Give good cinema a chance

The culture of Bangladesh, with its varied genres, has flourished over the years. These genres of song, dance, theatre and literature are the the rudiments of Bangladeshi culture. Then come fine arts, television drama and cinema, which have given culture its contemporary form.

A number of institutions and their astute pundits are endeavoring to protect, preserve and explore these arts. Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Bangla Academy, Lalitakala Academy, Nazrul Institute and Chhayanaut are the names in this regard. But, unfortunately, except for the rather inept BFDC (Bangladesh Film Development Corporation), until recently, Bangladesh didn’t have any film studio to produce films or any institution to teach film making and to support the film industry.

Some universities, including Dhaka University, have opened respective departments to teach film making in Bangladesh. In the meantime, though, most of the cinema halls of the country have shut down. 

After its formal inception in France, cinema has taken over respective cultures and societies of some western countries. Hollywood is proof of that. Even in our neighboring country India, cinematography has been plenipotentiary of their art and culture. Unfortunately, it has not yet been nurtured as a mainstream aspect of art and culture in Bangladesh. We have not been able to create an audience for cinema is a true sense. We have also failed to create quality films and filmmakers. Except for some of the earliest and latest filmmakers, the most of the movies have been replete with blatant imitation and crude vulgarism.

However, not having film studios or institutions is not the only cause of not having good films or filmmakers. There is reluctance among investors and sponsors to come forward to fund making of better films with would naturally require higher budget and quality filmmakers. This is because the cheap imitations and vulgar movies have pushed the audiences away from the cinema halls that compelled the hall owners to dismantle their business.  Then, the basic cause is the absence of quality filmmakers, not necessarily qualified filmmakers with degrees from film schools. Quality filmmakers have innate qualities. They possess cinema halls in their minds. Quality filmmakers can easily create unique ideas and innovate. Circumspectly, before the making, a quality filmmaker watches his/her film several times in his/her innate cinema hall. The second and the most influential quality of a filmmaker is being an expert project director. It capacitates him/her to organise a quality team and to shrewdly manage the timeslots. Thus, he/she can select the best Director of Photography (DOP) and the best editor from anywhere of the world. Unlike a natural scientist, quality filmmakers take the whole world to be their laboratory. They churn the settings of societies to weave an idea and to feel the mindset of the audience.

There may be filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Zemeckis and Satyajit Ray in the throng of Bangladeshi filmmakers. But they are bamboozled by the political myths of the so called powerful filmmakers. But this is the responsibility of the government and the wise investors to recognise and back such quality filmmakers from the throngs to shore up cinematography in Bangladesh.

Rashed Rafi is a social scientist and CEO of Phul-Pakhi-Chand-Nodi Films. He is available at [email protected]