EAGARO - A TRUE STORY MUST BE WATCH

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly and veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, apart from the members of the Mohun Bagan Club were present at the premiere of the film.

Soumitra Chatterjee said, “It was pleasure to watch the movie, and it is really wonderful that the players can act so well.”

A number of players from Mohun Bagan club acted in this movie.

Directed by Arun Ray and produced by Magic Hour entertainment, the story of the film is based on pre-independence era, when the people irrespective of their caste, creed and religion came to watch the Mohun Bagan club’s victory over the dominating British clubs like Rangers and St. Xaviers.

Speaking on the film. director Arun Ray said that the movie was a result of hard work by both the players as well as the technicians.

The movie on the ‘immortal eleven’ of 1911 IFA Shield-winning Mohun Bagan team, will hit the silver screen on Jan 21.

Magic Hour Entertainment's Egaro - The Immortal XI is an upcoming Bangla movie celebrating the best of Indian soccer (football) and the July 29, 1911 historic victory of the Calcutta-based Indian team of Mohun Bagan against the British East Yorkshire Regiment, thus winning Mohun Bagan the IFA Shield for the first time ever. The film is directed by Arun Roy and produced by Anilava Chatterjee.

EGARO features music by the folk band MOKAM (Mayukh - Mainak) known for their unique and innovative sound rooted in folk and tribal music of Bengal. The lyricist of the film songs is Sumanta Choudhury.

Watch a video of and listen to producer Anilabha Chatterjee talking to Subhomoy Mukherjee, WBRi correspondent, in an informal and intimate interview online by pressing the play button above.
Subhomoy writes:

EGARO - The Immortal XI (2010) Kolkata Bengali New Movie Poster

Anilabho Chatterjee started his career as a journalist. Then he liked to cover the sports, eventually he felt in love with sports and till date, even as a producer of popular television events, he likes to do programs on sports, even the programs with celebrity sports persons.

At the same time he loves to promote the sports prodigies of Bengal villages. With that conception he has started his career in Television as producer of “Das Minute r Khel” which is a program of 10 minutes but very popular among Bengali households as the program helps needy Bengali young sport talents to come in lime light.

But his most successful program was “Dadagiri” – a reality show anchored by our very own Sourav Ganguly – the most successful captain of Indian Cricket. Dadagiri broke all the records of popularity of Indian Television and Sourav achieved the honour of best anchor last year. Due to that popularity, he is planning to start second edition of Dadagiri very soon.

At the same time he has madder another popular sports program “ Extra Time”

His another achievement is “ Ke hobe biggest fan” which is the most talked Talk Show of yester months of Bengali Television with star host Anurag Basu and his celebrity guests.

But Anilabho Chatterjee is in lime light now due to “Egaro” – the feature film he has made to celebrate 100th year of winning of IFA shield by Mohunbagan as 1st Indian club by defeating a British Team Yorkshire.

Egaro has caught the madness, dedication and patriotism of then India against ruler British through that Soccer match played by bare feet Mohunbagan with Yorkshire.

Egaro, dealing with a different kind of subject, will release very soon and we hope that Egaro should be a popular project due to the subject.

Concept & Direction: Arun Roy
Producer: Anilava Chatterjee
Director Of Photography: Gopi Bhagat
Production Designer: Indranil Ghosh
Editor:Shyamal Karmakar
Script: Dipannita Ghosh
Casting Director: Dipak Halder
Music Director: MOKAM (Mayukh Mainak)
Lyricist: Sumanta Choudhury
Background Score: Arijit Singh

INDIA LOST TO S.KOREA THEIR FINAL GAME

South Korean young gun Son Heung-min celebrates by making a heart-shape with his hands after netting the fourth goal of the game in a 4-1 win against India in the final Group C match in the Asian Cup. South Korea will meet Iran in the quarterfinals at 1:25 a.m. Sunday (KST). / Yonhap


i Dong scored twice as South Korea sealed their place in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011 quarter-finals with a 4-1 win over India.

But Korean team will rue an excess of missed chances as Australia's 1-0 victory over Bahrain condemned them to second place in Group C on goal difference to set up a last eight clash with Iran.

South Korea took the lead in the 6’ as Ji Dong gave the Koreans the lead. In the 9’ Koo Ja-Cheol gave the Koreans a 2-0 lead. India pulled one back in the 12’ as Sunil Chhetri scored from a spot-kick. Again in the 23’ Ji Dong scored his second and team’s third goal.

In the second half South Korea scored another goal in the 81’ as Son Heung scored. South Koreans could have scored another five to six goals, but a wonderful performance by Subrata Paul and by the Indian defenders denied South Korea to score more goals.

In the closing stage Sunil Chhetri got a wonderful chanced but South Korean Goal Keeper Jung’s double save did not do any damage to the scoresheet.

Best Performer for India : Subrata Paul.

