Bangladesh News

A child in a remote village dreams of hovering in the sky like a kite. Holding a wing-shaped kite on his back, he starts running across the muddy village field as if he were about to take off. Unfortunately, the boy slips onto the muddy field and… heaps sighs in a dark corner of his room, his head between his legs.

The frustration does not linger on. His playmates show up and take him out into the filed. They laugh, make more kites and enjoy kite-flying.

A little empathy and encouragement from his little friends refreshes the kid. His playmates now begin dreaming of flying together like kites someday.

These are the sequences of a one-minute film at the award-giving ceremony of Celebrating Life, a film-photography-lyrics contest jointly organised by The Daily Star and Standard Chartered Bank at China Bangladesh Friendship Centre in the city yesterday.

The film renders the theme of the event that a little patronisation and encouragement could help people have their dreams materialised. and thus celebrate progress and prosperity of Bangladesh.

In line with the theme, Celebrating Life awarded grand reception to 27 people following a competition participated by people from people across the country. Awards were given under three categories—photograph, lyrics and film.

Thirteen people were awarded under different sub-categories for photography, while ten were for lyrics–five each in Bangla and English, and four for filmmaking film, subcategorised as documentary and fiction.

The reception got the grand look as hundreds of people—-competitors along with their parents and relatives, and enthusiast in photography, film and lyrics—thronged the venue and entered in a long queue that went zigzagging on the premises of the venue.

Following projection of the film, around 50 dancers performed series of dance themed on Celebration of nature to the rhythm and bit of instruments like flute, Sarod, Setara, and Tabla that enthralled the audience. Eminent dancer Shimul Yousuf directed the colorful dance event.

The following event was announcing the names of winners. Photographer Anwar Hossain, Rafiquzzaman, and Tarique Masud announced the names of awardees for Photography, lyrics and film respectively.

“I was astonished at seeing such a huge entry of photographs on motherland, made in the competition,” said Anwar Hossain just before announcing names of awardees.

“We have a rich past of song. I expect our new generation will come ahead by keeping that spirit in mind. Poet will also come and their poetry will be transformed into lyrics,” said Rafiquzzaman in his speech of announcer.

“This is the first move in which prestigious concerns like The Daily Star and Standard Chartered have come with patronizations for film and caused quite a stir among the youths. And the film sector have been deprived of facilities need such effort or platform to flourish,” said Tarique Masud.

A total of 4,500 photographs were submitted in the competition while about 10,000 lyrics and 97 films were submitted.

As singers Subir Nandi and Mashirur Rahman Pintu sang in a break between announcements of the names of awardees, selected photographs were screened on both the side screens. Some of the photographs were also put on display on the corridor of the venue.

“It was really a delight to see photographs of such beauty. What was not the subject of photographs–kingfisher, river, mother and son, fisherman, kids, dawn, boat competition, Baul and portraits of aged village women and village kids?” said Moumita, a teenage photographer who thronged the venue.

The reception was also attended by advisers, bureaucrats, prominent filmmakers, cultural personalities, actors, sportsman, journalists and their family members.

Chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed hand over prizes to the winners of the contests while cultural adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury, Mr Osman Morad, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh, managing director of Channel i and Impress Telefilm Ltd Faridur Reza Sagor, and Editor of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam were present on the stage.

Chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed inaugurated the photography exhibition on display on the corridor of the venue.

Besides secretaries—information secretary Jamil Osman and home secretary Abdul Karim, filmmaker Tarique Masud and his wife Catherine Masud, cricket player Habibul Bashar, and singer Fakir Alamgir were also present among others while Samina Chowdhury, Fahmida Nabi, Shafin Ahmed, and Sayed Hasan Tipu sang in the ceremony.

Radio Foorti, bangladesh info.com, Channel i and Saptahik 2000 were media partners of the competition.

The competition began in November last year.