Muktir Gaan and a Tareque Masud

Badrul Huda Sohel :

‘Muktir Gaan’ – a documentary on our Liberation War is, so far, one of the most remembered works after Stop Genocide, a classic masterpiece of eminent film director and writer Zahir Raihan.

No doubt, Muktir Gaan is one of the best creations of Tareque Masud who breathed his last in a tragic road mishap on August 13, 2011.

This highly remembered film director and screenwriter of Bangladesh Tariq is still unparalleled for his numerous films on the partition, liberation war, and the culture of our own.

As an independent film director, producer, writer, and lyricist, Tareque Masud did not establish himself overnight.

He had had to acquire expertise and experience at every step from his student life to reach his destination.

He shouldered the great responsibility of refurbishing the film industry to the spirit of liberation from the decadence of the film industry in the late 20th century.

Hence, Satyajit Roy, Zaheer Raihan and Tareque Masud are, sometimes, regarded as three corners of the same triangle in Bangladeshi film industry.

An active member of the Film Sangsad Movement, Tareque Masoud was one of the pioneers of the independent film movement in the 1980s.

He is such a person who even spends seven years in close proximity to the artist SM Sultan to create his documentary ‘Adam Surat’.

Four years afore the release of ‘Adam Surat’ in 1989, his first short film ‘Sonar Bedi’ was released.

But the documentary in which Tareque Masud lively portrays, to a large extent, a picture of his patriotism and responsibility is ‘Muktir Gaan’.

In 1995, he and his wife Catherine Masud produced ‘Muktir Gaan’ in a joint effort.

The story of the making of the documentary ‘Muktir Gaan’ by Tareque and his wife is definitely distinct and different from those of other works of his time.

He put a lot of effort into making this documentary based on the footage of the Liberation War.

While living in the United States, he collected footage of our liberation war shot by American director Lear Levin.

With the help of Catherine, he shaped ‘Muktir Gaan’ into a reality by combining the footage collected from different parts of the world.

It is worth mentioning that ‘Muktir Gaan’ is the one that brought Tareque Masud wide recognition as an established filmmaker in Bangladesh.

Muktir Gaan won the best documentary award at the 19th National Film Awards.

It was heard on everyone’s lips then.

Seeing the popularity of Muktir Gaan, Tareque Masud made a video film called ‘Muktir Kotha’ based on public’s reaction to it.

However, the film through which Tareque Masud gained more admiration and international recognition was ‘Matir Moyna’.

‘Matir Moyna’ is an autobiographical film by him in which various events of the Liberation War are depicted from the perspective of a madrasah-educated boy.

‘Matir Moyna’ was screened at film festivals in several countries, including Edinburgh, Montreal, and Cairo.

The film was the first Bangladeshi endeavor to be nominated for the Oscar as a foreign language film.

It also won the FIPRESCI award for best film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and familiarized Tareque with global film community.

Apart from the events of the Liberation War, various aspects of the folk culture of ours are also included in this film, and, the acceptance of this film, therefore, increased rapidly in home and abroad.

In 2006, Tareque Masud was the first to introduce digital film, a medium used for the storage of images in digital cameras, in our country with the film ‘Antaryatra’.

His two other films ‘Narsunder’ and ‘Runway’ also became the talk of the country.

In his film Runway, he emphasized militancy, one of the national problems of the time, and its suppression.

After the death of Tareque Masud in a road accident in 2011, his wife Catherine Masud published a book collecting papers about his films written at various times.

In the book ‘Chalachchitrayatra’, Catherine Masud expressed their film views in the introduction.

Tarique had an ardent desire to make films avoiding commercial aspects and giving importance to the life and livelihood of the commoners in general, and patriotism and self-identity of the Bengalee nation in particular.

Although he produced only 16 films including short and full-length documentaries and animation, he will live forever in the memory of Bengalees through his works.

On this day in 2011, more than a decade ago, five including Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munir lost their lives in an accident on the Dhaka-Aricha highway in Ghior Upazila of Manikganj on their way back home from the shooting spot of a film called ‘Kagojer Phool’, an unfinished film based on the partition of 1947.

Mishuk Munir, another scholar in journalism and the second son of martyred intellectual Munir Chowdhury, was accompanying him.

I hope to write in detail about Mishuk Munir and his extraordinary contribution in another article on some other days.

In order to raise awareness about road accidents, an unconventional memorial has been made on the road island next to Dhaka University Shamsunnahar Hall with the remains of the microbus they were on board.

Even today, when this memorial comes up, the beloved faces of Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munir sadden our minds.

(The writer is Assistant Professor and Chairman, Department of English, Ishakha International University).