One day, a friend came out of the cinema hall and told me on the phone, “I have seen Satyajit Ray’s film in Bangladesh.” I asked him, “What did he say?” My friend said, “Go see the work of young director Tarek Masud (1956-2011), we will talk later.” I saw Tarek Masud’s film, and I got to know him. Through the Bangladesh Film Archive’s training course “Film Appreciation Course”, some young talented filmmakers emerge, and Tarek is a bright star among them.” The director of outstanding films like Narasundar, Matir Maina, Muktir Gaan, Antarjatra and Runway; Tarek Masud unfortunately passed away in a road accident on August 13, 2011. He is called the father of art film in Bangladesh, and his sudden death has left the film buffs and the general public in awe. The talent he has revealed in a short time by turning the corner of filmmaking in the Bangladeshi cinema world will remain indelible in golden letters. So it was not an exaggeration when my friend said that he was the Satyajit Ray of Bangladesh. It seems that if he had lived a longer life, this director with immense potential could have surpassed Satyajit.
Today, we all pay our sincere respects to the departed soul of Tarek Masud. Not only that, many are researching and writing books to commemorate his memory. Bangladesh Film Archive has continuously organized fellowships in his name. Tarek was a socially conscious person, and various efforts are being made to ensure that the public and current filmmakers get to know his sense of humanity.
Tarek’s life and work:
Tarek Masud was born in Faridpur district in 1956, his mother’s name was Nurun Nahar Masud and his father’s name was Mashiur Rahman Masud.
In the words of Tarek’s cousin Tahmina Rabbani—
“We lived in the same village as Tarek in Faridpur as children, so we grew up together, Tarek’s father was the most cultured person in our village. Because of him, we practiced singing and playing in the village too.”
Tariq’s father graduated from Presidency College, Kolkata. He was an educated and liberal-minded man. But suddenly Mashiur Rahman Masud (i.e. Tariq’s father) disappeared after his mother’s death. After a few months, he returned home wearing an alkallah and with a long beard.
Again, in the words of Tariq’s cousin Tahmina Rabbani—
“But uncle (Tareq’s father) changed completely at some point in his life. He then became very religious and engaged in activities, as a result, any kind of cultural practice was completely forbidden at home. Tariq was admitted to a madrasa instead of sending him to school.”
Tariq’s father wanted to educate him in religious education, so he studied in a madrasa.
One by one, he had to study in several madrasas, such as Faridpur, Lalbagh or Kakrail in Dhaka, and Bahirdia on the banks of the Madhumati River in Jessore. There was a definite reason for the repeated transfer of madrasas. Since Tariq’s father was a Tablighi preacher, he wanted him to become a great scholar. He would send him to Lalbagh Madrasa in Dhaka and go abroad in three chillas, and when he returned, he would come straight from the airport to the madrasa. When he arrived, he would find that Tariq was not there. Everyone in their extended family was very cultured. His father alone was dramatically inclined towards religion. All his uncles and cousins lived in Dhaka, and when his father left, they would come and rescue him within a few days. Later, his father realized this and sent him to a madrasa in the countryside, far away, outside their area. Hence the many madrasa changes.
But Tarek’s heart was with his family. Whenever he got a chance at the madrasa, he would go to his uncle’s house or his own house. He would not express his feelings of being alone in the madrasa to anyone, and would run around with his brothers and sisters and be intoxicated with joy in sports. One day, he told his cousin that it pained him to see the children playing and having fun outside the madrasa window, and he thought how free the children were outside.
In fact, according to Tarek, when he went to the madrasa, no boy from the middle class came to the madrasa, almost all of them were orphans or from very poor families. Their families were very well-off, so Tarek was like an outsider in the madrasa.
For the entire sixties, he had to move around to different places in the madrasa, at the behest of his father. But the great liberation war of Bangladesh turned into a personal war for Tarek with many people. During the liberation war, the teenager Tarek was attracted to war under the inspiration of his uncle Delwar Hossain Chowdhury and was also interested in going to a general education school. He went to his uncle’s house and joined the fight with other freedom fighters with a rifle on his shoulder.
After nine months of war, independent Tarek Masud was born alongside the emergence of independent Bangladesh. During the liberation war, Tarek’s father realized that the closeness of people who developed the same cultural and ethnic identity was the real truth rather than religious brotherhood. Tarek’s father’s mental change came after seeing the hellish massacre of the Pakistanis. Even after the torture, the freedom-loving people did not retreat from their fight. As a result, Tarek withdrew from the countercurrent in which his father had once swept Tarek; he understood that pushing him outside his nature would not bring anything good. Just as the Pakistanis could not impose their language, culture and economic aggression against the aspirations of the people of this country.
