Author: Press Trust
Of India
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: August 21, 2000
NEW DELHI, AUG 20: Controversy
is virtually the second name of film-maker Tanvir Mokammel. As a
leading director of documentary and feature films in the parallel cinema
circuit of Bangladesh, he has taken up subjects in a manner few others
in his country have done.
Tanvir's first documentary
is yet to see the light of day in the absence of Government clearance even
a decade after its making. His first feature film was objected to
by the Bangladesh censor board on the ground of its containing certain
``unIslamic'' shots. A portion of the shooting of his latest work
was disrupted by fundamentalists.
Yet the director has
not shied away from dealing with sensitive subjects in his films.
His last feature film Chitra Nadir Parey (And Quiet Flows the Chitra),
the first Bangladeshi film on the theme of Partition, is an example of
this.
After starting his career
in 1984 with an experimental film, based on a poem by Nirmalendu Goon,
one of Bangladesh's front-ranking poets, Tanvir made his first documentary
Smriti Ekattor (Remembrance of 1971) on the killings of Bangladesh's leading
intellectuals by Pak troops during the liberation war.
The documentary is yet
to be released by the Government, says the director adding no reason has
been given for its non-clearance.
Tanvir's first feature
film Nadir Nam Madhumati, made in 1994-95, was based on the atrocities
by Pakistani troops during Bangladesh's independence war. The censor
board insisted on cuts of some of its sequences saying they were ``unIslamic''.
The director had refused to comply and moved the high court which later
cleared it. The film won three National awards for 1996 -- Best Script,
Best Story and Best Music.
Why does Tanvir choose
sensitive subjects for his films? ``The war of liberation and Partition
and their fall-outs raise important issues relating to the values like
secularism. I consider the Partition at the root of all political
and economic problems,'' he said here recently.
Referring to Chitra Nadir
Parey, he said, ``As a committed artiste, I would like to highlight the
problems of minorities in Bangladesh. Minorities are at the receiving-end
almost all over the world.''
The film ``offended those
who benefited from the Partition and Hindus' exodus from the then East
Pakistan,'' said Tanvir. Although its shooting had once come under
attack, the screening of the film did not elicit negative response from
viewers, he added. The reason? ``I think people accept your
views if they are presented honestly,'' he said.
Based on this belief,
Tanvir is working on his next project, Lal Shalu, a political novel, written
by eminent Bangladeshi author, Syed Waliullah. The script is ready
and he plans to start shooting the film, early next year.
One major obstacle for
making Lal Shalu has been funds as is usually the case with most of parallel
film-makers in Bangladesh. Even though such films are low-budget
products, money is hardly forthcoming for making them, Tanvir says.
