Bangladeshi Film Festival in India

A festival of Bangladeshi films, the first of its kind organised in India, was recently held at the renowned Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), says a press release. Running from February 20-22, the festival featured a selection of films by some leading Bangladeshi filmmakers. The festival was organised by FTII in collaboration with the National Film Archives of India.

The festival opened with the screening of Tareque Masud's “Matir Moina”. Other films shown at the festival included Tanvir Mokammel's “Chitra Nadir Pare” and “Shapno Bhoomi”, Abu Sayeed's “Nirantor”, Shameem Akhtar's 'Ittihash Kanya”, and Tareque and Catherine Masud's “Muktir Gaan”. Filmmakers Tareque Masud, Catherine Masud, Tanvir Mokammel, and Abu Sayeed were present at the festival to introduce their films. Each screening was followed by an in-depth Q and A with the directors and discussion on various aspects of Bangladesh cinema, moderated by eminent Indian filmmaker Sayeed Mirza and FTII faculty member Gayatri Chatterjee. Also present at all the festival programmes as host and organiser was FTII Director Pankaj Rag.

The festival attendees included students and faculty of FTII as well as eminent Indian film personalities such as Indian National Archives founder PK Nair and renowned documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan.

Beauty, grace, eloquence personified

She is a popular TV personality who exudes glamour. She has been featured in many ads and plays and has made a name for herself. Model turned actress, and now also a TV show host, Farah Ruma, began her career at a young age.

Farah grew up in Chittagong. “I was quite mischievous as a child. But I was also solidly grounded in the sense that I could always differentiate right from wrong and act accordingly,” says Farah. In 1990 she moved to Dhaka and started taking dance lessons. That turned out to be fortuitous for the young girl as her dance teacher persuaded her to take up modelling.

Farah continues, “I considered myself smart and fashionable. I began walking the ramps and met many renowned personalities, Bibi Russel being one of them.” Farah went on to become one of the top models of the country in late '90s.

In 1997, Farah firmly established her position in the glamour industry by becoming the Lux Anondodhara Photoshundori. Since then there has been no stopping her and Farah started to work in a large number of ads. Farah says, “I did not take my career seriously back then. I was busy concentrating on my studies and had no idea what the future had in store for me. It was Afzal bhai who said that I had the looks and talent and suggested that I make use of my potential.”

Farah entered the TV industry with a bang, impressing both the audience and critics with her promising portrayal of a role opposite actor-director Afzal Hossain in a play called "Shankho" (written by Anisul Haque and directed by Afzal Hossain).

Farah kept a low profile for a year or two and came back with another memorable performance in the play, "Shubho Drishti" in 2004. “I consider this to be one of my finest works. I have continued acting since then,” she says. Farah has done many challenging roles in her career and has proved her talent. She has also worked with a number of prominent stars in the industry and her performances have always been widely appreciated.

Farah Ruma has proven that an effective model can be an effusive actor too!

Versatile Actress Shimu

She is famous for her hypnotizing acting. She feels each of her character and dig in to deep. That’s why she enjoys acting in the versatile role rather then acting in monotonous role. As she loves her acting from the deepest of her heart she is going her Mphil in theater and drama. Several dimension of her is portrayed through this report:

Shumaya Shimu started her Journey in showbiz through an advertisement of Breeze soap and her first ad was shooted outside of the country, in Mumbai city. When we asked her about the main difference of working in Bangladesh and Mumbai she went into her world of memory by closing her eyes. She opened her eyes after a moment and stilted saying- “Lets share about the experience of my first ad. 1 reached to the studio of Mumbai around at 2:00 PM. After going there 1 realized probably they were designing the set since the morning or the day before that day. They are so sensitive to the quality of their work that they don't want to keep any gap in set decoration. Besides they are rich in both the human resource and technology. There are separate skilled human resources in makeup, getup and hair style where as in our country we ourselves need to do make up, gate up or hairstyle. In Mumbai the producer want their artist to solely concentrate on his or her role, there the artist are not even allowed to touch her hair because they want hundred percent concentration and dedication from the artist. They give proper respect to the artist that I can not explain in words. Compare to us they are many times sincere and professional in makeup, gate up and technical side. In our country also situation has started to change and 1 hope in future it would improve much".