Tarek realized that the Liberation War had given him everything, his mother had regained her independence, his father was furious with the army’s brutal actions in the name of Islam with a new consciousness, and after seeing bodies floating in the river with his own eyes, he warned Pakistan. His father had undergone another fundamental change. After the Liberation War, Tarek passed his matriculation examination in 1973 on his father’s initiative. Later, he forbade Tarek from going to the madrasa again.
After passing matriculation, Tarek’s college life was a cultural shock. Adamjee Cantonment College, co-ed, 60 percent of the students were women. It was harder to adjust to a co-ed college than to share with the poor and orphans of the madrasa. Hence the cultural shock. However, while living in the dormitory, he slowly gained mental strength in the hostile urban environment. In fact, staying in a dormitory gives birth to a power to embrace diversity in languages, habits, tastes, ways of sitting and walking.
Tarek used to write beautiful poems, many were surprised to see the mastery of Bengali in a madrasa boy. He was very friendly. That is why his friends were generous towards him. He passed out from Cantonment College, graduated from Notre Dame College. Then he studied history at Dhaka University. Tarek’s travels in the cultural sphere of Dhaka started from the time he was in college. He even had a presence in the Bangladesh Film Society.
In the early seventies, like any literary-minded young man, Tarek also looked down on the film medium. Moreover, since his childhood, he was free from the boundaries of popular domestic and foreign films and film industry due to his madrasa education and conservative religious beliefs. However, he had a strong interest in music, painting, architecture, anthropology and psychology. After reading various books related to films at the Bangladesh Film Sangsad, the talented Tarek was surprised. And within a short time, he became an active activist of the Film Sangsad movement and a strong desire to understand films was born in his mind. He started watching films at the Sangsad; the door to world cinema suddenly opened to him. It was as if his life was moving forward in fast forward. Many people read Bibhutibhushan’s novel before watching Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali”. But Tarek watched the film “Pather Panchali” first. He had always heard that cinema is a bad thing, just dance and song far from life. But after watching “Pather Panchali”, he felt, “This is not just a real-life story, but a true life story of Tarek’s life.”
His time at Dhaka University was particularly important for him. Although he studied in the history department, Tarek spent most of his time in the fine arts department. Muntasir Mamun was his history teacher, and even if he did not do well in his studies in the department, he would always support him. Professor Sirajul Islam was also a teacher, and besides, Ahmed Sharif from outside the university; he had a very good relationship with all of them, he became their fan.
During his university life, Tarek Masud was a fan of another man, he was Ahmed Safa. His greatest achievement in that student life was the contact and proximity with Ahmed Safa. Sitting in the library premises, he talked to him for hours, the joy of talking to Chafa is different, because he would indulge in any argument, Tareq knew that he always argued, not that it was a heated argument. But Chafa never got bored.
Let’s say that in his spare time, Tareq Masud got involved in various cultural activities. Since the seventies were the decade of independence, a freedom-loving mind, going to the World Literature Center to read various books, participating in poetry movements and street plays. Revolutionary spirit, seeking cultural liberation. Getting involved in the writers’ camp, how much!
Forming a drama group, going to distant regions to perform plays, rehearsing on launches or boats as he went. The farmers need to be awakened, so that song, ‘Ore Oth Re Chashi, Jagat Basi’, was carried out with that enthusiasm. An attempt to do something. There is something about the dogma of the extreme left, Tareq did not like it. Stalin’s criticism is very disliked by leftist politicians. Tarek felt that cultural liberation is more important than ideology.
On the other hand, the film society, along with the writers’ camp, was the progress of the film organization CATWA. The writers’ camp and the film society movement were coordinated together, but there was the representative support of some leftist intellectuals and cultural activists. Tarek’s love for films was strong at that time, there must have been some catalyst behind it. When a person moves forward with a goal in life, there are some continuous coordinating connections. That is why, Tarek’s attraction to films, spending time day after day in art college, what could be the next connection with these? He must have a strong interest in visual arts. He was scolded in the madrasa for drawing a picture of a butterfly, which was an attempt to do these works of Allah himself. His attraction to films came from his madrasa life, but he could not say. However, his curiosity grew and remained.
Coincidentally, his interest in visual arts, traveling around rural Bengal, and learning about society and people all seemed to come together. Tarek’s formal education was not in film, but two factors were particularly effective in his development as a filmmaker.
