Qualitative Research On Does Bangla cinema portray Bangla culture?

A study of some contemporary modern Bangladeshi cinema

CMN 409: Cinema and Cultural Identity

Prepared for: Dr. Zakir Hossain Raju Course Instructor of CMN 409

Prepared by: Sharif Ahmad Shabbir ID: 0810216

Introduction Bangla cinema is the cinema produced by the cinema industry of Bangladesh now called Dhaliwood (. Bangla cinema which started its journey from the 1950s with the first talking movie named Mukh o Mukhosh (Bangla) or The Face and Mask (English), has a glorious past that still echoes today. But the cinema industry has failed miserably to uphold the quality standards of the industry that prevailed in the start. Where the Bangla cinema industry in the black & white arena was magnified by the relentless work and contribution of talented directors and actors, who gave in all their efforts to take Bangla cinema to greater heights along with increasing expectations from the audiences, the cinema industry has gradually lost its vigor and glamour to some evil spirits in the later years that followed. The black and white arena that dated from the 1950s to the 1980s was the golden era of the Bangla cinema industry as a lot of quality Bangla films were produced at that time creating a specific classy audience class for the evergreen Bangla films of that time People from all spheres of life were eager about these Bangla films and the passion they had for these films were to such an extent that they did not hesitate in spending their hard earned pocket monies to have a look at the Bangla films at that time in the theatres. However, sadly and unfortunately, after the entrance of the Bangla cinema industry in the late 1990s brought a downfall to the ever shining Bangla cinema industry. The Bangla films that later started being made were inflicted with problems of various kinds including copying tendencies of Hindi (Indian) movies, disastrous and copious movie music composition, non-Bangla love elements and outlooks. As a result, the Bangla cinema became left out by majority of the audiences because they accused these socalled Bangla cinemas as trash and promoting an alien culture that is not Bangla culture at all.

Amid all these allegations, the Bangla cinema industry has survived and is still thriving to reach at least a standard in line with its glorious history. The Bangla cinema has evolved over the last decade on different dimensions where the Bangla cinema was haunted by the

once so much talked about obscenity which later came down to an acceptable level due to tough drives against the cinema industry to free it from all evil spirits. Now-a-days besides commercial Bangla cinemas, some feature films are also being made which got more positive responses from the audiences than commercial films. The commercial cinemas are now also changing to meet up to the present day standards by using small scale innovations and new techniques. But still the question pertains that is Does Bangla cinema portray Bangla culture in the present times?

This research will try to find the answer to this particular question by adopting a quantitative research approach. In this research by the term Bangla cinema we are referring to commercial Bangla cinema produced from Bangladesh only not any Bangla feature film as the feature films in Bengali are quite few in number and do not constitute a fully functional branch of the cinema industry in Bangladesh. This research paper will try to analyze Bangla commercial cinema on the basis of Bangla culture and see whether the commercial Bengali cinema is in harmony with the actual spirit of Bangla culture and to substantiate the study a few case studies of some recent Bangla cinema will also be presented. This research paper employed the techniques of content analysis for discussions and participant observation for case studies as methodology.

