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Video PlayerClose BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of 135 selected short films themed on core socialist values were published Saturday at a ceremony in Beijing. The short films were chosen from 3,136 works submitted during a campaign launched by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, the Cyberspace Administration of China and other organizations. This year's campaign, the third of its kind, centered on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, aiming to convey core socialist values via short films and instill positive energy into society by telling vivid stories showing Chinese people's devotion to work, patriotism and pursuit of their dreams, according to organizers. The selection was made by experts based on the short films' ideological, artistic and aesthetic values, they said. Individual awards were also presented at the ceremony Saturday. … [Read more...] about 135 short films on core socialist values published in China

        Many music directors and singers, including Himesh Reshammiya, Sonu Nigam and Shekhar Ravjiani, have ventured into acting. Following his peers is now music composer Salim Merchant, who recently tested his acting skills in a short film opposite Tillotama Shome. “I have been creating music for as long as I can remember. The music industry is an ocean, and I wanted to drown in it. When I started preparing for my role as an actor, I realised the difficulty I was facing. My heart and soul still lie in music, of course,” says Salim. While most music directors have chosen to do full-fledged films, Salim chose the unconventional route. “I have been approached to do films several times in the past. But I wasn’t comfortable with the roles, as I was being offered small parts. I’ll be honest. For my first acting role, no matter how small, I wanted to play the lead,” he says. READ: Where is our credit: Salim MerchantThe music … [Read more...] about I wanted to play the lead: Salim Merchant on his acting debut

Debjoy Mallick’s short film ‘Mirage’ tries to capture a fraction of a core emotion with four interlinked stories. The short has an ensemble cast including Bharat Kaul, Pratyusha Paul, Mishmee Das, Arunava Dutta, Aparajita Adhya, Laddu, Suvajit Kar, Payel Dutta and Tapas Chakraborty. The first story is about a girl, who has everything she wants and nothing that she needs. Much like us all, a little girl lost in the abyss of over-achievement and over-compensation. The second story revolves around a teacher and her relationship with her mask. Sometimes, we need magic realism to bring us to face our own reality. The third one is designed by fate, like, literally. Meanwhile, the fourth story is a tale of the vanity in rhetoric. We see flip sides of dreams, any kind of dreams. Each of the four stories is woven by surrealism and the content is introspective. “The idea of the film was first conceived 4 years ago. Suddenly like a gush of toxic air, some societal … [Read more...] about Woven by surrealism, ‘Mirage’ is a collage of four stories

        In October 2016, Amitav Ghosh wrote an essay in The Guardian that hinged on a pertinent question: Where is the fiction about climate change? Scientists were losing sleep over the environmental emergency. Newspapers had blaring headlines about it. Even the kids were concerned. Ghosh had just written a climate-related non-fiction book, The Great Derangement. But novels about the subject – the kind with rich storytelling, strong narratives and memorable characters, he said, were missing. He called it “a crisis of culture and of the imagination”. It wasn’t quite that. Novels featuring the changing environment were being written all through the 2000s. They just hadn’t captured the public imagination. You know why? The climate crisis is terrifying. It’s also boring. Bar graphs slowly get redder, line-graphs fluctuate upwards, the prediction models are complicated and no one can quite connect the local crises. Most novels … [Read more...] about Tomorrow is a new chapter: The rise of climate fiction

Swastika Mukherjee is a presence that you would hardly miss. You just can’t move to any of Kolkata’s streets without her adorable face and blue eyes gazing back at you. Be it a billboard advertising, a mobile phone or a film poster, Swastika is undoubtedly one of the city’s most favourite silver-screen divas. As the acting powerhouse celebrates her birthday today here are some interesting facts about the beautiful actress. Have a look. Unique nickname People who are close to Swastika Mukherjee often call her as ‘Bhebli’, a nickname given by her father popular actor Santu Mukherjee. Many believe because of her simplicity and cuteness this unique name was given to her. Despite the strict disciplines in her early days in schools like Carmel School, Kolkata, St. Teresa's Secondary School and Gokhale Memorial School a young Swastika grew up with enough freedom at home which later made her one of the most daredevil names in Bengali film industry. Bonding … [Read more...] about Birthday Special: How well do you know Swastika Mukherjee? Check out these interesting facts