's field report: Hiran Chatterjee,
on herohiran.com
(Hiran's official website)

[Finally, my apologies for the use of the term Tollywood,
which is very much in popular use,
and hence I adopted it for lack of a better term in the title of the post;
I am still very much against the use of this corrupted reference and wish I hadn't used it myself.]

Sunday, July 12, 2009

How Popcorn Shot to FAME


Having popcorn while watching a movie at the theater has a unique charm of its own. It is a luxury that always makes the movie-going experience so special for me. The Fame multiplex, at South City, Kolkata, is one of my favorite best places to eat flavored popcorn by the tub and watch the latest blockbuster. One can take one's pick of movies, snacks and beverages, all at once!
Recently, as I went to to the said destination, to watch a rather insipid film, just because I had some spare time and the urge to recline in the cozy comfort of the air-conditioned auditorium, I decided to order for popcorn at the onset and munch along. At the interval, I was in for a pleasant surprise when in the lights of the auditorium I read the stuff printed so colorfully on the notoriously over-priced popcorn pack's wraparound! It had an assemblage of movie trivia & tidbits, plus a poem dedicated to the specialty popcorn. I humbly reproduce the poem, unedited, to amuse my readers..... here it is:



How Popcorn shot to Fame

Depressed with his two-tone hue
Corn wanted something new.
He wished to be more glamorous
More glorious. More Fame-ous.

It was the 15th century though
He had to settle for less than more.
Pondering CORN stumbled on some hot coal
Then his head began to throb and roll

Suddenly his body began to split
And then CORN exploded
In seconds it was over with
He was snowy-puffy... splendid!

CORN had become POPCORN
But centuries later we still love his charm.
That's how he shot to FAME
Have him Salted. Cheese. Caramel. Or just plain.