The first Bengali language feature film ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ was released on August 3 in 1956; therefore, it marks the completion of 59 long years of journey yesterday and turns 60 this year. In 1953, director Abdul Jabbar Khan started working on the film ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ under the banner of Iqbal Films. In the film, director Abdul Jabbar Khan himself played the role of a hero, while Purnima Sen from Chittagong played the role of the lead female. The other casts of the film includes, Inam Ahmed, Najma, Zahrat Azra, Ali Mansoor, and Saifuddin among others. The associate members of the films included M Zaman as cinematographer, Samar Das as lyricist, and Abdul Alim and Mahbuba Hasnat as singers.
Then, a government film studio was launched at Tejgaon in 1955. In addition to the FDC, Popular Studio, Bari Studio and Bengal Studio played an important role to increase the local films of the country. Then, the East Bengal Provincial Assembly established the East Pakistan Film Development Corporation (EPFDC) on April 3, 1957. As a result, from the year 1959, films were produced every year. Though, no other film was released in 1957 and 1958 after releasing the first film ‘Mukh O Mokhos’.
In the 1960s, one of the prominent directors of East Bengal was Zahir Raihan. Some of his notable works include ‘Kokhono Asheni’, ‘Kancher Deyal’, ‘Dui Bhai’, ‘Shangam’, ‘Let There be Light’, and ‘Jibon Theke Neya’. In 1971 he made a documentary on the Bangladesh Liberation War, ‘Stop Genocide’, which was one of the first internationally acclaimed films of Bangladesh.
During the mid 1990s, Bangladeshi films started losing a large sector of the audience because of lack of quality, and during 2000s, Bangladeshi films began doing poor business and initially, the numbers of films decreased. After a drastic decline in the 2000s, the Bangladeshi film industry bounced back after 2009.
Since 2013, Bangladesh has developed several large production and distribution companies, such as Monsoon films, Jaaz Multimedia and Tiger Media Limited and the films produced by them have been doing better business than others for their large budget and glamorous appearance.
Though the year 2014 was the most profitable year, but the films of 2015 titled ‘Agnee 2’, ‘Love Marriage’, ‘Padma Patar Jol’ break the all the previous records.
Researcher Anupam Hayat wrote a book on the history of Bangladeshi cinema, which will help the readers to know about the Bangladeshi films. l
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Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.
Editor : M. Shamsur Rahman
Published by the Editor on behalf of Independent Publications Limited at Media Printers, 446/H, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1215.
Editorial, News & Commercial Offices : Beximco Media Complex, 149-150 Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208, Bangladesh. GPO Box No. 934, Dhaka-1000.