Dhallywood missing women-oriented movies
by Abu Md Masani
From the 70s to the 90s in the last century, fans of Bangladeshi cinema (Dhallywood) got so many women-oriented movies. After release of those movies in the theatres, they became super hits and earned so many awards at home and abroad.
Viewers may remember the names of movies Golapi (Bobita) and her associates sold flour, Jorina (Shabana) struggled against poverty and Nobitun (Kabori) fought against the evils of society in the absence of her sailor husband.
You might not remember these characters if you were born in the 1990s. Yes, they were three spirited women from three popular Bangladeshi movies from yesteryears _ Golapi Ekhon Train-e, Bhat De and Sareng Bou respectively.
Nowadays, viewers hardly get to see such movies where women are at the forefront of campaigns for social justice or gender equality.
Women-oriented movies have been disappearing gradually from Dhallywood since the early 1990s. Ironically, thats when we got our first woman head of government and opposition leader.
Once, we had talented directors like Subhash Datta, Amjad Hossain, Alamgir Kabir, Moshiuddin Sharker, Sheikh Niyamat Ali, Chasi Nazrul Islam, Azizur Rahman and Abdullah-al-Mamun.
Those eminent directors made many films where female characters had strong personalities. The stories were based on women with strong personalities like Joygun in Surja Dighal Bari, Nobitun in Sareng Bou, Golapi in Golapi Ekhon Train-e, Jorina in Bhat De, Sakhina in Sakhinar Juddho, Mala in Padma Nadir Majhi.
These fantastic movies and their actors and directors earned name and fame for themselves and the country. Those days are gone. The future of Bangladeshi movies is at stake for not making such movies anymore.
These days, what do we see? Fifteen years have already gone by in the 21st century. We, the viewers, have only seen two or three women-oriented movies where strong female characters are portrayed like Matritto, Meghla Akash, Megher Kole Rode and Palabi Kothay.
The 20th century was the golden era for the Bangladesh film industry. Dhallywood gave us so many classic movies, talented actors and directors.
Many movies were also made from classic literature where women are the main characters, like Devdas, Parineeta, Rajlaxmi, Srikanta, Bish Brikhho, Ramer Sumati, Chanpa Dangar Bou, Hangar Nadi Grenade, Subhada, Saat Bhai Chanpa etc. Actresses like Bobita, Shabana, Kabori, Champa, Rozina, Anwara and Anjana played the main roles in those movies, which became classics, too.
Dhallywood also had many female directors in those days, like Kabori, Sujata and Rosey Afsari, who made films where women characters were portrayed properly. In the late 90s, Nargis Aktar made three women- oriented movies like Meghla Akash, Megher Kole Rod and Char Sotiner Ghar.
Bollywood (Mumbai) and Tallyganj (Kolkata) are still making women-oriented Hindi movies like Pa, Dirty Picture, Kahani, Chadni Bar, Astitvya, Fashion Queen and English Vinglish; or Bangla movies like Dahan, Unishe April, Chokher Baali, Bariwali, Antaheen, Aro Ekbar, Abahoman, Goynar Baxo, Japanese Wife, Anuronon. Then, why should we lag behind in continuing to make such films?
Perhaps, our studios do not have the latest technology or equipment for making quality films. But we do have so many talented actors, directors, writers, cinematographers and technicians to make movies like Surjo Dighal Bari again.
And we also have Subarna, Champa, Moushumi, Poppy, Mimi, Shomi, Bipasha, Joya and Momo to portray any kind of strong female role, just as Shabana, Bobita and Kabori did in the past.
We only need inspiration, willingness and logistic support. The question is: who will take the lead?
