ANANTA JALIL A Phenomenon or More?

“Most Welcome 2” unveiled.

He's the Bangla Bond. His name is Jalil. Ananta Jalil. 'He likes his Lassi shaken but not stirred'. His movies have shaken the industry. Stirring attention is something he's very clever at. You may like him. You may not. Un-notice him you cannot! After another box office hit in “Nishartho Bhalobasha” (What is Love) and a successful GP advert, AJ is now a phenomenon. “Most Welcome 2” (for 2014) boasts to be the highest budget movie in Bangladesh with Hollywood and Bollywood people. Thus the question: is AJ a phenomenon or more?
There was a time in the 1960s when people went to the halls to watch our cinemas. By the 1980s Bangladeshi cinema started losing its audience. The young and the urban classes who once flocked in numbers turned their back. It was the hardworking people of this country who kept our film industry alive. Some movies came, that attracted the broader public and did business. Alas! They were far and few. They lacked the professional marketing that connects modern cinemas to social networks -- the medium to catch the segment of the young.

The Bangla Bond with Mrs Bond.

Those who turned their back away from our cinemas didn't turn their back away from cinemas altogether. In the 1980s VCRs exposed urban classes to Hollywood and Bollywood. By the 1990s satellite TV made sure, Bollywood may bypass Bangladeshi cinema halls, but wouldn't bypass the eyes of the Bangladeshi market. Urban Bangladesh was always watching Hollywood and Bollywood. Their elements were just lacking in a Dhalliwood that wasn't updating to changing times. Big-budget movies sustain when urban consumers start going to cinema halls. Today's urban classes are much richer than they were twenty years ago. They are sponsoring foreign big budget movies spending Tk 300 on a ticket and may be another Tk 300 on refreshment. To bring people back to watching our movies, a calculated risk was needed to tap this missing segment. Dhalliwood was waiting to be 'shaken' and 'stirred'. In 2010 Ananta Jalil made that calculated risk with “Khoj -- The Search” based on Quazi Anwar Hussain's classic Bangla Bond, Masud Rana. AJ woke Dhalliwood up. Since then, the 'ground has been beneath his feet'.
By 2013, AJ launched “Hridoy Bhanga Dheu” (Heart Breaking Wave); “Speed”; “Most Welcome”; and “Nishartho Bhalobasha” (What is Love). 2014 awaits “Most Welcome 2”. Each movie was a box office hit because they had elements of all three cine-worlds the Bangladeshi market had always been watching -- Dhalliwood, Hollywood and Bollywood. The risks were calculated.
AJ has shown there is a domestic and international market for Bangladeshi hi-tech action movies. Missing segments can now be tapped. People have started coming back to the halls for Made in Bangladesh Dhalliwood. Big investments can be recovered from ticket sales and also cheeky advertisements of products and gadgets within cinemas like the Bond movies. “Nishartho Bhalobasha” (What is Love) has done this very cleverly. With these guaranteed revenues, technicians and stars can be hired from Hollywood and Bollywood to make Dhalliwood adapt to changing times. “Most Welcome 2” is doing this. To spread the benefits throughout the industry, AJ invites people from FDC to gain experience from these internationally acknowledged personnel. The gates have opened. Other clever investors, producers, directors and actors can now come forward and take Dhalliwood to national and international audiences and with them the Bangladeshi Flag.
If you can make the young dance you have the potential to pass the test of time. Today's young are tomorrow's consumers. In the 1960s many failed to understand the craze behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. After 1971, the same happened with Azam Khan and others in Bangladesh. They all transformed from phenomena to classics. AJ has made the young generation dance. He is a phenomenon. Whether he can become a classic is for time to tell. For now, his movies need Catch 22 phrases like the Bond movies, “never argue with a woman, they're always right” (“Tomorrow Never Dies”), and well composed and presented songs like Louis Armstrong's “We have all the time in the world” (“On Her Majesty's Secret Service”). These are what people come back to see again and again.
What's the point of analysing so much? For two and a half hours one man captivated an audience. Some laughed; some sang; some danced; some made fun; some got angry; some left the hall. But they all came in numbers, old and young. Most of them left with a smile. Isn't that enough? In the end, it's Nishartho (innocent) entertainment; a man just trying to take Dhalliwood and our Flag to national and international audiences. Bujhli na tui -- what is love!

Special thanks to Akbar Hossain of BBC Bangla and Asma Parvin Ratna. Masud Hasan Khan of BBC Bangla coined the Bond phrase: “He likes his Lassi shaken but not stirred”.

Asrar Chowdhury teaches economic theory and game theory in the classroom. Outside he listens to music and BBC Radio; follows Test Cricket; and plays the flute. He can be reached at: asrar.chowdhury@facebook.com