Originally from a humble background, the celebrated personality late Tareque Masud was born in Nurpur Village of Faridpur District in Bangladesh. His early education in a madrassa was in upheaval during Liberation War and after the independence of the country, he entered general education, completing his HSC from Adamjee Cantonment College and eventually graduating from Dhaka University with a degree in History.
From his university days, the multi-talented Tareque was involved in the film society movement.
His 1995 feature length documentary on the ‘71 Liberation War, “Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom)” brought record audiences and became a cult classic. He also made many other films on the war, including “Muktir Kotha (Words of Freedom, 1999),” “Narir Kotha (Women and War, 2000)” and “Naroshundor (The Barbershop, 2009).” In 2002, he completed his feature film “Matir Moina (The Clay Bird),” which was based on his childhood experience in the madrassa. The film won the Critics’ Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, was the first Bangladeshi film to compete in the Oscars, and was released in many countries around the world.
In addition to his filmmaking work, he was also a pioneer of the independent film movement in Bangladesh. Tareque was a founding member of the Short Film Forum, the leading platform for independent filmmakers. In 1988, he organized the country’s first International Short and Documentary Film Festival, which is held on a biannual basis to this day. He was also known as the “Cinema Feriwalla” for the way in which he showed his films, touring remote towns and villages throughout the country with his mobile projection unit.
Masud died on August 13, 2011 in a tragic road accident while returning from work on location for his upcoming feature film “Kagojer Phul (The Paper Flower),” on the 1947 partition of Bengal. Also killed in the accident was his longtime cinematographer and friend Mishuk Munier, along with three other colleagues. Catherine Masud and four others survived the accident.