India Lost To Baharin 5-2

India produced a dominant performance in the second half but went down fighting 2-5 against Bahrain in their second group match of the Asian Cup football tournament here today.


India, who lost to Australia 0-4 in their first match, trailed 1-4 at the breather but came back strongly in the second half. to show that they are no pushovers though there is 51 places difference in the FIFA rankings between the two teams with Bahrain at 93rd.

With this loss, India expectedly were eliminated from the competition though they have one more match -- against South Korea on January 18.

Bahrain striker Ismaeel Abdul Latif scored the tournament’s first hat-trict, finding the target four times inthe 16th, 19th, 35th and 77th minutes after his team-mate Faouzi Aaish had opened the account for his side in the eighth minute.

For India, Gouramangi Singh and Sunil Chhetri scored in the ninth and 51st minutes in the Group C match at the Al Sadd Stadium here.

In a fast-paced match, India tried to match their more fancied rivals, who missed out the bus for 2010 world Cup inplay-off, but a goal-keeper miss judgment and constant pressure from their opponents saw them wilt and trail 1-4 at half time.

Strikers Chhetri and Abhishek Yadav, who started in place of Mohammed Rafi today, troubled the opposition defence many times.

Sunil Chetri, in particular, was in the thick of things missed on a couple of chances. But not a good day for him.

Indian badly need well built striker. Why India not gave citizenship to Odafa, Tolgey, Okpara, Pen, Beto. Every team has foreign flavor. Why not India?

India scored one goal through Chhetri in the second half, but they failed to use the opportunity of one-man advantage from the 62nd minute onwards and score more.

Bahrain''s first goal scorer Faouzi Aatish was sent off by Malaysian referee Mohammed Abdul Razaq after he was booked forthe second time in the match for diving without any foul.

Instead, India conceded a goal against the run of play to widen the margin of loss.

With this win, Bahrain, who lost to South Korea 1-2 in their opening match, stayed in contention for a quarter final berth. Ranked seventh in Asia, Bahrain play Australia on January 18.

The Indian defence of Gouramangi Singh, Anwar, SurkumarSingh and Syed Rahim Nabi were troubled by the fast Bahraini strike duo of John Jaycee and Abdul Latif several times in the first half. .

Best Performer for India: Subrata Paul and Gourmangi

Gourmangi singh has been awarded AIFF Footballer of the year 2010 ..

The All India Football Federation (AIFF), on Tuesday, named Churchill Brothers’ Gourmangi Singh the 2010 Player of the Year.

The central defender, who is currently with the India team in Doha for the Asian Cup, was selected after consultations with the national coach Bob Houghton and the technical committee, said a press release from the AIFF.

The Manipur boy, who started his career as a defensive midfielder and was struggling to find a regular place in Sporting Clube de Goa, came on his own after he joined Churchill in 2007.

While the then Churchill coach Karim Bencherifa’s insistence to play Gourmangi as a stopper back brought a huge change in his career, Houghton also included him in his pre-Olympic and national squads. Since then, Gourmangi has been playing with great consistency.

Asian Cup: India 0 Australia 4

Tim Cahill

Australia crushed India 4-0 to get their Asian Cup campaign Monday with Everton star Tim Cahill collecting two goals.

Played at an Al-Sadd Stadium packed with noisy expatriate Indians, Indian team ranked 142 in the world. The lowest ranked team in this tournament. But Indian team played well without Bhaichung Bhutia.

They comfortably delivered with the dangerous Cahill, playing up front as the lone striker, a constant threat.

He got the opener in the 11th minute before former Liverpool man Harry Kewell made it 2-0 14 minutes later.

Brett Holman added a third on the stroke of half-time before Cahill completed the demolition in the second period.

In breezy conditions, both sides began slowly with Australia getting the first sniff of goal on nine minutes when Holman looped the ball in to Blackburn's Brett Emerton, who fired straight at the goalkeeper Subrata Paul.Subrata was brillient. So saved at least 3-4 goals.

Emerton looked suspiciously offside when he was put through on the right but the flag stayed down and he sent a low cross into the six-yard box, where Cahill was lurking to bury the ball in the back of the net.

Rank outsiders India, in the tournament for the first time in 27 years, were out of their depth but got a look at goal when captain Climax Lawrence's shot from 25 yards drifted well wide of the post soon after.

Australia should have been 2-0 up on 20 minutes when Cahill headed home but he was adjudged offside by UAE referee Ali Al Badwawi. Replays suggested the goal should have stood.

They made amends just minutes later when Luke Wilkshire found Kewell in space just outside the penalty area and the Galatasaray midfielder clinically drilled the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.

With Fulham's Mark Schwarzer having nothing to do in the Australian goal, a third goal almost came on the half-hour with Cahill in the thick of the action again.

India were struggling to contain him and he went close once again when he chested down a long ball and half-volleyed it just over the bar.