History of Bangla Cinema The cinema industry of Bangladesh dates as back as the late 1890s. Bangladesh was then in nexus with the greater Indian subcontinent and in tandem with Calcutta (the present West Bengal). Sharing the same Bangla language, the first ever Bangla movies were made in Calcutta which received great patronage from the then British occupiers of the Indian subcontinent. The British rulers favored the development of Bangla cinema in Calcutta and gave financial support both directly and indirectly. This allowed Calcutta to set itself up as a hub for Bangla cinema in the later period. However, cinema arrived in Bangladesh (The then Banga which later became East Pakistan in 1947 and Bangladesh in 1971) by the end of 1890s. A newspaper report of Dhaka Prakash in1898 stated that films were being screened in a theatre called, The Crown Theatre in Dhaka where news and documentary video footages were displayed. Later in the period of 1913-1914, the first cinema theatre, Picture House, started functioning. After that cinema halls were gradually being built and the number of cinema halls reached 80 by 1947 in the then Bangladesh where regular films were shown, most of them being films made in Bangla from Calcutta. Until 1956, the Bangla cinema industry was mostly silent, movies produced without any verbal dialogues. The first ever cinema made in Bangladesh was Mukh o Mukhosh, which was the also the first talkie of the Bangla cinema industry, debuted on August 03, 1956. The entire film was shot in Dhaka with local Bangladeshi artists and a storyline that catered for the Bangladeshi audience of that time, but the post production of the film was done in Lahore, The then West Pakistan (the present Pakistan). Mukh o Mukhosh was the start of the Bangla cinema industry from Bangladesh and the journey of Mukh o Mukhosh inspired many other Bangla films produced later onwards. After the partition of the Indian subcontinent by the British colonial rulers in 1947, the present Bangladesh was conjoined with the present Pakistan as a combined single state divided into two sections, East and West Pakistan. The West Pakistan was in power of Bangladesh after 1947 and the then West Pakistan government established the East Pakistan Film Development Corporation (EPFDC) in 1957, a year after the release of

Mukh o Mukhosh with a view to help the Bangla cinema flourish. EPFDC was later renamed as Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BDFDC) after it became independent from West Pakistan in 1971. Still now, BDFDC exists as the focal point of the commercial Bangla cinema industry but in a very unstable condition pounded by various problems, hence losing its potential day by day to improve the local Bangla cinema industry. Along with BDFDC, a film archive was also set up for conserving the much acclaimed Bangla cinema as a remark of a precious historical national asset of the country for the times to come, as the cinema industry is a valuable asset for any country. The era of 1956 till 1990 of the Bangla cinema industry was completely black and white. After 1990, the Bangla cinema industry entered the colorful age and had undergone a massive process of commercialization. Hence the Bangla cinema industry from 1990 onwards lost its artistic element and was overridden with very much commercialistic elements which constitute the famous model of social class difference (rich-poor)-cheesy romance-some erotic dance numbers- hilarious fight scenes-happy ending that still govern most of the commercial Bangla cinema of today.

Note: The history of Bangla cinema has been adapted from the following resources: a) Banglapedia: Film, Feature http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/F_0076.HTM b) Wikipedia: Cinema of Bangladesh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Bangladesh

Bangla Culture After knowing a brief history of Bangla cinema, we now need to understand what Bangla culture is since the research topic deals with Bangla cinema and culture. The culture of Bangladesh popularly known as Bangla culture evolves around the spirit of the creation of a Bangla nation as a whole. The epicenter of Bangla culture is intertwined with the birth of Bangladesh as a nation and as a country. However the people of this region had their own way of life from the ancient times. But due to various courses of action that we know from history, the culture of this region changed accordingly. To understand the culture of Bangladesh, thus it is essential to have a quick overview of the history of the Indian subcontinent as a whole. As mentioned earlier, the present Bangladesh was before a part of the greater Indian subcontinent, so Bangladesh shared a common culture with that of other regions in the Indian subcontinent. Mainly in the ancient times, idolatry was the main religious practice of this region and majority of the population were Hindus but later after the invasion of the Arab merchants and rulers from Muslim majority regions like Persia and Afghanistan, many people of this region converted into Muslims. For this conversion of religion, the culture of Bangladesh also changed drastically but still some ancient cultural rituals of the Hindus are predominant in todays modern Bangla culture. Then the Europeans started coming to this region with trade missions and they also influenced a lot on the Bangla culture. The Englishman, William Carey contributed a lot to the grammar of Bangla language where William wrote the grammar in English and then it was later converted into Bangla by local language specialists. Then after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh fell under the hands of the oppressive West Pakistani who denied the existence of the Bangla spirit in all ways. The people of this region had to fight to establish Bangla language as the state language against the West Pakistani rulers diction that Urdu will be the only state language of Pakistan. This language movement gave rise to the distinctive Bangla nationality spirit among the people of this region and the people realized that apart from a common religion (Islam) the two Pakistan sections had nothing in common. This epiphany