Though Sumaiya Shimu had many scope to flourish as a model, she herself preferred to be an actress that's why viewers are busy in remembering the actress Shimu rather than model Shimu. She loves acting and it is with her existence and that's why she is one of the most popular faces of the small screen. Drama is a source of entertainment of the mass people of today's huge number of TV channels and with that flow Sumaiya Shimu has accustomed her very well because acting is profession and addiction to her. Sumaiya Shimu is in love with acting and to show her versatility she is always in hunt of multifarious character and she thinks that new dramatist and play writer and directors are doing justice to that. She thinks that her feelings and love affair with acting is the key to success. She keeps on reading script before the camera starts rolling because she tried to mesmerize herself with the character, Sumaiya Shimu is a dependable name to the director like Ferdous Hassan, SM Olik, Ashraful Alam Ripen, Fazlur Rahma. She believes that team work is the reason behind her success and she does not hesitate to give full credit for her success to her director.

The home district of Sumaiya Shimu is Norail. In her seven years of acting career she has acted in the remarkable drama like Akannobarti, Jogbiyog, Shaota, Babla, Kather Golui, Ctiondrongrontho, Chokher Aloi, Sesh Bikeler Meye, Kobi. Sopnochura, Mohanogor, Dohon, Idiot. Sumaiya Shimu did not limit her acting with in the small screen she has also acted in large screen. She has acted in a noticeable role of movie directed by Mostofa Sarwar Faruki though me role was small. When we wanted to know the reason behind not acting in other movie she said that "My role in me movie Bachelor was very small, but I did not even think that I would get such popularity after working in a small role like that After that 1 got offer of acting in many movies but finally I could not manage working in those movies, I don't know why, but I have a feeling mat-I wont be able to match with the commercial movie of our country, Other than that I don't get the inner feelings for acting in the movie that I get to act in small screen. But I might act in one or two movie if the story of the movie is very good and neat and clean".

I drama per week where as recently there are 8/10 drama per week and as there were limited number of drama at that time artists used to get more time per drama. As the director and artists both used to give more time and concentration the quality of those dramas were much better. Where as the number of drama have increased a lot due to the increasing number of channels that's why the quality of many dramas has decreased. As there was only one TV channel viewers used to get opportunity to watch all the drama but with the increasing number of channels viewers can not see all the drama now a day. But there are quality drama as well n recent times as before but changes have occurred in direction and making". Sumaiya Shimu continued discussion about many of her character such as Oporna of the drama serial Sopnochura. She said that "This comedy character was challenging for her and she was in tension about her acceptability among the viewers" but lastly she has become successful for her acting skill and viewers and her surroundings have praised her for her acting in this character. She also says that "I am satisfied by my own acting".

While comparing the quality of the drama of past and present Sumaiya Shimu has says that in the past days there used to be

I drama per week where as recently there are 8/10 drama per week and as there were limited number of drama at that time artists used to get more time per drama. As the director and artists both used to give more time and concentration the quality of those dramas were much better. Where as the number of drama have increased a lot due to the increasing number of channels that's why the quality of many dramas has decreased. As there was only one TV channel viewers used to get opportunity to watch all the drama but with the increasing number of channels viewers can not see all the drama now a day. But there are quality drama as well n recent times as before but changes have occurred in direction and making". Sumaiya Shimu continued discussion about many of her character such as Oporna of the drama serial Sopnochura. She said that "This comedy character was challenging for her and she was in tension about her acceptability among the viewers" but lastly she has bcome successful for her acting skill and viewers and her surroundings have praised her for her acting in this character. She also says that "I am satisfied by my own acting".