'Pradhanmantri' : A Series by ABP News

'Pradhanmantri' is a series by ABP News made in 2013. They made it before the election of 2014. That time we missed it, but now we watched it to know more about our country. It is anchored by Shekhar Kapur and some significant parts are enacted by various actors.

The first episode deals with the situation when India got freedom, the amalgamation of the independent princely states with India. How did all these happen? We get an idea about the overall situation of India around April- August '47. The second episode tells us about Junagadh and Hyderabad. The third episode deals with Kashmir. The fourth episode shows us how the state of Andhra was born. And also the formation of Mumbai (which later became Maharashtra and Gujarat).

What a tough situation it was! How difficult to govern such a country which is so varied! And which by that time was not the India we know today. Back then there were also doubt whether some of the princely states would join us or not. Very tough and ambiguous situation, needed critical thinking in each step on the parts of all the statesmen involved in the process. It was great that we got freedom but after that, to maintain the unity of country, to run it smoothly- has been a regular challenge to the Government. This challenge is also a blessing as it enhances the performance of the Government as well as they make the Government come up with new and varied public welfare schemes, so that the masses are benefited.

Gradually we watched the episodes about Hindu Code Bill ( I had no knowledge about it), details of the war with China, the tenure of Jawaharlaal Nehru and after that, Lal Bahadur Shaastri as Prime Minister, after that we witness the time of Indira Gandhi and the 1971 war with Pakistan.

Then came the time of Emergency in the country. After that Moraarji Desai, Operation Blue Star, Rajiv Gandhi, Ayodhya Dispute, Bofors, Mandal Commission, LTTE and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, Atal Vihari Vajpayee, rule by the UPA Govt- chief incidents from all these eras are covered in the series.

Very informative series, they have also used newspapers of that time and writings of politicians or eminent journalists as source material for the episodes, which are mentioned in the end credit of each episode. In some episodes, politicians and journalists are also seen to narrate or explain a certain topic. The direction is very good, the incidents are shown in such a way that it does not look like dry history or facts, but the audience actually gets involved in the happenings of the state. 

If you want to know and love the country more, to know the situations our great leaders experienced; you need to watch this series :) 

Nice work by ABP News. 

'Gitanjali: Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore':- A Programme on Doordarshan featuring Tagore's Songs

This is a very good attempt on the part of Doordarshan. In this programne the Hindi translations of Rabindranath Tagore's songs are presented by famous singers like Kavita Krishnamurthy, Anuradha Paudwal, Saadhna Sargam, Vinod Rathod and so on. Sometime a matching video is also shown along with the song. The programme is anchored by Divya Dutta in the studio and by Mamta Gurnani from Shantiniketan, where she shows us many famous places which are infused with the memory of Kabiguru.

This series was made on 2007 under the banner of Sounwing Productions, the director was Tapas Sen Gupta.

Here are the vidoes of Episode 1- Shraddhanjali, and Episode 2- Prem from YouTube. Many more episodes has already been uploaded in YouTube.

Very good attempt to spread the compositions of Tagore (Rabindra sangeet) in whole country. Without translation it was not possible. At first any Bengalee would feel slightly odd while watching the programme (i.e.- listening to the Hindi version of the original Bengali songs). But when we think that people of other states will be deprived of these beautiful songs if they are not translated, then the reason behind Hindi translation starts to make sense to us.

Wish more of such novel attempt in future from Doordarshan.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:- The Film (1954)

The name itself is so famous! Jules Verne was indeed a visionary! His concepts and ideas were truly far ahead of his time.

I have read the story in my childhood and watched the film recently. It was first science fiction film, made in 1954, shot in Cinemascope. The film was produced by Walt Disney and directed by Richard Fleischer. Kirk Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre are the main actors. 

The search for a sea monster brings a scientist and his attendant and a harpooner to the submarine- Nautilus of the famous character Captain Nemo.

Gradually the scientist comes to realise the bitterness Capt Nemo has inside him, how he hates colonisation/ the powerful dominance of one country on the other.

We become amazed by all the inventions made by Capt Nemo and his team, how they use all natural products in their everyday life in the ship.

They go through many adventures which also include fighting with a giant squid, such a memorable scene! In the end, we see Nautilus gets attacked and Captain Nemo destroys all his inventions so that they do not fall in the wrong hands. Only the scientist and the harpooner comes alive from the water following the vast destruction. 

After watching the film we feel sad thinking how all those inventions which were destroyed could have helped mankind in many ways. Science could have used them according to the need of the society. But in his frustration Capt Nemo decided not to share his inventions with society. Thus the world lost a great talent and all his valuable inventions. 

Capt Nemo's character, so strikingly different from others, gets etched permanently in our memory. 

Prabanchak- A Compilation of Two Bengali Novels by Narayan Sanyal

Prabanchak is a collection of two books- Monalisar Preme and Prabanchak. Both are real life incidents which deal with the theme of theft and fraud in the world of painting.

Monalisar Preme tells us about the theft of the famous painting Monalisa by Leonardo da Vinci. How a person named Vincenzo Peruggia stole the original painting and  later how it was found and returned to the original place, that is Louvre of Paris.

The story tells us about the process of how fake paintings were made by an art dealer. How he managed to cheat many persons and also about the simple minded Peruggia, who lived in his own world, had talent in painting and how his world changed completely after the theft.

Later I read about them from the internet and came to know more details about the case, I felt like reading a mystery novel :)

Prabanchak is the story where some paintings by an artist (Han van Meegeren), is made to look like original paintings by another famous artist Johannes Vermeer, about selling those paintings and at the end how the painter gets caught. Tragic thing is that the public/ court did not believe that the paintings were originally drawn by him for the purpose of giving a fitting reply to one of his critics that he had such a great talent in painting.

I knew about Thomas Chatterton of English Literature, who did something like this, writing poems like old days and sending them to get recognised as historical work- and also his pathetic end, that he could not accept the fact that the authorities did not believe it to be his own original work. Here, the writer Narayal Sanyal also has mentioned this incident at the end of Prabanchak to show the similarity in both the cases.

At the conclusion, Narayan Sanyal talks us about both the stories- the disappointment faced by the main protagonists, their struggle / aim in life and whether they had achieved it or not.

It was a new kind if book to me as I have never read anything on paintings, except the theory classes we attended in neighbourhood drawing class while in school. Enjoyed the topic. Came to know so much about the world of painting. And about the famous theft of Monalisa and the attempt to copy others work in one's own work and claiming them to others. So complex thinking naturally brings a bitter result, as faced by Han van Meegeren.

(Here I have uploaded the cover photo of Prabanchak, 2013 edition by Dey's Publishing. Photo is used for the purpose of appreciation only. No personal profit intended.)