With the quality of the “used-to-be-cherished” local drama scene arguably dipping, being repeatedly questioned for a stereotypical way of storytelling and stories, a reunion of the millenial director squad, Chabial, helmed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has created quite a stir amongst local viewers.
Presented by Banglalink, Chabial is coming up with a miniseries with seven different stories under the banner of Chabial Eid Reunion to be aired on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, directed by some of the country’s leading filmmakers including the likes of Mostafa Kamal Raz, Adnan Al Rajeev, Ashfaque Nipun, Humayun Sadhu, Saraf Ahmed Zibon, Redoan Rony, Iftekhar Ahmed Fahmi, Ashutosh Sujon, under the supervision and direction of the famous and popular director Mostafa Sarwar Farooki.
Showtime reached out to one of the members of the Chabial team, Adnan Al Rajeev, who has been praised for his works in TV commercials in recent times. Just like the rest of the team, he is also returning with a fiction after a long time. The director talked about their reunion, his recent work, and ambition among other things.Tell us about Chabial reunion … how did you come up with the plan of returning as a team?Due to his marriage and familial matters, being one of my closest friends, Fahmi was missing from our friendly gatherings for a long time. Redwan Rony and I used to hang out a lot though. As soon as Fahmi started to frequently join us again, we started reminiscing about our old times together in Chabial. We noticed that the number of “surface level” work in our industry is drubbing the quality ventures in number. As directors, we used to attract the youth with our stories, who are gradually, leaving the TV and opting for other platforms. So, we planned a casual meeting with the whole Chabial team regarding a reunion and approached Farooki bhai with the plan. He then asked us whether we’ll be following his lead the same way we used to before and without a moment of hesitation, we agreed to do so.What are you cooking for your audience?A lot of my viewers expect a bit of funky and youthful work from me, which is characteristic of my earlier work. But I’ve always wanted to explore other genres as well. Initially, I came up with a thriller and informed Farooki bhai about the story. After a few days, all of a sudden, Farooki bhai told me to change the story. He explained that people already know about the nature of my work and I need to step out of the box this time. Being highly motivated by his statement as always, I built up another story and surprisingly for the first time in my career, I am working on a family drama titled Bikel Belar Pakhi.Can we have a glimpse of the story?The story revolves around the life of a businessman-turned insurance worker and his family consists of his wife, a son and two daughters, Topu, Toru and Era. The drama features Fazlur Rahman Babu, Alen Shuvro, Ilora Gohor, Safat Trisha and Safa Nomoni in different roles. I’ve already finished shooting and it’s now being edited on the editing panel. I’ll release a trailer within a day or two.What’s your expectating from the work? I believe we’ll have a fair response from our audience because as you see, most of the contemporary TV dramas are becoming stereotypical and lacks proper characterisation of their stories, which eventually leads to a huge gap in the overall storytelling. After coming up with the plan of reuniting, we started to find a solution to meet this gap, analysing the strengths and weaknesses of this type of work and comparing them with the lauded ones. We’ve disseminated our learning throughout the different fictions and I believe they will be worth of your time.On a different note, what happened with your Youtube venture ‘The Pissla’? Won’t you ever return again? Pissla was a result of our idle time. When we were free and had nothing else to do rather than chatting, one of us used to write a random lyric, while the other made up a random composition. We used to invest a united effort to make it as bad as possible, so people don’t take it seriously. It was never serious. If we ever can manage that kind of leisure, who knows, maybe we’ll create something like that again.When are you going to make a film? Actually, I don’t know. Plans never really work out well for me. I think I am ready for it and I’ll be able to make a film when I will be able to find a producer who wants to tell the story the way I want to and can think the same way I do. I’ll definitely go for a film then and it could be anytime.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
