Popular actor and director Shahiduzzaman Selim was awfully busy performing in and directing TV plays for the approaching Eid. He has directed two plays ‘Shayla’, written by Dewan Shamsur Raqib and ‘Jhamela Non Stop’, written by Maruf Rehman.
The play, ‘Shayla’, termed as a semi-thriller, presents the tragic and mysterious death of the protagonist, who was involved in an extramarital affair. ‘The play upholds the moral that every criminal must be punished,’ says the director with details, ‘No matter how he or she tries to escape it; the punishment will come either socially, politically or naturally.’ Selim himself is acting in the play which is scheduled to be aired on ATN Bangla along with Mamunur Rashid, Tarin and Rosy Siddiquee among others.
Selim’s other play ‘Jhamela Non Stop’, a comedy, follows a foolish young girl who causes interesting incidents. Sanjida Priti, Jitu Ahsan, Salma Rosy, child artiste Mugdha and the director himself will perform in different roles in the play to be telecast on Boishakhi Television.
Besides directing plays, Selim has also acted in some television dramas including ‘Kanta’, based on Shahidul Zahir’s short story of the same title. Selim will perform the role of the protagonist at three different phases of his life. According to Selim, the drama, scripted and directed by Animesh Aich, will tell the audience a different story in a different style.
Selim also mentioned the plays ‘Kakshapathe Mon’ and ‘Anya Alor Manushgulo’ by Alvi Ahmed and Salauddin Lovlu’s ‘Angkurer Swapna’. He termed the plays as ‘healthy productions’.
‘Unfortunately, the number of quality works is few and gradually the number has been decreasing,’ Selim says and continues, ‘most of the television plays present cheap sentiment and full of vulgar elements. We should work for improving the taste of our viewers. We should provide them healthy entertainment.’
Selim believes that the media is not aptly performing its role of changing society and upholding the cultural heritage of the country. ‘Some people are promoting indecent elements through their television productions and earning cheap popularity among a certain quarter of audience.
Unfortunately, the media owners are also involved in this process of money-making,’ blames Selim. ‘We should try to get out of this situation,’ he emphasised. According to Selim, most of the new actors lack devotion to performance. ‘Without learning to act in a proper way, they, with some exceptions, have come to perform in plays. I strongly believe that performance is not an easy task,’ he resents adding ‘the performance has lost its past glory.’
Selim also believes that the dialect, which is now popularly being used in the TV plays at
present, has had a bad impact on society. Nonetheless, he does not want to give up hopes. ‘Even amid this situation, some devoted people are carrying the torch for an enlightened society,’ concludes the artiste.
