The 14th death anniversary of eminent writer Shawkat Osman was observed through a discussion and screening of a documentary, on Monday, at the Liberation War Museum.
Kathashilpi Shawkat Osman Smrity Parishad organised the programme in which science and technology minister Yafes Osman, Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Mujahidul Islam Selim, professor Bulban Osman, professor Nazrul Islam, Dr Ranjit Kumar Biswas, and others, spoke at the discussion session presided over by eminent writer and poet Ahmed Rafiq.
Discussants at the programme recalled his mammoth contributions to Bangla literature. Moreover, a docu-fiction titled ‘Janani Janmaybhumi’, an adaptation from Shawkat Osman’s short story ‘Janani’, directed by Sarwar Tamizuddin, was screened at the event.
Osman, Shawkat (1917-1998) was an educationist, novelist and short story writer. Though Shawkat Osman is mainly known as a novelist and short story writer, he also wrote in a number of other genres such as essays, plays, humorous writings, memoirs and children’s books. His popular novels include ‘Janani’, ‘Kritadaser Hasi’, ‘Jahannam Hoite Biday’, ‘Samagam’, ‘Chaurasandhi’, ‘Artanad’ and others.
As recognition of his works, Shawkat Osman won several prestigious awards including Bangla Academy Award (1962), Ekushey Padak (1983), Independence Day Award (1997) and others.
Describing him as a humanitarian, Mujahidul Islam Selim said, ‘He not only presented catchy words, rhythmically, in his literature. Rather, his articulated writings have a strong voice against bourgeois, oppressors and every type of irregularities.’ Mujahidul, who was a direct student of Osman at Dhaka College, remembered ‘He was active in all the political upheavals since early 1950s.’
Bulbun Osman, Shawkat Osman’s son, explored his father’s immense contribution and direct involvement with the war of independence.
‘Though Osman passed his early education in the Islamic method, his significant literary works including “Jahannam Hoite Biday”, “Ishwarer Pratidandi”, among others, usher utmost freedom’ said Ranjit Kuman Biswas.
The discussion was followed by screening of 22-minute docu-fiction ‘Janani Janmaybhumi’. The first seven minutes of the film, scripted by freedom fighter Professor Maleka Begum, shows women’s contribution in varied upheavals and mass uprisings, from the British period to the war of independence. And the second part shows Bangali women’s sacrifice and contribution in the war.
The story zooms on three old women played by Dolly Zahor, Saika and Kohinoor Keya, who live in a deserted village, since the males depart the village to escape from the Pakistani occupational army and its collaborators, known as razakars. On a tip-off, the Pakistani soldiers suddenly invade the village but find no one except the three old women.
In the climax of the fiction, a razakar revolts against the Pakistani forces by refusing the order of the Pakistani Major, to violate one of these three elderly women, considering they were like his mother. Then the Pakistani Major says, ‘You (razakar) have already raped your mother-land, which resembles mother, so it should not bother you.’
The touchy messages and satires of Shawkat Osman, in the film, stump the audience.
-With New Age input
