ZAHIR RAIHAN Film Fest opens today
Bangladesh Udichi Shilpi Goshthi is organising a two-day film festival beginning tomorrow to mark the 82nd birth anniversary of avant-garde Bangladeshi filmmaker and a torchbearer of progressive cultural movement in pre-Liberation Bangladesh, Zahir Raihan.
The festival, with the theme “Protirodhe Prostut Camera”, will be inaugurated at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy's Music and Dance Centre Auditorium by cultural personality Syed Hasan Imam. Raihan's song, Anol Raihan will be present at the event, along with Udichi's central committee chairman Dr. Shafiuddin Ahmed and Federation of Film Societies Bangladesh general secretary Belayet Hossain Mamun.
The first day's programme will continue from 10am-8:30pm on the opening day, and the second day's proceedings will continue from 10am-2:30pm. Invited guests will discuss various stages of Bangladesh's cinema history and future, and about the life, work and principles of Raihan. The festival will also screen a number of documentary and feature films: Zahir Raihan's “A State is Born”, Tauquir Ahmed's “Oggatonama”, Kamar Ahmed Simon's “Ekti Suta'r Jobanbondi” (“Testimony of a Thread”) and Tanvir Mokammel's “Jibondhuli” on the first day and Projonmo Talkies' short films “Punorabritti” and Uposonghar”, and Zahidur Rahim Anjan's national award-winning “Meghmallar”. All the screenings are open to all.
Mohammad Zahirullah (better known as Zahir Raihan) -- born on August 19, 1935 in a village in Feni -- lived only to be 37, but left his mark in the heart of every patriotic Bangladeshi with his works. After moving back from Kolkata following the partition of 1947, Zahir Raihan obtained a post-graduate in Bengali Literature and began working as a journalist. After initially writing short stories (inspired by his brother, prominent litterateur Shahidullah Kaiser), Raihan ventured into films as an assistant with “Jago Hua Savera” (1959). He made his directorial debut with “Kokhono Asheni” in 1960. In 1964, he made Pakistan's first colour movie, “Sangam”, and completed his first cinemascope movie, “Bahana”, the following year. In the 1960s, he directed “Sonar Kajol” (jointly with Kalim Sharafi), “Kancher Deyal”, “Behula”, “Anowara”, “Dui Bhai” and “Jibon Theke Neya” in 1969. Raihan was also an accomplished writer. His publications include “Surjya Grahan”, “Shesh Bikeler Meye”, the epic “Hajar Bochhor Dhore”, “Arek Falgun”, “Borof Gola Nodi”, “Aar Koto Din”, “Koyekti Mrittu” and “Trishna”.
It was the subject matter of his work, however, that separates him from his contemporaries; Raihan had strong nationalist beliefs, and it reflected sharply in his work. Some of his works are iconic of the movement of the then East Pakistan that eventually culminated into the struggle for Independence. His film “Jibon Theke Neya” is a satirical depiction of the then-ongoing national movement, portraying an entire country through the story of a family.
The Liberation War began when Raihan was the general secretary of Bangladesh Liberation Council of Intelligentsia, and was making his first English film, “Let There Be Light”. He abandoned the project and made his most notable work, the documentary “Stop Genocide”, depicting the horrendous atrocities of the Pakistani forces. Zahir Raihan left his house on January 30, 1972 in search of his brother Shahidullah Kaiser, who was abducted by Pakistani forces just before Bangladesh's emergence on the world map, and never returned. It is believed that he was killed in Mirpur by Pakistani soldiers in hiding and their Bihari collaborators, while looking for the body of his brother at the Mirpur mass grave, where many intellectuals were killed and buried.
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