The liaison between TV plays and the contemporary society

Atiqul Haque Chowdhury

As I am 76 today, I feel it's time I put my impression and thoughts of TV plays in our country. Despite being a TV playwright and director and working in this field for the last 45 years, I believe TV plays have a limited audience in our vast socio-economic structure.
At this point, let me confess that I 'm not under the delusion that I have been able to satiate the aspiration of our viewers, neither have I been able to project the true culture and spirit of our national life aptly.
No, I am not absolutely frustrated with the overall situation. I have not thrown in the towel and I still believe that TV plays can inspire and move the viewers if we are truly patriotic and are imbibed with the spirit of Ekushey and the Liberation War.
Another Victory Day is near. I believe love for the country should thrive in every Bangladeshi heart. And as dramatists, we should be always sincere, r, bold and also sensitive with our artistic and creative endeavours. Intellectual curiosity and element of simplicity should be present in our TV plays. The hopes and aspirations of the common man should be highlighted in our TV plays. Love, hatred, conflict, suspense, namely melodrama -- these should not and cannot be the only elements of a TV drama. We should also consider that “mushy” romance is but one aspect of “love” and that should not hog the centre stage. The purpose of TV plays is to stir the mind and the soul.
I also believe that now the society has been transformed into a colossal trade-centre. Individuals possessing perceptible noble and heroic qualities should be termed as the real “hero” or “heroine”. The actual villain is a society that victimises people, as the environment and circumstances are controlled by it.
I am in tune with Stanislavski, who once said, “When you portray an evil man find out where he is good.”
The author is a noted director and writer of TV plays