Curtain falls on 10th edition of Dhaka Lit Fest

The four-day-long Dhaka Lit Fest, which brought together a diverse mix of the world's best writers, filmmakers, musicians, and artists, ended with a reaffirmation of its commitment to promote Bangladeshi culture, literature, and arts at the Bangla Academy on Sunday.

Defying the biting cold and foggy weather, hundreds of hundreds of writers, academics, researchers, journalists, artists, and book lovers attended the tenth edition of the biggest international literary festival in Bangladesh. The event was filled with sessions on various topics, film screenings, discussions, and music performances.

Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah and British publisher Alexandra Pringle, poet and writer Goutam Guha Roy, and Professor Resa Lewiss were among those who addressed the concluding session.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

This festival officially concluded with a recitation and dance performance, and music performances by Coke Studio Bangla. The lineup for the show included Animes Roy, Pantha Kanai, Rubayat Rehman, Rituraj, Nandita, Sunidhi Nayak, and Boga Taleb.

The day started with “Kirtan,” spiritual music performances, at the Bangla Academy Lawn around 9am. 

DLF directors Kazi Anis Ahmed, Ahsan Akbar, and Sadaf Saaz were in attendance at the concluding session at Bangla Academy's Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad auditorium in the evening.

DLF Director Sadaf Saaz Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Sadaf Saaz said: “This year, we proved that this is your festival. People are supporting the Dhaka Lit Fest and we are happy to see the love for literature, science, and knowledge at this event.”

Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan said: “It is at times like these that events such as the Dhaka Lit Fest are even more crucial and important. They help foment a climate of discussion, debate, and dissent. They inspire people to think, to question, to dream, and to take up the cudgels to fight the good fight. Dhaka Lit Fest is above all a festival of ideas and it provides a platform for ideas to be expressed, for inspiration to be born, and for the seeds of independent thinking to be planted.”

Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

He said Dhaka Lit Fest provides a platform for Bangladesh's best to showcase their work and ideas not just to a global audience, but also to their own countrymen and women. 

“Dhaka Lit Fest has quietly become one of the most important platforms for Bangladesh's own homegrown writers, filmmakers, musicians and artists of all stripes and feathers, and this is no small part of what makes it so special,” Zafar Sobhan added.

Writer Mashrur Arefin, also the managing director of City Bank, said some people are saying that DLF is a festival for elite. Many people disliked the idea of introducing tickets at the event, but the crowds from the first day have changed this perception.

Mashrur Arefin Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

He also said: “There should be a translation club in Bangladesh. I am sure that City bank will cooperate to establish it, because there are many talented writers in Africa, Europe and Asia, and their writings need to be presented to the world.”

On the last day of Dhaka Lit Fest, Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah discussed various topics, including his childhood, studies and writing. Alexandra Pringle, the editor of several of his books, conducted the session titled “Desertion” at the Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad Auditorium of Bangla Academy. 

Gurnah said that he did not even get books to read as a child. He satiated his appetite for reading with school textbooks. He also started writing during his student life but had no idea about how to publish his work until much later.

Bangladeshi poet Mohammad Nurul Huda said he thinks Bangla is the most powerful language in the world.

“At one time, Bangla was among the first two or three languages out of 10. Everything we have written must be translated and presented to the world,” he added.

Former coach of the Bangladesh cricket team Sir Gordon Greenidge said cricket is becoming more and more about the batters.

Sir Gordon Greenidge in the session titled “Eye on the Ball” on the fourth and last day of Dhaka Lit Fest Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

He spoke in a session titled “Eye on the Ball”. The cover of the book “Eye on the Ball” by Yusuf Rahman Babu, legendary batsman of Bangladesh in the seventies and eighties, was unveiled on the day.

Nobonita Chowdhury, musician and director of the Gender, Justice, and Diversity (GJD) and Preventing Violence Against Women Initiative at Brac, said feminism is not about matriarchy, nor is it about girls getting more. Rather, it is actually about equality.

She made the remarks at a session titled “Patriarchy vs Patriarchy”. The discussion began with actor Iresh Zaker, who said: “As a man, my behaviour, expression, speech is developed from this society. That's why we have to have such a discussion. But I think this discussion is sad.”

At around 6:30pm, the main attraction of the closing event - the concert by Coke Studio Bangla- took place.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Dhaka Lit Fest is featured winners of the Pulitzer, International Booker, Neustadt International, and PEN/Pinter prizes, as well as the Prix Médicis, Academy Award, Windham-Campbell Prize, Albert Medal, Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and Aga Khan Award.

Bangladesh's biggest event on world literature and culture began on Thursday with around 500 writers, poets, performers, intellectuals, journalists, and internationally acclaimed prize-winning speakers taking part in over 170 sessions over the four days.