The third goal was inevitable and it came just before half-time when Holman got his head on the end of an Emerton cross after some good build-up work.

Australia began the second-half in total control and Cahill got his second in the 65th minute when he out-jumped four defenders to meet a Wilkshire cross and angle his header past the goalkeeper.

Vocal to the point of fanatical at any foray into their side’s attacking half, India’s supporters almost had a consolation goal to celebrate when star striker Sunil Chhetri beat the off-side trap to run onto a ball inside the area in the 84th minute.

India, with Englishman Bob Houghton in charge, now have their work cut out with Group C clashes against mighty South Korea and a very capable Bahrain still awaiting them.

Australia face the Koreans on January 14 in a match that could determine who finishes top of the group.

Indian Star performer of the day was Syed Nabi and Subrata Paul. Any way Indian are played bravely i can say. Sunil Chetri

Bhaichung ruled out of Asian Cup

India skipper and striker Bhaichung Bhutia has been ruled out of the AFC Asian Cup because of a calf muscle injury.

Bhutia, has been injured for some months.

As a result of Bhutia's absence, Sushil Kumar singh may get chance to start with Sunil chettri in upfront in the first match against Australia on 10th in absence of Baichung Bhutia.

Climax Lawrance may be the proposed Captain of the Team. Baichung may be present as an official of Indian team.

INDIA'S SUCCESS IN INTERNATIONAL SOCCER

YEAR TOURNAMENT POSITION

1951 Asian Games WINNER
1952 Quadrangular Cup WINNER
1953 Quadrangular Cup WINNER
1954 Quadrangular Cup WINNER
1954 Olynpic Tournament 4th Position
1955 Quadrangular Cup WINNER
1959 Mardeka Cup Runners
1962 Asian Games WINNER
1964 Asia Cup Runners
1964 Mardeka Cup Runners
1965 Mardeka Cup 3rd Position
1966 Mardeka Cup 3rd Position
1970 Mardeka Cup 3rd Position
1970 Asian Games 3rd Position
1971 Pesta Sukan Cup Joint Winners
1974 Asian Youth Football Joint Winners
1985 SAF GAMES WINNER
1987 SAF GAMES WINNER
1993 SAF GAMES Runners
1993 SAF Cup WINNER
1995 SAF GAMES WINNER
1997 SAF Football WINNER
1999 SAF Football WINNER
2002 L G Cup WINNER
2003 Afro-Asian Games Runners
2005 SAF Football WINNER
2007 Nehru Cup WINNER
2008 SAF Football Runners
2008 AFC Challengers Cup WINNER
2009 Nehru Cup WINNER
2010 SAF Football WINNER

** India reached in the Semi-final of 1956 Melbourne Olympic

India Football: Our chance at Doha against Asian giants ?

Watching World Cup is always a great feeling. Now that the month-long football’s showpiece event is over, I am back to the basics: Indian football.

As Indian team face a real test of strength (at the Asian Cup next year at Doha), the federation have released couple of international assignments for the team. The team is currently based in Portugal and are going through the grinds. But some have already raised queries and doubts about Indian team composition. Most of the senior players are over the hills. Some are nurshing injuries. And some don’t even deserve a place in the squad. Yet, we are spending crores on tours which I’m sure would fetch little or nothing for Bob Houghton and India. In my earlier article on Korea and Indian football, I had talked about the youth development. So, why didn’t the Federation spend some on the grassroot projects and the rest on tours, I wonder.

During the World Cup, lot of people wanted to know why we don’t qualify. Why we don’t make a good team? I was a bit flummoxed. Because I never knew that Indian football team has so many followers. Everybody were awestruck when they were told that India would be playing in Asia’s biggest and top event in January next year. But it’s going to be harsh a reality for India which surprisingly hasn’t seen any change in the team composition.

I still fail to understand why coach Bob Houghton has to stick with the same players. Why he has failed to bring in new faces during the last four years? At one end, he has been talking about being ‘fair’ when it comes to contract dispute. His recent spat with the Federation almost brought India’s Asian Cup preparation to a dead halt. But aren’t we giving him too much power in team selection? Let’s not just sit back and discuss what we did in last summer (Nehru Cup win). Australia, South Korea, and even Bahrain will prove quite a handful for our veteran warhorses.

There are players in this current Indian squad who don’t even deserve a place. I don’t want to name them. But Bob wants them in his scheme of planning because he he hasn’t found a replacement for them. Quite strange though because a youth development programme under Colin Toal already exists. So I guess he hasn’t been able to develop a sync with the youth development programme.

This has been a perennial problem with the foreign coaches. These gentlemen think they are the best. I’m sure some are really good. But the Federation always lack in confidence when it comes to dealing with these foreign trainers. I don’t know who’s answerable to whom. We don’t even know who does Bob report to. Who reviews his work? Who oversees the grassroot programme?