Kumartuli or Kumortuli is located in the northern part of the city of Kolkata . The locality is a traditional habitat of the potters for nearly three hundred years. The potters or the artisans or the artists settled here during the restructuring of the Kolkata colonial region by the British East India Company . Earning a livelihood by making earthen pots and utensils first they gradually shifted to the making of the idols of Gods and Goddesses for various festivals round the year. With increasing demand and quality of their creations over time the artisans became famous and Kumartuli came to be known as the hub of idol makers supplying thousands of idols, particularly of Goddess Durga , to whole of the state of West Bengal and to NRIs of around 90 countries across the globe. At least three months before Durga Puja , the biggest festival of West Bengal and one of the biggest across Eastern India, more than five hundred workshops come alive with hyper activity day and night. Fir...
The Amazon original movie ‘ Sharmaji Namkeen ’ (Savory Mr. Sharma) that released on Prime Video on 31 st March 2022 is all about one of the greatest actors of Bollywood —the lovable romantic hero since the seventies who started graduating to endearing and at times intense performances in character roles since the 2000s— Rishi Kapoor . The movie actually reminds us how dearly we miss the stalwart who passed away on 30 th April, 2020. Rishi Kapoor after being cast in the titular role in this movie and shooting started accordingly fell seriously ill. He had to undergo prolonged treatment in the US. Movie director Hitesh Bhatia and the producers waited for him to get well and return to the shoots. It was just impossible to replace him. His tremendous actor-son Ranbir Kapoor said how eager too was his father to complete the film. Rishi Kapoor did get well, returned to India by the end of 2019 and the shooting schedule started anew from December. Sadly, it was short lived. The superstar f...