Here are the cover pages of some news magazines and front pages of newspapers covering the tragedy. Journalism students, practitioners and teachers may note how a major disaster is covered in print media, content wise and lay out wise.
Friday, 15 May 2015
50 Great Indian Cartoonists | Chittaprosad Bhattacharya
50 Great Indian Cartoonists | Dr.
Mrinal Chatterjee
Chittaprosad Bhattacharya
Chittaprosad Bhattacharya is
India’s most recognized political artist of the mid-20th century. He preferred
watercolor and printmaking, avoiding oil on canvas. Chittaprosad used prints to
disseminate leftist ideas and propaganda. He also drew scathing cartoons depicting the
condition of the downtrodden.
Chittaprosad's Bhattacharya's
works reflect his reformist concerns. They are a depiction of the images that
were his preoccupation --- poor peasants and laborers. His hard-hitting
caricatures and sketches of the poor dying in the Bengal famine (1943) worked
like modern day reportage, and shook the middle class and the British officials
out of their apathy.
He was born in Naihati, North 24
Parganas District, West Bengal on June 15, 1915. His father, a government officer, was an amateur
pianist, and his mother a poet.
He studied in Chittagong Govt.
College, Bangladesh from 1932 to 1936. While he was a student he was initiated into
left wing political philosophy. He joined the grassroots movement to resist
both colonial oppression by the British, and also the feudal oppression of the
landed Indian gentry. Chittaprosad rejected the classicism of the Bengal School
and its spiritual preoccupations. Due to
his refusal to accept the discriminations of the caste system, Chittaprosad
never used his Brahminical surname during his life. He wrote articles and
produced incisive cartoons and illustrations that displayed a natural talent
for draughtsmanship. He was not trained in arts in any institutional set up. He
was a self-taught artist. It was the village sculptors and the puppet-players
who inspired him. It is interesting to know that he was once refused admission
in the Government School of Art, Kolkata and the Kala Bhawan, Santiniketan.
Career
Chittaprosad’s most creative
years began in the 1930s. He satirized and sharply criticized the feudal and
colonial systems in quickly drawn but masterful pen and ink sketches. The
artist/reformer was also proficient at creating linocuts and woodcuts with
obvious propagandistic intent. Since these cheaply made prints were created for
the masses rather than the art gallery, they were seldom signed or numbered.
With time they took on value as art, and today are prized by collectors.
In 1943 Chittaprosad covered the
Bengal Famine for various communist publications. This resulted in his first
publication, Hungry Bengal. It was a
sharply provocative attack on the political and social powers of the time, and
the authorities suppressed it nearly immediately, impounding and destroying
large numbers. He drew first attention,
by his powerful, sensitive, black and white drawings of Bengal famine, he
reported the horror he witnessed. His drawings were published in the then
Communist Party journals like Peoples War and Janayudha. His reports were also
published in English as a pamphlet titled Hungry Bengal, by the Peoples
Publishing House, Bombay.
Style
Chittaprosad was the leader of a
distinct trend in the National Art Movement of India. He was an artist of the
people- the great multitude of India; poverty ridden, exploited, and the
victims of every possible circumstance, but of unbounded vitality, keepers of
its unique cultural heritage with a legacy of hundreds of years of stoic
survival against all odds. His works varied from time to time, responding to
the subjects he was dealing with. The main theme of his works revolved around
the society he was living in, in fact he picturised the darker side of life,
which seemed to be very expressionistic. His style is not blindly realistic; it
has a folk feeling, as well as a complete affinity with the forms integral to
the people. A self-taught artist, he experimented constantly with the art of
picture making. A master of many forms, he quickly adapted to the need of the
times and switched to simpler lines and fewer exaggerations of forms.
Later Years
He moved to Bombay to work for
the Left Press. He did many works depicting the Telangana Peasents armed
struggle against the Nizams tyrannical regime in Hyderabad. Chittaprosad
settled more permanently in Bombay from 1946 onward. The transformations that
the Communist Party took between 1948 and 1949 caused the artist to
disassociate himself, though he continued to pursue political themes in his art
to the end of his life. In the late 1940s, Chittaprosad dissociated himself
from the Party but his political commentary continued through his linocuts and
cartoons, Uncle Sam and corrupt politicians and businessmen being his
predictable targets.
