NY/NJ Bengali

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A Space of Our Own

Recently we have been witnessing a plethora of activities in the cultural front. Spring and early summer has been the traditional season when Bengali (and Indian) cultural events blossom everywhere, but this season it may have started to cross the threshold – at least according to a sizable number of the typical consumers of these cultural and artistic products. I have heard from several people, some jokingly (or rather sarcastically) and some in a quite serious tone, that their entertainment budget (along with the ancillary expenses like gas, food, baby sitting etc) are going out of control. Now, complaining to me does not help them in any way (except possibly scaring me from trying sell tickets for my shows), but they may have a point here. How much are we willing to spend in order to enjoy, nurture and promote our culture in this adopted homeland of ours?

There was a time, not too long ago, when we were desperate to find any show, be it a music concert, a play or a dance drama that happened in anywhere within a drivable distance – be it performed by local artistes or artistes from India. But now they happen at our door steps. As soon as spring arrives in North America, all the professional performers from the east arrive to their fans in the west through the ports of JFK and Newark. Our stages and auditoriums start filling up on weekends with the sound of Indian music flowing out to the streets where the American passerby does not look surprised at all. You may even find some of them tapping their fingers on their steering wheels.

We must agree that our population in this part of the world is increasing rapidly and the market size for cultural products over the years have increased many folds. The laws of demand and supply works here too – after all it is all a business, be it show business. Unfortunately, this market of Indian entertainment consumers is fragmented - fragmented into Bengali market, Marathi market, Gujrati market, Telegu market etc. etc. It becomes enormously difficult for a Bengali (or any other Indian language) entertainment show producer to make sure that his business is going to break even (let alone make any profits), because his consumer is pulled from multiple directions – a Bollywood concert at so-and-so arena, a Hindustani classical music concert by pandit so-and-so, a Bengali drama by xyz group, a Tagore dance drama, a South Asian Film Festival, or a South Asian drama festival (not to mention their kids band concert at school). This poor consumer has another problem - he/she is also a friend of these multiple producers (or their ticket agents) and has been to their parties several times. Hence, he/she cannot say no to an offer to buy a ticket for this “great” event ( unless he/she can find an excellent excuse of a prior engagement like a must-go/can’t-avoid marriage/anniversary/graduation party.) Now, if you do the math, you will find that the annual entertainment budget for a family can easily exceed few hundred (to thousand) dollars (even if you exclude the occasional video rentals and movie shows).
Some people have suggested that organizations should sell annual discount passes, like book of coupons that will allow a person to go to a fixed number of events at a fixed rate. Sounds like a cool idea, but the devil is in the details of implementation.
First of all, we do not have a fixed events calendar. We don’t even know how many events are going to happen in a year, let alone the contents of the events.
Secondly, we do not have a fixed venue of our own. This I guess is the key to many of our problems, like scheduling, budgeting and planning. Even the richest of our organizations need to rent spaces for any event and they are at the mercy of the venue owners. If we had a venue of our own, a small theater/auditorium with approx 300 to 400 seats, some audio visual setup, then many of these problems could have been solved. The theater could have scheduled events, planned ahead and season subscription passes could be sold to the people who could then pick and choose the shows they want to enjoy. The cultural organizations and groups can rent space at this venue and schedule their events and shows at least a year ahead. Any weekend, when you feel like going out for quality Bengali/Indian entertainment, you can expect to have some show running at this venue of ours. It is true that managing and running such a space is not trivial. Here our community organizations like Anandamandir can play a role. Many non-profit community theaters are run this way. The initial expenses can be a challenge, but if we join our hands and minds together, maybe we can make this a reality.

Bangla TV Shows in America

Sudipta Bhawmik

Recently we are enjoying a new phenomenon in our living rooms. Yes, you guessed it right - Indian TV networks are keeping us glued to our TV sets. Thanks to satellite and cable TV networks. Not two long ago only few Indian TV shows were available on some shared paid program networks and international cable channels during weekend slots. How much we have longed for 24 hour TV channels in Hindi and especially Bangla. Our wishes have been fulfilled. Most of the major cable networks of India like Zee, Sony, Star, ETV are now available in most cities and towns in USA where cable or satellite TV service (like Dish or DirectTV ) are available. Unfortunately, compared to the Hindi channels, not too many Bangla channels are available yet. I have been subscribing to ETV Bangla channel offered by DirectTV for about two months now. Let me share my experience with you all.

