The legend TarequeMasud never thoughthe would end up with a career in making films.When he, along with MishukMunier, started following S M Sultan with a camera, neither Bangladesh nor they themselves had any idea how an auteurwas ‘under construction’. That documentary, shot in 16 mm film, was his ‘firstborn’ and it took him seven years to make it. Later on, in many of his interviews, he affirmed that if he knew that he was going to be a filmmaker, then he would rather take seven months to wrap it up to concentrate on another.His urge to prove himself as a director would not have let him wasteseven long years with Sultan. Therefore, he viewed his first venture Adam Surat as a by-product at a phase of self-exploration. He, MishukMunier and their camera were in a journey to know life at its true features along with a most enlightened soul of our time. They intensely studied the painter, his paintings, and his vision along with their own. After Adam Surat, he took a break. Then, co-incidentally, the magical footage ofMuktirGaanand TarequeMasud found each other. In 1995, he returned to Bangladesh to change its filmscape for the next few decades. The release of MuktirGaan, ie the song of freedom,literally freed our audiencesfrom being catered to only formula films. Bangladeshi cinema halls experienced something very new with awe. Never before had our cinema halls been flooded with such audiences to see a documentary.TarequeMasud, the beacon of modern Bangla films had found a reason to make films then. Since then, till the day we lost him, he kept living films for us, the many who waited inlong queues to see MuktirGaan.Masud will always stand out as an idol to the aspiring filmmakers for several reasons. He believed in film grammar and knew it thoroughly. In spite of being technically way more sound than most of his contemporaries, he was the most humble one. Whenever he was approached to advise, he always said he cannot instruct us to do things and preferred to tell us what not to do because he wanted to give priority to individuals and refrained from intruding.He believed in proper film schools. As many believe, film is something to be born with; they often get very rigid and elitist. They often think film is not everybody’s cup of tea and restrict mandatory film viewing in only classics. They often considered the popular genres as untouchables. ButMasud believed in learning filmmaking as well as liked toaccommodate ‘bazaari’films in the viewing list with an open mind. He was the most optimistic of the lot about the future of Bangladeshi films, but he was also fearful that an entire generation of filmmakers might get trapped. He envisioned that the new generation would only be capable of producing artificiality instead of art, unless compassionate measures are taken. And, right there we mourn his untimely demise.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