In the 1950s, he moved to Bombay
and did innumerable illustrations for children’s books and also the poster of
Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin.
In the 1960s he learnt the
techinques of Czech puppetry from Mr. Frantisek Salaba, a Czech amateur
puppeteer who lived in Bombay. He rejuvenated the traditional puppet theatre by
founding his own Khela Ghar, where he introduced modern themes in traditional
art forms.
In the years before his death,
the artist devoted more and more time to the world peace movement, and various
efforts to help impoverished children.
He never went abroad, never married. Living
in a one-room apartment called Ruby Terrace in Andheri, Mumbai, Bhattacharya’s
house had books, a dog and a cat. Dressed in a vest and lungi, he would recite
the poems of Stéphane Mallarme, Friedrich Hölderlin and Rainer Maria Rilke (in
at least two photographs, he is seen in a torn vest). He cooked his own food;
the stove and dinner plates were stacked under the bed, next to his paintings.
Bhattacharya
passed away in Kolkata in 1978. He died of chronic
bronchitis at age 63.
He is represented in the National Museum, Prague, The National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, Osians Art Archive, Mumbai, and the Jane and Kito de Boer Collection, Dubai. His works have been exhibited in several counties of the world including Czechoslovakia (Prague, where his first major exhibition was held), Denmark, Holland, Germany, Copenhagen and USA.
**
16.9.2014
mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com
Job Opportunities at OTV, Bhubaneswar
Job Opportunities at OTV, Bhubaneswar
There are some vacancies in news desk, reporting in Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and also news anchoring in OTV.
Opportunities for both freshers as well as mid-level experienced candidates.
Contact: Radhamadhav Mishra, Input Editor, OTV
E mail- radhamadhab.mishra@odishatv.in
There are some vacancies in news desk, reporting in Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and also news anchoring in OTV.
Opportunities for both freshers as well as mid-level experienced candidates.
Contact: Radhamadhav Mishra, Input Editor, OTV
E mail- radhamadhab.mishra@odishatv.in
Stalwarts of Odia Journalism | Balakrushna Kar
Published in fortnightly Samadrusti, 1-15 and 16-31 May 2015.
Thursday, 14 May 2015
Article: Why Children's Films are important?
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Stars:
Why Children's Films are important?
Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee
Let me at
the beginning of the essay tell the readers what am I going to attempt to
discuss. I shall try to discuss the importance of Children’s Films, especially now,
in the age of Internet and social media, when children have easy access to
almost unlimited kinds of visuals.
But before I
go any further, let me make one thing clear.
What do we mean by Children’s Film?
Children's
films refer to films that are made specifically for children. It may appeal or
even endeared by general audience, but its target audience are children.
Children’s films may or may not have child protagonists. It may or may not even
have a child-centred theme or story line. The basic premise for Children’s
Films is: it is for the children. It could be for entertainment of for
education or even for information or a combination of all three in an
aesthetically pleasing and satisfying way.
Children's films come in several major forms
like fantasy, war, musicals, literary adaptations or even contemporary tales.
The operating principle is: it should be made for children as audience. The
theme may be lofty, but the treatment, presentation and language should be
appealing and palatable to the children.
Why Children’s’ Films?
Children’s
films, like stories or plays for children are primarily for entertainment by
the children. However, it serve other purposes too. Children have fertile mind.
The curiosity quotient is much higher. They want to explore more, know more, and
imagine more. Stories, songs, visuals partially fulfill this curiosity and
create a craving for more. It helps shape children’s aesthetic sensibility,
hones their questioning ability, and subtly helps to build their value system.
What is the scene in India?
India has
had a long tradition of storytelling and theatre. But for children, there have
been more stories than theatre. There could be several reasons for that,
primary being financial (Children could be excellent audience, but when it
comes to paying for the performance, one needs paying audience and therefore
there would be more theatre for general audience).
Probably
because of the same reasons, or probably some other reasons, to be discussed
later Children’s Films have not been as widespread in India as other genre of
Films. Considering India is the largest producer of feature films in the world
(about 1000 films a year), the number of Children’s Films it produces is
woefully less- just about a dozen or so.
Why the scene is not encouraging?
