Sadik Ahmed talks about “The Last Thakur”
A stranger arrives in a small town, poised to quell a long-standing feud, but it soon becomes apparent that he has his own vendetta to resolve. “The Last Thakur”, a British-Bangladeshi film belonging to the Western genre, is the story of a lone gunman who is in search of his identity and seeks revenge on the person who abused his mother. In the course, he is used by the two rival leaders of the town.
The film, which was made in 2008, is an intense revenge story in a Bangladeshi setting by award-winning young British-Bengali filmmaker Sadik Ahmed. The film features an ensemble cast of leading Bangladeshi TV and theatre actors, including Tariq Anam Khan, Tanveer Hassan, Ahmed Rubel and Jayanto Chattopadhyay.
The film has been screened all over the world and has bagged several awards. A special screening [for a selected audience] was held recently in Dhaka. Ahmed was there and talked to The Daily Star about his film.
“Pre-production in Bangladesh is comparatively challenging,” said Ahmed, who chose a one square mile area in Brahmanbaria for the set of the film. There were vast arrangements for the big-budget film. Ahmed also wrote the screenplay and was the director of photography as well.
Impress Telefilm Ltd bought rights to the film in 2009 but is yet to release it in Bangladesh. Artificial Eye, one of the largest distributors of films across the globe, has been promoting the film outside Bangladesh. The film is a Channel 4 co-production.
“The Last Thakur” was lauded at the London Film Festival and then went on to tour Dubai, Mumbai and New York. The Sight and Sound magazine termed it as “one of the most confident British debut features” since Asif Kapadia’s “The Warrior” (2001).
Ahmed informed that he comes to Bangladesh every year for professional reasons.
“As I was born here, I like this country, and I feel an attachment with its culture. Being Syheti, I have had the opportunity to see rural Bangladesh. And I’m a big fan of Western films of Clint Eastwood and Akira Kurosawa. All these influences together inspired me to make this film,” said Ahmed.
Ahmed hoped that the Bangladeshi audience would soon get the chance to watch the film.
Ahmed was born in 1977 in Bangladesh; went to England as a child and was brought up in London. He studied Fine Arts there, before enrolling in National Film and Television School to do his MA in Cinematography. He made the short “Tanju Miah” as his graduation film, which won as Best Factual Film at the Royal Television Society Student Television Awards in 2007. The film was screened at both Sundance and Toronto Film Festival
-With The Daily Star input