ultimately led to the creation of the independent and sovereign state of Bangladesh after the 9 month long devastating liberation war in 1971. After the liberation war, Bangladesh started off on its own to establish a unique Bangla identity and Bangla culture has been in close ties with the spirit of the liberation war. The history of the war and the national spirit associated with it forms the main essence of Bangla culture. Besides the national spirit, the religious factors also influenced Bangla culture. Since from the historical context, Bangladesh had been ruled by different rulers of different religions and different cultural backgrounds, the Bangla culture has been an assimilation of everything and this is reflected in every sphere of Bangla culture including arts and literature, music and performing arts, festivals, dress up, language, philosophy and folklore. Besides the spirit of the Liberation War, religion is also a major part of the Bangla culture. Majority of the population are Muslims and the Islamic rituals are prevalent with people being respectful to their religion. Also besides Islam, other religious followers (Hindus, Buddhists and Christians) are also free to practice their own respective religions in harmony with the majority Muslim population. As a result, along side two Eid festivals in the Bangladesh, other religious festivals like Durga Puja, Christmas, Buddha Purnima are also being celebrated with due fervor. Although majority of the Bangladeshi population are mainstream Bengalis but other ethnic groups also exist in the country with their own set of rituals and distinctive cultural practices. These ethnic groups mostly comprise of the tribal people who live scattered mostly in the hilly parts of the country. The culture of these ethnic groups add to the diversity of the mainstream Bangla culture that exists in Bangladesh but in most media depictions the portrayal of ethnic culture still remains absent.

Bangla cinema and Bangla culture As mentioned earlier, as the Bangla cinema industry entered the color age in the 1990s, it was taken over by very cheesy commercial elements. Where cinema is a medium of art and conveys the national identity of a country at both home and abroad, commercialization pays little heed to the artistic elements in cinema when it has more dominance over the cinema industry and this is what exactly happened to the Bangla cinema of today. The transition of Bangla cinema gradually has compromised with the depiction of real Bangla culture on the silver screen and instead concentrated on hard core commercial elements to make the cinemas earn a profit. In the profit earning race, the cinema producers and directors forgot that the cinema industry is an important medium for a nation and instead of showing what the real Bangla cultural identity is, they became more interested in copying other cultures mainly the Indian culture. Since the satellite technology and cable television entered Bangladesh in the early 1990s and people of the country were more interested in Indian, especially Hindi movies. As the Bangla cinema industry was challenged by the over growing popularity of Hindi movies in Bangladesh, the local film producers felt that if they make their movies similar to the Hindi movies then maybe the Bangladeshi people will accept them. Hence they started copying story plots and music from the Hindi movies and making their Bangladeshi version which was later rejected by the greater Bangladeshi viewers as the movies were not consistent with the Bangladeshi context. This copying tendency continued for several years but yielded no results for the film producers because the Bangladesh accused them of having no talent that they cannot make anything on their own. As a result, the Bangla cinema industry faced a downfall and in order to revive it again, the film producers came up with the nasty idea of using obscenity in Bangla cinema to attract viewers with disturbing sexual content that does not comply with the conservative mindset and culture of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is still a developing country with a huge population but limited space and resources and facing many problems and challenges. The real Bangladesh is said to be found in the village areas where the rural people lead their simple lives amidst the

