PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM – 428/06/2015

BISWAJIT SARMA, NALBARI COLLEGE

• When asked about the inspiration for his new film, director Sharat Katariya said that he got the idea from a poster about unusual and weird sports.

• "I got the idea from a poster about unusual sports and one of them was wife-carrying competition. I thought it would be interesting if the husband was thin while the wife was on the heavier side. Somehow, the thought stayed with me," Sharat said.

• Enough clues given, identify the film in the question.

• Whose portrait by whom? It was painted in 1924, when the sitter was 25 years old.

Portrait of Luis Bunuel by Salvador Dali.

• This short novel, published in 1934, was quite successful and notorious upon publication, and is regarded as one of the more important crime novels of the 20th century. The novel’s influence ranges across genre and time. Albert Camus was so impressed with the book that he changed his seminal novel, The Outsider, to first-person narration.

• The novel also spawned a few films, notably the 1946 adaptation that stands out as an early and one of the best example of film noir. Although the film was a big hit at the box-office, it received no nominations or awards.

• Identify the novel/film and the writer?

The Postman Always Rings Twice by

James M. Cain.

• Girl, Interrupted is a best-selling 1993 memoir by American author Susanna Kaysen, relating her experiences as a young woman in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. 

• In 1999, it was adapted into a film of the same name starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.

• The title, Girl, Interrupted, is a reference to what?

The painting Girl Interrupted at her Music by Johannes Vermeer.

• As a young girl of seventeen, this legendary Assamese figure attended and addressed the large gathering against the evil effects of opium addiction and demanded an immediate ban on it throughout the state at the Asom Chhatra Sammelan, the Students’ Conference held at Tezpur in 1918.

• In the post- Independence period she became the first woman to have contested elections for the Legislative Assembly in Assam.

• Apart from being a freedom fighter and a social reformer, she was also a writer and a poet of repute. She edited the journal Abhijatri for seven years. Of the several novels written by her, only Pitribhita was published in 1937.

• Who?

Chandrapabha Saikiani.

• Follow up from the last question…

• During the early part of her life, Chandrapabha Saikiani faced untold hardships. Most notably while going to study at a boys’ school which was several miles away from their village with her sister Rameshwari. Seeing their deep interest in pursuing academics, Nila Kanta Barua, the school inspector arranged for scholarships for the two girls at the Nagaon Mission School along with boarding facilities for their higher education. Here not only did Chandraprabha engage herself in serious study, but also inspired her sister Rameshwari to do the same.

• What is her sister Rameshwari’s claim to fame?

Rameshwari, who came to be known as Rajaniprabha went on to become the first

woman doctor of Assam.

• In April, 2007, this artwork by Bansky fetched 288,000 pounds ($576,000) at auction, around 20 times the estimate, setting a new record. It is titled “Space Girl and Bird”.

• Who commissioned this artwork?

• It was actually the second time Bansky worked with them. What was the first project Bansky was commissioned for in 2003 by them?

The Brit-pop band Blur commissioned the artwork.

In 2003, he did the cover art for the seventh studio album Think Tank.

• Identify the singer, a Padmashree winner, and the lyricist, a Sahitya Academy Award winner.

Singer – Dr. Birendra Nath DuttaLyricist – Hiren Bhattacharya

• In 2012, the Portland based company Burnside Brewing Co named a beer brand after Hindu goddess ‘Kali’. After protest in the Indian parliament, the company apologized and canceled the launch of the brand.

• The company, however, in their defense, stated that the inspiration for this beer label came from a favourite childhood movie.

• Which movie?

In fact, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was also banned in India for its "racist portrayal of Indians and

overt imperialistic tendencies."

• The Defenestration of Prague of 1618, also known as the Second Defenestration of Prague (the first took place on July 30, 1419, and provoked the Hussite Wars), refers to the ejection of two Catholic Imperial officials and their secretary out of the Prague Castle's window by the Bohemian Protestant nobles. Although no one got hurt in the incident, the act of the Bohemian Protestants was a clear signal to King of Bohemia and the future Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II that they insist on religious freedom granted to them by the Letter of Majesty.

• This event erupted into one of the most destructive episodes in European history. What?

The Thirty Years’ War.

• In March, 2015, Assam government launched the X Krishak Bondhu Scheme to increase agricultural production by providing facilities and assistance to farmers for double cropping in their lands. It is named in honor of X, who taught the benefits of organised farming for the first time in the State.

• X, born as Sukuti, was an able administrator of the Ahom kingdom. He was also He was also the first Y, a new office created during the rule of the Ahom king Prataap Singha.

• Identify him and the position (X, Y).

X - Momai Tamuli Barbaruah,Y – Barbaruah.

• X, which means "dark cities" or "dark castles" is a large area of unusually shaped lava fields east of Mývatn in Iceland. The area is composed of various volcanic caves and rock formations. The structures are one of Iceland's most popular natural tourist attractions.

• In Icelandic folklore, this place is said to connect earth with the infernal regions. In Nordic Christian lore, it is also said that this is where Satan landed.

• Which black metal band that formed in 1993 is named after this place?

Dimmu Borgir.

• Known for his intense screen presence and portrayal of gruff characters, this legendary actor had fans around the world. Among them was Star Wars creator George Lucas, who reportedly offered him the roles of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader when casting the first film in the series.

• Who?

Toshiro Mifune.He will get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this year

alongside Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper and Quentin Tarantino.

• “MacSpaunday” was a name invented by Roy Campbell, in his Talking Bronco (1946), to designate a composite figure made up of the four poets. Campbell, in common with much literary journalism of the period, imagined that the four were a group of like-minded poets, who shared certain left-wing views and produced important works in the 1930s. He elsewhere implied that the four were homosexual, which was not true.

• Two of these four poets are : Louis MacNeice ("Mac") and Stephen Spender ("sp").

• Who were the other two, ("au-n") and ("day")?

W. H. Auden ("au-n")Cecil Day-Lewis ("day“).

• Clip from the movie Night at the Museum : Secret of the Tomb.

• Identify the work of art and its artist, referenced in the clip.

video

Relativity by M. C. Escher.

• This is Filmfare magazine cover dated April 2, 1954 featuring the first Filmfare Award winners.

• Identify all three awardees.

Bimal Roy (Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture), Meena Kumari (Best Actress) and Naushad Ali (Best Music Director). L-R