As I said,
the primary reason, why Children’s Films have not taken the fancy of mainstream
cinema producers in India is commercial: Children’s Films do not yield the kind
of income other kind of cinema does. There could be exceptions, but that is the
general perception.
There are
other reasons as well. Though India does not have dearth of stories, but there
is definitely a dearth of good screen play writers and directors to translate
the stories into watchable entertaining films. Making a Children’s Film warrants
different kind of sensibility and skill on the part of the director and of
course courage by the producer, both of which are in short supply.
What has been done?
The realization that Children’s Films are important and it
should be encouraged- dawned fairly early in India. Children's Film Society
India (CFSI) was founded soon after India's independence by Pandit Jawahar Lal
Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, whose affection for children is well
known. Pandit Nehru established CFSI with the hope that indigenous and
exclusive cinema for children would stimulate their creativity, compassion and
critical thinking. It started functioning from 1955 to produce, exhibit and
distribute quality content for children: from feature films, shorts, animations
to television episodes and documentaries. Over the years some of the brightest
talents of Indian Cinema – Mrinal Sen, Satyen Bose, Tapan Sinha, K Abbas, Shyam
Benegal, MS Sathyu, Sai Paranjpe, Budhdhadeb Dasgupta, Santosh Sivan, Ram
Mohan, Rituparno Ghosh and Pankaj Advani to name a few – have directed films
for CFSI.[1]
From 2014, CFSI has been organizing National Children Film
Festival. The first such festival was organized in Delhi from 14th to 16th
November 2014. An extension of this festival was Organised at Udaipur,
Rajasthan from 29th to 31 st March 2015.
CFSI also organizes biennial International Children's Film
Festival India (ICFFI) popularly known as, 'The Golden Elephant besides
organizing Children’s Film Festival in across the country.
Despite the efforts of the Govt. the sad fact remains,
Children’s Films scenario in India is not as bright and as vibrant as it should
have been, considering the fact that India has 400 million child (between 5 to
18 years of age).
What could be done?
The scene
could change dramatically if we are aware of the importance of Children’s films
not only in providing entertainment but in the overall development of children.
The Govt. is
doing its bit. It could do more, of course like organizing of help organizing
more Children’s Film Festivals, patronizing making of Children’s Films.
However, we,
ordinary citizens, members of civil society can probably do more about this.
We need to
encourage our children to watch good films meant for them. In an age of
Internet and social media they have access to unlimited number of kinds of
visuals, many of which are not good for them. So they need to be oriented to
towards good films, which are entertaining and also helpful for them. Parents
need to help their children in choosing the films they should watch. Parents
need not be overtly didactic. They should always have this mind that children
mostly watch movie for entertainment. So the entertainment quotient must be
high.
Civil
Society organizations, educational institutions may organize small Film
Festivals (these days it has become logistically and financially easier to
organize one) for children and also organize related hands on activities for
the children so that the fun quotient increases and children crave for more
such festivals. Creating a buzz around Children’s Films will make it more
attractive for the children and probably also for the adults, as it is often
said, there is a child in every adult.
***
Sanchar
Marg, Dhenkanal 759 001
26.4.2015
About the author: The
author a journalist turned media academician presently heads the eastern India
campus of Indian Institute of mass Communication (IIMC) located at Dhenkanal,
Odisha.
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Information: Jagate Thiba Jetedina Audio CD Vol 7 to be released on 17 May
Jagate Thiba Jetedina Audio CD Vol 7 will be released on 17 May in Bhubaneswar at Kalinga Literature Festival. Rendered in the voice of Mrunal the CD has 10 selected pieces from his popular column of the same name being published in Samaja Saptahika from 2006.
One can hear these on www.odiaradio.com from 17 May afternoon.
The first volume of the book Jagate Thiba Jetedina has been published in 2010. The second volume in under print.
To get the book and/or CD, one may contact sephalicommunications@yahoo.com
One can also order on line through www.odikart.com
One can hear these on www.odiaradio.com from 17 May afternoon.
The first volume of the book Jagate Thiba Jetedina has been published in 2010. The second volume in under print.
To get the book and/or CD, one may contact sephalicommunications@yahoo.com
One can also order on line through www.odikart.com
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