Literature Desk :
Eminent critics from home and abroad like Malcolm Muggeridge, Mohitlal Mojumder, Sajanikanto Das, Ashutosh Bhattacharya and others have hailed Nurul Momen as the Father of the Theatre of Bangladesh. He was pioneer of drama and satire. He was a lawyer, essayist, philanthropist and educationist as well. His acclaimed single-character play Nemesis is considered to be of world class. Nurul Momen did for our drama and satire, what Kazi Nazrul Islam did for our poetry and Zainul Abedin did for our fine arts.
He was born in an aristocratic family of Buraich in Alphadanga of the then Jessore district (Alphadanga is now part of Faridpur) on 25th November in 1908. He breathed his last in his Gulshan residence at Dhaka on 16th February 1990.
In the early ‘20s he, as a student of Dhaka University, pioneered in the field of Drama among the Bengali Muslims. That pioneering role reached its apex when in the ‘30s and early ‘40s his plays Rupantor (Transformation) and Nemesis came out and took Bengal by storm. These are the first two modern plays of Bangladesh. Following the footsteps made by Nurul Momen his students Munir Choudhury, Ashkar Ibne Shaikh, ‘Syed Waliullah, Sikander Abu Zafar, Sayeed Ahmed and others gained prominence. Professor Nurul Momen, besides being a playwright, is also the pioneer of humorous and satirical essays. It is unprecedented in our literature to have a pioneering role in two fields of literature. His plays and personal essays in English as well, have still no match. He was also a pioneering and legendary broadcaster from the onset of BBC Dhaka Radio and Dhaka Television.
Nurul Momen, was educationist, playwright, director, humorist, lawyer, broadcaster, philanthropist and essayist of Bangladesh. He pioneered modernism in the theatre of Bangladesh and was the dramatist and director of the first couple of modern plays of East Bengal. He was also the playwright and director of the first experimental play of Bangladesh. It is almost incomprehensible today, to reckon how much difficulty and hindrance he had to endure for establishing a theatrical and performing-arts identity of the then conservative, predominantly Muslim Bangladesh. For his contributions to drama he has been bestowed with the title of Natyaguru (The master-tutor of drama). He was also the pioneer of satirical Essays in Bangladesh. It is unprecedented to be the pioneer in two fields of literature. Nurul Momen paved the way for modern BangIa dramas and satirical essays of the post-forties.
He was the son of Nurul Arefin, Zamindar and physician. Nurul Momen had primary education in Kolkata. In 1916, he got admission in Khulna Zilla School. In 1919, his first poem in form of a play, Shondhya (Evening), written in the same verse as Tagore’s Shonar Tory, was published in the reputed journal Dhrubotara. Kanti Chandra Ghose, translator of Rubaiyyat’s of Omar Khaiyyam, praised that verse play profusely and took the 10-year-old Nurul Momen in his lap. In 1920, he was enrolled in the Dhaka Muslim High School. He resided in the famous Dafrin Hostel. In 1924, he matriculated obtaining the 32nd position in the entire country. He then studied at Dhaka Intermediate College. Passing intermediate, he studied BA at the newly established Dhaka University from 1926.
He was a resident of the only Muslim hostel ‘Muslim Hall.’ His dormitory was Burdhawan House which is now the BangIa Academy. In 1927, he became the first Bengali-Muslim student to win in several athletic events in Dhaka University’s annual sports. Later that year, he was crowned as the champion at the first drama festival with all three halls (Dhaka, Jagannath, and Muslim) combined. He acted in the role of Botu in Muktodhara (1922), which was then a new play by Tagore.
No other Muslim student took part in theatre or performing arts before that, let alone getting a prize. Through Nurul Momen, Muslim Hall participated and won in any cultural or sports activities for the first time.
In 1928, only two students from Dhaka University got the First Billet Intelligence Test (later known as IQ test) prize. One was Nurul Momen passed BA examination from Dhaka University in 1929. He studied MA in Calcutta. He studied law at Kolkata University College passing BL examination from there in 1936, following which he started practising law at Kolkata High Court.
From the onset of establishment of All India Radio in Dhaka (1939), he began broadcasting talks written and read out by himself. He was the first Muslim playwright of Dhaka Radio. In 1942, he wrote and directed the first modern play of Bangladesh Rupantor (Transformation) for Dhaka Radio.
