For many Bangladeshis, childhood arrived with a familiar voice and a handful of puppets.
Long before cartoons filled television screens and smartphones took over childhood, there was Mustafa Monwar, patiently creating a gentler world where children could laugh, dream, and feel safe, even when the country around them often could not.
The artist, puppeteer, television pioneer, and educator died on Monday morning at Square Hospital in Dhaka. He was 90.
He had long been suffering from pneumonia, prostate cancer, and other age-related complications.
After a relapse, he was admitted to the intensive care unit on June 14. He died at around 8:30am.
With his passing, Bangladesh loses more than an artist.
It loses one of the rare people who helped shape the emotional landscape of an entire generation.
Born on September 1, 1935, to renowned poet Golam Mostofa, Mustafa Monwar was the youngest of six siblings.
He experienced loss early in life, losing his mother when he was just five years old.
Perhaps that early encounter with grief would later shape his lifelong instinct to create comfort for others.
His commitment to art revealed itself early.
In 1952, while studying in Class IX at Narayanganj High School, he was briefly jailed for drawing cartoons in support of the Language Movement, a reminder that for Monwar, art was never merely decoration but a way of standing beside people during defining moments of history.
That conviction became even more profound during the Liberation War in 1971.
While millions of Bangladeshis sought refuge across the border, Monwar carried something unusual into the refugee camps of West Bengal—not weapons or relief supplies, but puppets.
Using little more than cloth, wood, and imagination, he staged productions such as Agachha (Weeds), Rakkhash (The Monster), and Ekjon Sahosi Krishok (A Brave Farmer) for children who had witnessed war, displacement, and unimaginable loss.
His performances offered something desperately needed: a brief return to childhood.
American filmmaker Lear Levin documented those performances, footage that would later become part of Tareque Masud’s acclaimed documentary Muktir Gaan.
After independence, Mustafa Monwar continued the same mission through Bangladesh Television.
For twelve years, Moner Kotha became a cherished part of family life, introducing beloved puppet characters such as Parul, Bagha, and Mini.
They were more than television personalities; they became childhood companions for generations growing up in an era with few programs made especially for them.
He also created Notun Kuri, the pioneering talent hunt that became the first stage for thousands of young singers, actors, and performers, many of whom would later become household names.
Even after television changed, Monwar remained devoted to puppetry, mentoring younger artists and establishing the Educational Puppet Development Centre to ensure the art form would survive beyond his own lifetime.
His contributions earned numerous honors, including the All India Fine Arts Competition award, the Zainul Abedin Gold Medal, and, in 2004, the Ekushey Padak, one of Bangladesh’s highest civilian honors.
Throughout Monday, admirers gathered at his Dhanmondi residence to pay their respects, among them artist Rafiqun Nabi.
His body will be taken to Bangladesh Television and the Central Shaheed Minar on Tuesday before a second funeral prayer at Dhaka University and burial at Banani Graveyard.
Awards will record Mustafa Monwar’s achievements.
History will remember his contributions to art, television, and puppetry.
But his greatest legacy lives somewhere less tangible.
It lives in the memories of countless Bangladeshis who still remember Parul, Bagha, and Mini as if they were part of their own families.
In a country where childhood has often been interrupted by hardship, conflict and uncertainty, Mustafa Monwar spent a lifetime quietly building a place where children could simply be children.
That may be the masterpiece he leaves behind.
