Alamgir Kabir’s Death Anniv Observartion
Kabir’s two films screened
Noted filmmaker Alamgir Kabir’s popular feature film Surjokanya and his documentary on the war of independence were screened on Tuesday at the National Art Plaza auditorium of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Kabir’s close associate filmmaker Tanvir Mokammel also analysed Alamgir Kabir’s talent as a filmmaker at the commemorative programme, which was organised as part of the three-day death anniversary observation programme of the late filmmaker.
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Alamgir Kabir Film Center, Federation of Film Societies of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Short Film Forum and Bangladesh Documentary Council have jointly organised the programme marking Kabir’s 25th death anniversary.
Alamgir Kabir’s documentary titled Liberation Fighters gives a detailed picture of the freedom fighters during the war: from recruitment process, hardship in training at the camps, the spirit and dedication to liberate the mother land and the zeal of winning battles of the valiant fighters. Perhaps this is the only available documentary on the war that depicts the training and vigours of the Bengali navy commandos, who played significant role during the war by taking part in risky operations. In fact, Liberation Fighters was filmed with the motivation of glorifying the best sons of the soil, who sacrificed their lives for the country.
His feature film Surjokanya, on the other hand, is love story where a boss offers love to his private secretary and wins her heart. Bulbul Ahmed, Rajesree Bose, Flora Sarkar, Ahsan Kabir, and others perform in the film.
In his lecture titled ‘Alamgir Kabir: Bioscope-er Deshe Ek Swapnadrosta Chalachitrakar’, Tanvir Mokammel analysed different perspectives of Kabir’s methods of filmmaking like selecting subjects, his style and presentations of the stories in his films, which appears much more advanced to the time.
Mokammel further said that in terms of subject matter Kabir was versatile and unique in his time. For example, Kabir brought playful relation between men and women in his film Surjokanya. Besides, before Kabir, sexual relation between men and women were neglected or vulgarly presented in Bangla films, but Kabir was the first to present it in artistic manner in Dhire Bohe Meghna.
Kabir was also a mouthpiece of his time. ‘The way he presented the political situations of the 60s and 70s in his films was unique. He even shows activities of NGOs in the country in his film Mohona, where he shows how an NGO owner spends the NGO money for his children’s higher education,’ Mokammel said.
‘Kabir showed the courage to use animation in Surjokanya in the 70s. Besides, he used ‘negative images’ in many of his films to depict the mental condition of the characters,’ Mokammel said.
Mokammel further said that Alamgir Kabir’s picturisation of the playbacks was atypical, who did not use the conventional way of creating fantasy world where actors lip-sync and dance in garden. He rather gave a realistic presentation of the songs,’ said Tanvir Mokammel.
-With New Age input