1) Almost all filmmakers in the world work towards the goal of creation. Tarek’s main school of education was the film parliament movement, and the training course at the Film Archive was a direct result of their parliament movement. The Bangladesh Short Film Forum was also formed by parliamentarians.
2) The Bangladesh Film Archive and Institute was established in 1978. First, they ran a film appreciation course at the institute, which produced some talented filmmakers. In 1982, Tarek was a shining star among the new filmmakers.
Since Tarek had no formal education in film, he applied to the Pune Film Institute in India in 1982 to study film, and was awarded a scholarship. On March 24, General Ershad came to power, and because of his anti-India stance, he canceled all Indian scholarships. Tarek’s enthusiasm was contagious. However, he started trying to get it back. He tried to lobby and got the scholarship back and went to Pune and brought a no-objection certificate from the director of the Film Institute, Krishnamurthy. Time passed by, classes started in Pune, but he did not go anymore. In anger, he asked his family to provide money and went to America to study film.
In December 1988, Tarek returned to Dhaka to attend the International Short Film Festival. In fact, he was the main organizer, collecting some films that were of two genres, short and free genre. This festival was a particularly important event in the cultural arena of Bangladesh. The short film movement later became popular as the alternative movement. The short film forum played a major role in the anti-Ershad movement in 1990.
Meanwhile, Tarek married American film director Catherine in January 1989. Before returning to America with Catherine in 1990, the two directed short documentaries ‘Adam Surat’, ‘Ah America’ and ‘Ganatantra Mukti Pak’.
‘Adam Surat’ (50-minute documentary) is based on the autobiography and commentary of the famous Bangladeshi painter S.M. Sultan on the artist’s humanistic paintings. Where workers and farmers are shown in a grand manner. Where nature is a loving breadwinner. Young Tarek Sultan’s art was inspired by humanistic philosophy. In fact, these humanistic philosophy are a strong pillar of the folk culture world of Bengal. We see that the philosophy of humanism has been influential in his later films.
While making ‘Adam Surat’, Tarek got the spiritual inspiration to make a film called ‘Sonar Beri’. It is a picture of various forms of oppression of women, the name of which hides the fact that women are tied to the eight legs by wearing gold ornaments around their waists, hands and feet, since they love ornaments very much. He had another big belief that there is nothing greater than one’s own land, nation and culture. He made Ah America with this philosophy as a priority. Moreover, ‘Gontantra Mukti Pak’, an animation film Unison made and took a stand against the memory system.
Tarek’s unforgettable and important documentaries are ‘Muktir Gaan’ and ‘Muktir Katha’. This narrative based on the music of ‘Muktir Gaan’ was made with his own funds. Among these folk songs and mass songs, there was a huge force against the opponents of the Liberation War, on the one hand, the struggle of cultural activists through singing, and on the other hand, the encouragement to boost the morale of the liberation forces.
‘Matir Maina’ is a film adaptation of a story taken from the life of Tarek Masud. The film raises many questions, where positive and negative conflicts arise. However, there is a hint of the answer within the presentation skill. ‘Matir Maina’ was released in 2002, almost 28 years after the film movement began, and introduces an exceptional filmmaker and artist.
‘Matir Maina’ begins its journey with the daily work of a student-teacher of a madrasa. The continuity moves forward with a student, a teenager, Anu, and the tradition of Bengal comes to the fore in the scene of Anu’s mother Ayesha making winter pitha. Although she grew up in a rural family, Anu was sent to a madrasa by her father. Anu’s only friend in the madrasa life was another teenager named Rokon.
The state called Pakistan emerged through geographical division. One part was East Pakistan, a thousand miles away, and the other part was West Pakistan, and the undivided India was divided into two nations, Hindus and Muslims, and was divided into three parts into two states. But the rulers of West Pakistan considered the eastern region as a colony, not a country. They wanted to impose the language and culture of the western region on the eastern region, and they discriminated against this region in all economic, religious and political aspects. Therefore, the movement for Bengali as the state language was started, and later the overall liberation movement took place. The people of the eastern region moved towards establishing a secular independent state based on language and tradition. Some fanatics were relentless in their efforts to maintain Pakistan as an Islamic state. In the film ‘Matir Maina’, Anu’s father also stood in a row with the pro-Pakistanists. However, later, after seeing the inhumane massacre of Pakistanis in the Liberation War, his judgment changed. On the other hand, Ayesha fled to live with her son Anu.
