A scene from the documentary.

A documentary made on the festivity and significance of the first day of Bangla calendar, Pahela Baishakh, received an award at the First Imphal International Short Film Festival 2012.
The documentary, also titled “Pahela Baishakh”, received the Best Documentary Award at the festival held from April 15 to 18 at the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur, informed director of the documentary, Ahmed Muztaba Zamal. The documentary has been produced by Faridur Reza Sagar.
Folk researcher Saymon Zakaria conducted the research and wrote the script for the film. The 30-minute film, produced in 2011, shows the Bengali New Year festivity from a secular perspective.
Important parts of the day such as celebration by Chhayanaut at Ramna Batomul and the procession, Mangal Shobhajatra, from the Charukala premises have been captured in the documentary.
Apart from the Indian festival, the documentary also took part in the 14th Religion Today Film Festival, Trento, Italy and 12th Dhaka International Film Festival.
“Pahela Baishakh” is Zamal's second work after “Truth and Beyond” (2006). Featuring more than 100 short films, the Imphal festival was a platform for creative South Asian filmmakers.