Man of Many Talents

In Golam Sarwar's words Abdullah Al Mamun has thought that the rumor that has been humming around the television office will not stop in a day. Rather, this drama will be staying for so long because the newspaper staff had started considering the television staff as their colleagues instead of their rivals.

That Abdullah Al Mamun has written a nice feature article on television. The bravery that the young Abdullah Al Mamun has shown in those days still it is continuing. Till now there is no television serial in satellite channels especially the Indian channels that has been made for every day. Nobody showed the courage. The mega serials on Star Plus which are very much popular nowadays are being telecasted 5 days in a week. Zee TV has started the daily soap first among the national and international television channels.

While the schedule of the artists, sponsors, etc. were the biggest problems in our country at that time over 50 years old Abdullah Al Mamun has shown his courage to make a daily soap named 'Jowar Bhata'. He has not only shown the courage but also gifted the audiences Jowar Bhata's 100 continuous episodes of 100 days with title music. Title tracks are being used in almost all the mega serials nowadays. Abdullah Al Mamun himself wrote the lyric of that title song and a merely known singer like Chandan Sinha made the song super hit by giving his voice. Moreover, in the Jowar Bhata mega serial he has given chance to so many prominent artists to act. He made another 100 episodes of this drama serial on later.

Despite showing charisma of television drama Abdullah Al Mamun had to think of a lot when he was told to write up an article on television in 1965. Stage actor Abdullah Al Mamun used to think about how a small 19 inch television can show a bigger thing like drama. At that time the stage actors were criticizing that somebody wanting to frame drama in small screen. But seeing the first drama of television 'Ektola-Dotola' Abdullah Al Mamun has not only become excited but also waited to see the next drama. Exactly at that time he thought that television drama is influencing him. He is being a regular audience of various programs in television apart from a stage actor because at that time in television screen a dance-drama was being telecasted.

Finally Abdullah Al Mamun has started writing about television drama in the art and culture page of Daly Shongbad. The dramas about which Abdullah Al Mamun used to write were produced by Zaman Ali Kha.  That was the first writing on television in Bangladesh's history. This has also grabbed the attention of producer Zaman Ali Khan who has recently joined the television after radio.

On a night Zaman Ali Khan has come to the Shongbad office with his Volkswagen car. He has come to meet Abdullah Al Mamun who has written the feature article on television drama. Prominent actor Farid Ali has made the interactions between these two. It has to be mentioned that Farid Ali was not only the actor of television's first drama but also he brought so many prominent artists on the screen. 
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The writer is Managing Director, Channel i
Translated by Imtiaz Salim