Emerging artistes recognised; 3 celebrated Anwars given Lifetime Achievement Award
Zahangir Alom
This year’s Celebrating Life winners pose with Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad and Standard Chartered Bank CEO Jim McCabe during the gala evening at Shaheed Suhrawardy National Indoor Stadium yesterday. Photo: Star
Eager crowds flocked to the sixth award giving ceremony of “Celebrating Life,” — a Standard Chartered Bank-The Daily Star tie-up — to honour talents in photography, lyrics and film. This year’s theme was “Empowerment of Women.”
Jointly hosted by Iffat Nawaz and Tropa Majumdar, the gala programme began with a choral rendition of the song “Nari” written by Rayhana Parvin, who won the first prize in the lyrics contest. Labik Kamal Gourab composed the song, while nine singers — Shojib, Limon, Pantho Kanai, Prithviraj, Orko, Waqeel, Parvez, Joy and Gourab performed it on the stage.
Cultural Affairs Minister Abul Kalam Azad graced the occasion as chief guest. Managing Editor of The Daily Star, Salehuddin Ahmed, and CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Jim McCabe, also spoke at the event at the Shaheed Suhrawardy National Indoor Stadium in Mirpur.
Azad said: “Standard Chartered–The Daily Star Celebrating Life” is a unique competition. I would like to congratulate the award winners and the organisers of this creative and commendable event. The theme for this year’s competition is ‘Empowerment of Women’ best suited to the present context as Bangladesh has done very well in women and children issues. I would also like to urge all the winners to represent Bangladesh positively through their creative works.”
This year’s lifetime achievement award went to three eminent personalities — actor Anwar Hossain (posthumous), photographer Anwar Hossain and musician Gazi Mazharul Anwar for their outstanding contributions to the respective fields. A visual presentation showcasing life and works of the three were screened at the event. Sadia Khalid compiled the audio-visuals.
Gazi Mazharul Anwar who wrote the song “Joy Bangla Banglar Joy” urged the cultural minister to ward off all the “evil cultures” from the society.
Award winners in photography category are Shabbir Ferdous (first), Mahfuzul Hasan Bhuiyan (second) and Ismail Ferdous (third); while in lyrics category the winners are Rayhana Parveen (first), Hasan Najmul (second) and Tapan Bagchi (third).
Probal Rashid, Ibrahim Khalil, Noor Ahmed Gelal, M Yousuf Tushar, Nasir Uddin and Tarek Ahmed received awards for their photographs in honourable mention category. Awards for lyrics in honourable mention category went to Shah Alam Sony, Bilal Hossain Nuri, Mohammad Shahidullah, OR Sihab, Khurshid Alam Babu, Rafiq Muazzim and Rabiul Hussain. Fazle Hasan Shishir received award for his film in honourable mention category.
The award ceremony over, the packed hall awaited for the performance of classical music by four noted Bangladeshi artistes — Rezwan Ali Lablu, Priyanka Gope, Sheuli Bhattacharjee and Nishit Dey, along with riveting dance presentations by the artistes of Shadhona.
Violinist Sheuli Bhattacharjee led a 13-member troupe named “Sporsho Classical Orchestra” to perform a superb recital set on raga “Yaman,” pertaining to “thaat Kalyan”.
Vocalist Rezwan Ali Lablu performed a “kheyal” set on raga “Shahana Kanada”. The artiste also presented a “bandish”-based on raga “Kirwani” at the event. Another vocalist Priyanka Gope rendered a kheyal based on raga “Jog” while promising sitarist Nishit Dey presented raga “Charukeshi”.
The event was coordinated by Star Showbiz editor Rafi Hossain, while Channel i was the media partner.
Source: The Daily Star