beautiful greeneries. In fact, the rural lifestyle is the base for the real Bangla culture as majority of the countrys population still lives in the rural areas; hence the rural lifestyle constitutes the mass culture of Bangladesh. The folk songs, folk dances, folk stories, folk festivals all these are at the heart of Bangla culture but however all these elements are surprisingly absent in todays Bangla cinema. Here we are presenting some case studies of some contemporary Bangla cinemas from the recent year to see whether Bangla cinema portrays Bangla culture or not. Case 1: Khoj The Search This is a recent Bangla cinema that got released in 2010. This is a perfect example of a modern Bangla cinema where digital sound technology, extensive outdoor shooting locations and digital picture quality has been used. This movie is quite fictional as it starts of with Bangladeshs secret intelligence service which does not exist in reality. The movie revolves around the most competent commander of the intelligence wing, Mahmud who is being sought by the head of the wing to combat an international most wanted criminal, Nino who is into hiding in Bangladesh. Mahmud is accompanied by his female assistant Bobby who helps me in his mission. But Mahmud falls into a trap of a local godfather connected to Nino. The movie does not end, its ending is quite incomplete which shows that Mahmud releases himself from the clutches of the criminals and chases Nino up to Las Vegas from Bangladesh. As we can see from analyzing this film, it is not made in accordance to the real Bangla cultural spirit at all. It has been made in the format of an action movie generally made in Hollywood and Bollywood clearly indicating that the movie carries impact of globalization which poses a threat to Bangla cultural identity. This is because the Bangla cinema now-a-days have swayed from showing the culture of the country which makes us unique. The movie, Khoj- The Search, by its name, the impact of globalization is evident on Bangla cinema. Also the dress ups used by the artists, mainly Western, does not comply with the Bangla culture. The use of music and its story plot in the movie does not carry any symbolism of Bangla culture at all.

This movie has received many critical reviews from the viewers who mostly claimed that the effort of making Bangla cinema go international is fine but at least it should be portrayed in such a way that goes with the national culture of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi people wearing Western outfits should actually think whether the Western outlook suits them or not, suggested the viewers. Case 2: Gohine Shobdo (The Dark Resonance) This is also a recent Bangla movie that saw its release in 2010. The movie starts with an enticing scene of a joyous procession marking the first day of the Bangla New Year. A long shot showing the procession from a top angle gradually converts to a close shot focusing on the two main actor and actresses of the movie who are enjoying with the crowd. The entry of the movie depicting the celebration of the Bengali New Year is a clear portrayal of Bangla culture. The movie then progresses with the actor and actresses of the move who come from different families with a huge difference in financial abilities. The actor hails from a rich family while the actress comes from a very lower class family and a sharp distinction has been shown in the movie clearly depicting the difference in lifestyles of the two different families. Where the actress and her family has to work very hard to make ends meet to combat extreme poverty on one side, on the other hand the actor enjoys taking swimming sessions in a luxury hotel and dine in at expensive restaurants. The difference between social classes is shown clearly that does reflect the reality of the country where one group is extremely rich and the majority of other groups are extremely poor. Since the movie has been made with a commercial mindset, it includes 2 songs that are compatible with Bangla culture. The dress ups and props used reflect the reality of Bangladesh. This movie has earned many appraisals and people lauded the movie that despite being a commercial cinema, it has not moved away from showing the reality and a proper depiction of Bangladeshi lifestyle and culture. Case 3: Nijhum Oronne (The Deep Forest) This is another movie released in 2010. This movie is based in 1977, just on the verge of the after years of the Liberation War in 1971. The movie evolves around a girl going to Chittagong to meet up with her brother who has lost a leg while being a freedom fighter.

On the way to Chittagong, the girl encounters a boy in the train and they fall in love at first sight. Then when the girl arrives at her brothers place, she again meets the boy from the train and they start getting intimate. At one point of the narrative, the girl tells the story of her brother to the boy she loves. Her brother was married and had a daughter but since he was late in coming back to his family from the war, his family members thought him to be dead and his wife got married for a second time. Later when her brother came back home alive amid an emotional rejoice, he found out that he has lost everything. From that onwards, he has settled in life as a lone man in the forest area of Chittagong. The story of this movie is quite strong and has been constructed in light of the Liberation War that constitutes an essential part of Bangla culture and national identity. Seeing this movie, the audience can easily relate to the inner pains of the freedom fighter brother and can empathize with him. The movie features a patriotic song sung by the daughter of the freedom fighter brother that instills a deep love for the country. Also a romantic Rabindra song was used in showing the romance of the girl with her lover; Rabindra songs are one of the biggest assets of Bangla culture. We see the actress of the movie and her daughter in law (wife of the freedom fighter brother) wearing saris that is the national dress code for women in the country. Case 4: Third Person Singular Number This is another movie released in 2010 from a promising film director of Bangladesh, Mostafa Sarwar Farooki who has set new trends in making Bangla movies. The movie tells us the story of a girl named Ruba who is always in a quest to find her actual existence, in a nutshell depicting the real condition of women who are deprived of their identities in the country. Ruba who was living with a male partner in a live-in relationship finds herself in trouble when her male partner gets arrested accused of murder. Ruba gets thrown out of her fathers house who disapproves her live-in relationship which is still unacceptable in the Bangladeshi social context. She also receives little support from her mother who lives with her stepfather. Then she wanders around in search of a place to live and a job to earn a living. She finally gets a place to live as a single women but her landlord hinted bad intentions regarding her. She also gets job offers but behind the job,

