If you were not living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, then you have definitely come across some social media buzz about the highly anticipated film “Hawa.” The film broke all recent records as it opened in 24 theatres across the nation with almost 70 shows on its opening day, today (Friday, July 29). Various media sources have confirmed that the tickets for the next three days in all these theatres are also sold out. We rushed to attend the film's first show at the capital’s Star Cineplex’s Mirpur branch.
The backdrop
The film, starring big names like Chanchal Chowdhury, Sariful Razz, Nazifa Tushi, Shohel Mondol, Nasir Uddin Khan and Sumon Anowar in crucial roles, hit Bangladeshi virtual space with a storm right after its teaser and trailer release about a month ago. The film’s promotional tracks “Shada Shada Kala Kala” and Meghdol’s “E Hawa” struck a chord with Bangladeshi film lovers and were hovering in the top 5 spots on YouTube’s trending list for Bangladesh. The film’s promotional campaign and strategy were unlike anything we have seen in the recent Bangladeshi film scene.
“Hawa” is the debut film of acclaimed and popular Bangladeshi director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, who also happens to be a talented musician of the popular Bangladeshi band Meghdol. It was under development since 2016 and die-hard fans of the filmmaker were eagerly waiting for it to hit the theatres since then. The six-month-long production finally began in 2019. However, the shooting was postponed for a long time due to the pandemic.
Mesmerising visuals
As soon as we entered the theatre we could literally feel the wind of change that has hit the Bangladeshi film industry since this Eid-ul-Adha. The entrance was jam-packed with people waiting to enter the theatre or trying to buy any cancelled tickets.
As soon as the film started the full house audience went dead silent and was captivated by the opening sequence where we get to see a glimpse into each major character. People who are aware of Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s previous work know that he is one of the most visually stylistic directors in the country. But his pairing with "Monpura" famed cinematographer Kamrul Hasan Khasru took “Hawa” on a whole different level. Every single shot of the film depicts the beauty and horrors of deep sea fishing in the Bay of Bengal. From diving into the middle of the sea to retrieving fishing nets to dark stormy nights on a fishing troller, every scene will take you to the edge of your seats.
The film’s editorial was very well handled by talented Bangladeshi editor Sazal Alok. The colour and VFX of the film also met international standards. Not a single compositing shot or special effect felt out of place which is another rare feat in our local contemporary films. The makeup, production design and costumes were also phenomenal.
Undoubtedly, this is the most visually pleasing and stylistic Bangladeshi film I have seen in my entire lifetime.
Great soundscape
Another common complaint we regularly hear about Bangladeshi films is their approach to sound. “Hawa” probably is the first Bangladeshi film that had a fairly decent 5.1 surround sound mix. The sound design, done by Anirban Ganguly and Meghdol guitarist Rasheed Sharif Shoaib, has successfully created a proper soundscape which is bound to give you a feeling of life on a deep sea fishing troller. The dialogues were properly recorded and did not feel out of sync from the actors’ lips, which is a common issue in most mainstream Bangladeshi films. The music was done by Rasheed Sharif Shoaib and Emon Choudhury also complimented most of the scenes in the film. Almost 20-25 audience members went in front of the screen to dance and the entire theatre started singing when the track “Shada Shada Kala Kala” started. What amazed me was that Meghdol’s latest track “E Hawa,” which was part of the viral promotion campaign of the film, was not used in the film.
However, the team’s dedication to creating this amazing soundscape and auditory experience should receive a big round of applause.
Good acting
Most actors in the key roles did a splendid job. Chanchal’s betel leaf-soaked dialogues will surely amaze and disgust the audience at the same time. Sariful Razz, Shohel Mondol, and Nasir Uddin Khan also did well in their respective roles. Nazifa Tushi also did well in her role as a mysterious ‘Gulti’ who is a Bede or water gipsy,’ whose arrival on the boat starts a strange chain of events. Also, most of them played the roles of coastal Khulna and Bagerhat region’s fishermen. Every single one of the cast members properly pulled off the accent of those districts.
