Talking about our first Talkie

Making a film at a time when it was impossible to find an experienced cast and crew, with no film production studio and a meagre budget, was no easy feat. Especially when this was the first Bengali film in East Bengal to ever be made. Abdul Jabbar Khan, an engineer by profession, and filmmaker and a dramatist by passion, took up this challenge, thereby cementing the history of Bengali cinema with his first talkie Mukh o Mukhosh, which was released on August 3, 1956.

When in a meeting of cultural activists, F Dossani, a non-Bengali movie producer, commented that this region of then united Pakistan was not conducive for making films, the seed for Mukh O Mukhosh was taking form in Khan's head. Dossani's statement had in fact reverberated the perception of non-Bengali speaking distributors and producer groups who dominated the film scene.  

Being fully aware that many Indian-Bengali films were partially shot in this very land, Khan was not convinced that films could not be made here. Following a heated argument with Dossani, Khan took up the challenge of making a Bengali movie, the first of its kind, in East Pakistan.

With that vow, Khan's struggle began.

Based on his play Dakaat, Khan started working on the movie in 1953, and worked on it for two years under the banner of Iqbal Films. The flood of 1954 made brought the shooting to a halt on more than one occasion.  Local actors, who had no prior experience of acting in films, performed in the movie for free. While Khan played an important role in the film, Inam Ahmed and Purnima Sen were the other protagonists of the film. Nazma (Peary), Zaharat Ara, Ali Mansur, Fafiq, Narul Anarn Khan, Saifuddin were also part of the cast. As there was no local film production studio, the reels had to travel through Shahnoor Studio, Lahore, for editing and printing. Finally, after being done with the processing, Khan could not bring the final prints home easily. He was restricted by the customs of West Pakistan who told him that he was not allowed to take the prints with him. Followed by a meeting with the home minister, Khan was not only able to bring the prints to this region, but was also asked to screen Mukh O Mukhosh at the Azaadi movie theatre for 200 Bengali speaking viewers living in Karachi.

After completing the movie, when it was time for him to screen the movie in East Bengal, Khan went through another ordeal. At a time when the local theatres were dominated by Indian, Pakistani and Hollywood movies, most distributors and movie theatre owners did not show any interest in screening the Bengali-language movie. Finally, Khan was able to release the film in Roopmahal movie theatre where Sher-e-Bengali A K Fazlul Haque was present as the chief guest at the premiere show of the film.
The movie was able to earn TK 48 thousand in the initial screening itself.

Thus, the first 'talkie' in Bengali film industry was born. The original reel is preserved at the Bengalidesh Film Archive. For those who want to watch it at the comfort of their homes, there is a hazy version of the movie available on Youtube.