The liberation war is the history of accomplishing Bengali nation’s identity. There are only a handful of countries in the world who have got independence in exchange of blood. We are lucky and proud to be one of them. The language movement of 1952 and the liberation war of 1971 are a great part of our national consciousness.
We take pride in our Language and Liberation Myrters. They have been inspiring us to make movies. Young producers are also trying to make pictures about the liberation war. But that is not enough. Everyone will admit that it is difficult to make a movie based on historical events. However, there are a lot of films based on the story of our liberation war. Many movie-makerstried to capture some historic events on celluloid. ZaheerRaihan created JibonThekeNeya’ in 1970. In this film, this brave filmmaker depicts our desire and struggle for liberation.
The film, based on the story of Amjad Hossain, has become an unforgettable creation in terms of closeness to life and epic depth though there were some weaknesses in the style of making the film.
ZaheerRaihan has given us this epic film with the combination of state politics, oppression, family rule, entertainment. JibonThekeNeya’ has become an authentic document of the liberation war films. After independence, four films based on the liberation war were released in 1972. ChashiNazrul Islam’s film ‘Ora 11 Jon’ tells the story of the liberation war of 11 friends, which still enthralls the Bengali audience. In the same year, the bloody history of the Liberation War came up in SubhashDutt’s ‘ArunodayerAgnisakshi’, Mumtaz Ali’s ‘Raktakto Bangla’ and Anand’s ‘BaghaBangali’. AlamgirKabir’s ‘DheereBoheMeghna’, AlamgirKumkum’s ‘Amar Janmabhoomi’ and Khan Ataur Rahman’s ‘AbaarToraManush Ha’ were released the next year. ChashiNazrul Islam’s ‘Sangram’ and Narayan Ghosh Mita’s ‘AlorMichil’ were released in 1974. Besides, HarunAur Rashid’s MegherOnekRong’ was released in 1976.
Besides, Humayun Ahmed’s ‘AgunerParashamani’, FakhrulAlam’s ‘Joy Bangla’, Taukir Ahmed’s ‘Joyjatra’, Humayun Ahmed’s ‘Shyamalchaya’, TareqMasood’s ‘MatirMoyna’, Khan Ataur Rahman’s EkhonoOnekRaat’, ChashiNazrul Islam’s ‘Dhrubatara’ , megheruporMegh’, Morshedul Islam’s ‘Khelaghar’, ‘Amar BandhuRashed’, ‘Anil BagchirEkdin’, TanvirMokammel’s ‘Rabeya’, ‘JibonDhuli’, Nasir Uddin Yusuf’s ‘Guerrilla’, Zahidur Rahim Anjan’s ‘Meghamallar’, FakhrulArefin’s ‘BhubanMajhi’, Shah AlamKiran’s ‘Ekatturer Ma Janani’, Sohail Arman’s ‘Ei To Prem’, ManikManabik’s ‘ShovanerSwadhinata’ and many more films have brightened our history of liberation war and have been amusing us.
We are celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Independence. But as the days pass by, the making of moviesregarding our independence is going down. Commercial producers can’t even think of liberation war movies now. Earlier, all the movies based on the liberation war were made by all the commercial producers. In addition to portray historical events, they have also done a great business. A culture of making movies with little effort can be noticed nowadays. But making a movie about the history of independence and liberation war is not possible with a little works. Now if you go to build a story based on facts, then the amount of research or the huge time you may need to spend for it may look impossible. So, a kind of reluctance is being created to while making films on our liberation war. It is also true that you cannot make a movie despite having a good story. You need money. And, a very few people are ready to finance historical movies.
It is very difficult to instil enthusiasm in the producers who supply money for a movie to shoot. Secondly, the Dhaka of that time in 1971, the context of that time, the roads, even the costumes, everything is very difficult to bring back on a set. Because, it requires huge funds. It is not possible to highlight that time without big planning.
There are still a lot of movies being made about the stories of the First or Second World War. We see how they make sets stretching on huge area for filming. To make more of such movies,the government must come up for financial assistances.