Yet, I have to admit that in some scenes Chanchal and Nasir Uddin went overboard with their delivery to generate a comical response which felt unnatural at times. Poor acting direction should be blamed for that.
Lacklustre screenplay
The film claims to be “a modern-day fairytale that revolves around the sea, the waves and a troller.” Chanchal Chowdhury plays the role of a captain (‘Head Majhi’) of a fishing troller which undergoes various mysterious incidents in the middle of the sea. Though the film is one of the most aesthetically pleasing things you will see and hear, its storyline sadly does not live up to the hype. The story arc felt very weak. Some cheap punchlines were very cleverly put in different portions of the film to produce a burst of laughter from the audience which mostly felt irrelevant to the sequence.
The only great thing about the screenplay was Gulti’s (Tushi) presence on a boat filled with fishermen in the middle of the sea and the tension among them. This particular dynamic was very well portrayed in the screenplay and also well visualised on screen.
Some of the dialogues, where Chanchal and Sumon Anowar were planning their internal schemes, felt confusing and pointless. At one point their confusing scheming conversations became repetitive and annoying but never take place in the entire film.
After the series of mysterious events when we finally reach the most climactic point of the film, we do not feel any catharsis for ‘Gulti,’ played by Tushi. Also, we do not get enough screen time to explore each of the characters and their characteristics. Except for Chanchal who maybe got way more screen time than his character deserved as he is the most popular cast member among the bunch.
Moreover, in some of the suspense and action sequences, where people are dying or afraid for their lives by mysterious incidents, audience members were laughing out loud. The dire situations of the film did not play out how the director intended they would.
The story and dialogue were written by the director himself. Also, the screenplay was co-written by the film’s director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon, Sukorno Shahed Dhiman, and Jaheen Faruque Amin. However, they could not pull off a brilliant closure to the film.
In my opinion, “Hawa” seemed like a poor attempt to create a fusion between Bangladesh’s coastal region’s various myths and folklore with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” with a pinch of borrowed nostalgia from the 1989 blockbuster Bangladeshi film “Beder Meye Josna.”
No PG-13 guidelines or warnings
Another thing that bothered me very much is that the film did not have any indication of PG-13 or ‘explicit content’ warning in any of its promotional material nor during the start of the film. I do applaud the filmmaker’s approach toward realistic dialogue and the heavy use of slang words in the film. Bangladeshi fishermen do pull each other’s legs by using various slang words. It made the overall seamen conversations more natural but why the film’s distributor, Jaaz Multimedia, did not notify the audience beforehand? The young audience loved these vulgar dialogues but people also took their kids to watch the film and were completely horrified by the language. A simple one-line warning in the promotional material would have solved this issue completely. Also, the film’s producers (Sun Music and Motion Pictures Limited) could have run two versions of the film. One version could have been explicit and allowed for audience who were more than 18 years old, and another version could have had all the slang terms bleeped out for the parents who wanted to take their kids to see it. Hopefully, the producers and distributors of the “Hawa” will sort these issues out soon. This is also a positive change in the industry as we can see that Bangladesh Film Censor Board gave “Hawa” the clearance certificate despite having such harsh yet realistic dialogues. Hopefully, more filmmakers in the future can receive such freedom from the censor board to portray their artistic vision on the big screen.
Final verdict
After the massive social media buzz and some major issues in the final film, can we really say if “Hawa” is worth all the hype or not? It most certainly is worth every penny in your pocket. Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s stunning debut film is one of the only Bangladeshi feature films that ticked all the boxes of the checklist our film industry needs to look into. He practically raised the bar of how a Bangladeshi cinema should look and sound like. Team “Hawa” also shaped the textbook on how a film needs to be promoted in this country. Bangladesh has finally entered the stage where from next week Marvel films like “Thor: Love and Thunder” will have direct local box office competitors like Ananta Jalil’s “Din: The Day,” Raihan Rafi’s “Poran” and Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s brilliantly crafted “Hawa.” What an exciting time to be alive!
Siam Raihan is a film producer, editor and a former sub-editor at Dhaka Tribune’s Showtime Desk