I, along with my family, was really excited to have a 24hour Bangla channel on our TV sets. The opportunity to watch the latest soaps and serials along with current news, Bangla movies and other shows was indeed too great to pass up. But after two months of viewing, the excitement has subsided a bit. First of all, my mother and mother-in-law has informed us that the shows are all reruns of shows which have already completed their run in India long time ago. Although that sort of dampens the excitement of watching the latest and greatest, but it didn’t bother me too much, since they are quite new to me. So new, that they sometimes shock me. I feel amazed that how much the society, that I have left a decade and half ago, has changed. But, isn’t that natural? How can we expect that the morals and values of our society in Bengal will remain the same? After all, the world has become really small. Back home, they have been watching American networks long before we have started receiving Indian channels. Globalization has not only been influencing our economy and business, it has also affected our cultural front.

However I was quite disappointed with the quality of the soaps (or serials as they say back home). Most of them are very poorly scripted, directed and acted. It is a pity to watch great actors and directors like Dwijen Bandopadhyay and Biplabketan Chakrabarty clown around in a most hapless sitcom named “Chuni-Panna” (directed by Jishu Dasgupta). Not only are the storylines contrived and absurd, the dialogue, camera handling, editing, everything is poor. Same is true for many of the other serials. Then there are these game shows, “Rojgere Ginni”, “Utsober Sera Poribar”, “Janata Express”, “Borishaler Bor Kolikatar Koney”, “Shoshurbari bonam Baperbari” and others. My mother-in law tells me that “Rojgere Ginni” is a big hit in Kolkata, but I don’t understand why they have to broadcast that show in USA? In this show, the show crew arrives at any household and the show anchor talks and plays games with the lady of the house and her family. Maybe the show is entertaining to the friends of the family in the show, but why me? In “Utsober Sera Poribar”, two families fight it out in a dress shop, trying to guess the price of a “salwar” or packing clothes in a shopping bag. Is it funny? Well, when the family dances weirdly at some out-of-tune music sung by one of the cast members, it does look funny. But the presence of cute and perky Riturparna makes the show (as well as some other shows where she is on) worthwhile to watch….. well sometimes. “Janata Express”, a show hosted by Kanchan Mallik, is an exception and is quite funny and enjoyable. Kanchan dresses up as different characters (politician, rickshaw puller, and many others) and takes his camera crew to the streets of Kolkata and talks to the common people on different social issues and plays funny games with them. The winner gets to win nice prizes. It’s a pity that this show comes only once a week.

The drama series typically features some of the best actors and actresses of the Bengali screen and stage. Besides veterans like Soumitra Chaterjee, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Dipankar Dey, Sumitra Mukherjee, Savitri Chatterjee, Mamata Shankar, there are also the talented young folks like Rajatava Dutta, Sankar Chakraborty, Chandan Sen, Srilekha Mitra, Sudipta Chakraborty. But it is a pity to see how these talented actors are being under utilized. Only in telefilms (short to mid length films made for the television), sometimes these young actors can exercise their talent and we see some sparks of quality film making, I only wonder why can’t the same care be taken with the serials? Why do these serials do not have the same smartness, why do we have to go through those tiring frames and dialogues which seems to have been written only to pass time and hardly to lead the story forward. I wish the producers will use better trained script writers and directors in their future serials.

The show I enjoy the most is the newscast, especially the “Amaar Bangla” show that covers the local news from the different districts. It is only when I see the news I have a feeling that maybe not everything has changed. You’d get to know how a love affair between a male and female teacher in a school leads to a political protest parade by the rikshaw puller union, or how snakes are revered like God in a small village in Purulia. The regular news covers both national and international news. I wish they had covered the sports a bit more.

Another great show is the talk show hosted by the noted filmmaker Rituparna Ghosh, aptly titled “Ebong Rituparna”. Rituparna invites some of the major personalities of the Kolkata entertainment world like Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen, Usha Uthup, and others. The conversation is smart with lots of insight, and sometimes quite funny. The only complaint I have is that often the audio quality of this show is very poor.

However, the thing that I detest the most, are the previews of the serials and shows that are shown over and over again. My entire family had memorized all the clips in two weeks, and now it tends to be sickening. It seems the ETV marketing team has not yet managed to get enough advertisements to fill the commercial breaks. So they keep cycling the preview clips again and again. The only commercials that you get to see are of those ventures owned by Ramoji Rao, the man behind ETV.

Overall, I am quite happy to have a Bangla TV channel in my home. However, I would like to request the broadcasters to treat us with some respect and possibly show us the current shows and events that they broadcast in India and work on the schedule a bit, like not showing the same show three times a day.

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