Article: Bangla film yesterday, today,

by Syed Mehdi Momin

The heroine gyrating her hips to the tune of a raunchy number, the villain's den full of mean-looking sidekicks and garishly made up vamps, the hero kicking and punching the hell out of a dozen goons, are the common features of a typical commercial Bengali movie. It is rather strange to note that most of the films produced here follow a set pattern. The other day a foreigner who watched a few Bengali movies during her stay here told this correspondent, "I watched a few movies here and most of them followed a remarkably similar tone.

It seems that in every movie there seemed to be a dance sequence picturised in the rain and too many violent scenes." Speaking of the rain dance scenes, these are common in both Bengali movies and also the Mumbai ones--most of our movies are copied versions of the latter anyway. And the reasons for the presence of these scenes in most of our films is rather obvious: to accentuate the luscious curves or in our case the ample girth of heroines or the vamps.

Mukh O Mukhosh, directed by Abdul Jabbar Khan, is the first Bengali movie made in the then East Pakistan. Considering all the limitations the movie was a success, and the song by Kalim Sharafi "O amar chakkhu nai" is still remembered fondly. Songs are an integral part of the movies in the sub-continent, and we are by no means an exception. Though in the West musicals are a dying breed, it is still unimaginable to make a film here without any songs in it. Typically a film consists of several numbers.

Our film industry has given us some of the greatest and most popular Bengali songs. Ferdausi Rahman, Abdul Jabbar, Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin, Shahnaj Rahmantullah, all are famous for the lilting melodies they produced. And such luminaries like Satya Shaha, Robin Ghosh or Abdul Ahad were the movie directors. Pathetically though most of the current moviegoers believe that melody is a lost art. Nowadays our film industry is blindly copying Bollywood tunes. "It is not only the music, the overall standard of today's movies is going down the drains. I used to be a great movie buff. But not any more. Just look at the names--Khaichi Tore, Jabi Koi, Shami Keno Asami, Khyapa Bashu, Londobhondo and Ek Gunda Tero Panda ," said Wasim Haider, a businessman in his forties.

Nevertheless one would like to stress here that things were not like this always this bad. Before 1965 our films not only had to compete against the West Pakistani Urdu films but also the Indian Bengali and Hindi films. And they competed very hard and held their ground carving a niche for Bengali films made in this country. After 1965 the import of Indian films was banned but our films still had to wean viewers away from the West Pakistani films. Urdu films were even made in Dhaka with tacit patronage of the ruling class. In spite of this two-fold attack it must be said many of the finest Bangladeshi movies were made before our liberation.

In the late 1960s, during the heady days of Bengali nationalism, several films depicting our struggle against the Pakistanis were made. Of these the most striking was certainly Jiban Theke Neya by Jahir Raihan. Before Independence the Bengali movies were basically of two types: the social drama, mostly following Tallygunj mainstream films, and folk fantasy films. The first worthwhile folk fantasy film was Rupban by Salahuddin. Rupban was the first Dhakai film which could be called a blockbuster hit. The story was taken from a well-known folk tale and the popular folk tunes really touched the audience. Folk tales with elaborate costume time tested popular folk numbers, and lavish sets have been a sure fire formulae for success in Dhakai films.

Indeed the Bengali film which grossed the best business, both here and in West Bengal, is Beder Meye Jyotsna, directed by Tozammel Haque Bakul. Like all sections of our population many of those involved with our film industry joined the Liberation War. Naturally, they wanted to express their thoughts and beliefs about the war through the lenses. Masud Parvez, a valiant freedom fighter produced Ora Egaro Jon--a real life story about eleven freedom fighters. This was followed by several films like Abar Tora Manush Ho, Arunodoyer Agnishakshi, Shangram, Alor Micchil, Dhire Bohe Meghna, which had the War of Independence and its immediate aftermath as the central theme. Unfortunately some directors tried to capitalise of the war to portray vulgar rape scenes just to make financial gains. As for instance one may recall Raktatta Bangla and Bagha Bangali.

Rangbaaz directed by Zahirul Haque and the matinee idol Razzak as the lead saw the emergence of a new genre of films. It was a massive hit and for the first time dealt with the lives of urban gangsters. It showed violence in a realistic manner. Yet it also had a strong plot and some good music like "Shey je keno elona, kichhu bhalo lage na". These films too follow a set pattern. A grave injustice is done to a boy's family when he was a child and this child grows up to be an avenging angel, displaying great fighting skills, both with his fists and legs and with firearms. The heroine in these films are basically little more than show pieces--a pretty face and dancing skills are all what are asked from them.

These films are the ones which are by far the most prolific these days.Unfortunately very few of these films could be termed as box office successes. The makers invariably claim that as the educated middle class no longer constitues the bulk of the moviegoers they have no option but to cater to the taste of the working class people. However in closer scrutiny this opinion fails to hold water. Just assuming that all of these rickshawwallahs who occupy the front stalls are depraved and perverted souls just won't help. Perhaps if the makers go back to making clean family dramas with good music like Harano Din, Pich Dhala Path, Tero Number Pheku Ostagar Lane, Ananta prem, Dhaka film industry and the audience may breath a sigh of relief.