all her employers want to exploit her. Later Ruba meets her old male friend who helps to find a secure place to live in and when Rubas live-in partner comes out of jail, their friendship comes under the male partners suspicion. In the course of the movies narrative, we see Ruba talking to her 13 year old self to focus on her need to find her self identity. This movie has definitely depicted some elements that do not go with Bangla culture especially the concept of live-in relationships still remains a taboo in the country. But the way the movie is shown it does not appear that it is in conflict with Bangla culture, instead it showed something new and different. But the fact that women are being exploited by men clearly reflect the current position of women in Bangladesh where women in the country are being harassed by men hence giving rise to eve teasing and sexual harassment incidents. The insecurity of a woman among the male dominated society depicted in the movie goes along with the spirit of womanhood that prevails in Bangladesh. Case 5: Bolo Na Tumi Amar (Tell Me You Are Mine) This is an ideal example of a cheesy commercial Bangla cinema that was also released in 2010. Although all other movies mentioned here are commercial Bangla movies, but this movie in particular is the ideal one and on analyzing this movie, we will find out why. This movie features the number one hit actor of Bangla cinema industry, Shakib Khan along with the debutant actress, Shokh. The film features a bizarre story that does not constitute any sort of logic. Shokh, an everlasting beauty, gets disturbed by some local hoodlums and being unable to withstand the sexual harassment, she goes to Thailand to save herself. There she meets a Bangladeshi taxi driver, Shakib who falls in love with Shokh and thus some cheesy romantic songs appear with weird dance moves and extremely commercial lyrics. Shokh is being chased by the gang of the Bangladeshi hoodlums to Thailand and Shakib saves her. Shakib also comes back to Bangladesh and saves an elderly woman who lives in a well off palatial house. Later Shakib learns that this woman is the mother of Shokh and takes her to Thailand to unite with Shokh.

As we can these the total story and its elements are completely out of sync, these type of out synced stories dominate most of the commercial Bangla cinema. With cheesy romance and stereotyped villains and some banging action sequences, this movie becomes an ideal commercial production of the Bangla cinema industry which has favored extremely romantic and action films from the 1990s putting the social movie genre to a threat. The dress up, music and other props used in this movie are incompatible with the real life scenario of Bangladesh. Like this movie, majority of Bangla cinema follow and share these similar attributes making them alien media content in a social and conservative Bangladesh.

Conclusion From the detailed discussion so far and from the analysis of the case studies on different Bangla cinemas released in the recent times, we have come to a mixed position regarding the fact whether Bangla cinema projects Bangla culture or not. Bangla cinema was more projective of Bangla culture in the beginning of the cinema industry where movies involving local cultural identities and sentiments involving the general people were depicted that was reflective of the reality of that time. But gradually Bangla cinema that we experience today is has undergone a major transition of genres and movie elements. From the five movies analyzed so far, only Bolo Na Tumi Amar and Khoj - The Search represent the mainstream commercial Bangla cinema of Bangladesh. The other three films, despite being commercial, set different tracks and focus on different viewpoints that are normally ignored in most of the commercial Bangla cinemas and cinemas like these are very rarely produced in Bangladesh and even if they are being produced they are very few in number and do not constitute a majority.. Hence we can say that some Bangla commercial cinemas are seeing different trends in different times reflecting real life stories consistent with Bangla culture through the hands of some very few film directors, but the majority of the commercial cinemas produced in Bangladesh that end up like Khoj The Search and Bolo Na Tumi Amar, sadly and unfortunately, do not portray Bangla culture that much.

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