Rupantor, a comedy, had a progressive, urbane and contemporary plot; which was a striking contrast as opposed to historical, Islamist heroism based plays written by earlier Muslim playwrights of Bengal at that time. The protagonist, the only female character in the play, Rijia, a Muslim girl, takes up a job at her husband’s office in disguise. It was an epoch making idea in favour of women’s lib. Even in real life society at that time, no Muslim girl could even dream of taking up a job. It became so popular after being broadcast that, Nurul Momen decided to show it to Mohitlal Mojumder in Kolkata. It was Durga Puja season. Mojumder was ecstatic after hearing the entire play read out to him by the author himself, and wrote a letter to the editor of Anandabazaar Sharadia Special to publish it. It was only five days before the issue hit newsstands. 43 pages were already composed and published matters were cancelled to print l1upantor in pica bold letters spreading over 43 pages of Anandabazaar Puja Special. Only two other items were printed in pica bold in that issue. One was a one-page poem by Tagore, another was an essay by Nandalal Bose.
This event put the Bangladesh (East Bengal) theatre in the map of modem BangIa drama as well as in the theatre scene of entire India. After being published it was so popular that it remained the talk of the town of Kolkata for a long time.
The second modem play of Bangladesh named Nemesis was written by Natyaguru Nurul Momen in 1944. It was the first experimental play of Bangladesh. Only two playwrights on earth did this experiment before him. In the book’s preface Nurul Momen wrote, “From the beginning of world theatre, Greek tragedies theoretically adhered to the perpetual trio of unities: – Unity of Time, Unity of Place and Unity of Action. Keeping the format of these unities intact a fourth unity is being introduced (Unity of Person) to make a new experimentation.”
It was a two-hour play with only one character. Throughout the history of world theatre ranging over 3000 years, only two plays were written with one character before Nemesis. One was Eugene O’Neal’s Before Breakfast another was Jean Cocteau’s La Voix Humain (The Human Voice). But these plays were not more than thirty minutes in duration. So, Nemesis was the first full-length single-character play in the history of world theatre.
It was a tragedy, based on the backdrop of 1943 Famine of Bengal portraying life and death of the protagonist, Surajit Nandee and his illgotten wealth amassed at the cost of the lives of the millions of unfed people. It was praised as a world-class play by the world famous critics Malcolm Muggeridge, Peter Archer, Marjorie Jones, Shajanikanto Das, Ashutosh Bhattacharya, Mohitlal Mojumder and others.
In Bangla Natyashahityer ltihash, the most authoritative reference look on Bangia theatre, Ashutosh Bhattacharya discuses elaborately only on Nurul Momen among the playwrights of Bangladesh. His detailed research highly praise the comedy Rupantor’ and the tragedy Nemesis. He praised Nurul Momen as ‘acting as a bridge between the earlier and later playwrights in terms of content and style.’ About Nemesis he said, “Nemesis is a long one-act play. The craft of its writing is unprecedented. Planning of Nemesis is unique and the entire play is narrated through a long monologue of only one character and the entire gamut of one character is depicted successfully.” The very title Nemesis, naming after a Greek goddess, was in itself a big challenge in the midst of a conservative Muslim society. It was published in Shonibarer Chithi in 1945 and directed by Nurul Momen in Kolkata later that year.
Nurul Momen joined the Faculty of Law at Dhaka University in 1945. He was accorded reception on his joining, by theatre loving students of him, headed by Munir Chowdhury. Nurul Momen suggested Munir, noticing his talent, to read Bernard Shaw and write plays. He later translated You never can tell and Natyaguru Nurul Momen directed it.
At the Department of Law Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was a dear student of Nurul Momen. Sheikh Mujib started reading George Barnard Shaw and Bertrand Russell at the insistence of Nurul Momen (as he insisted all his students). As a result, Bangabandhu became a lifelong fan of them along with Tagore, as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s teacher Nurul Momen was. This infonnation was confirmed also in a recent interview of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with the VOA in 1947, Rupantor and in 1948, Nemesis were published as books from his own publishing company, Momen Publishing House. Nurul Momen was himself the artist of Nemesis cover. It was the first ‘Surrealist’ painting of Bangladesh. It depicted a neo-symbolic view of the Greek mythological goddess of vengeance, Nemesis. The original multi-colour painting was simplified and reduced to a two colour sketch due to limitations of zinc-plated letterpress block-printing of those days.
He was the writer of the l first satirical essay book of Bangladesh Bohurupa published from’ Calcutta in 1948.The articles compiled in this book, were written over the earlier ten years and were either published in journals and newspapers or being broadcast from the Radio in his own voice. In its preface, the famous Indian it critic Shajanikanto Dash wrote, “I read these pages at single breath. This powerful writer has fulfilled our hopes. As his soul is ever awake, his eyes sharp; so is his ability exceptional to of express the profound feelings of inner mind in a lighter vein. The language is razor- sharp and hard hitting. If Steele or Addison (Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, the outstanding, world’s best satirical essayists of Augustan Age) were born in Bangladesh in this age, they would have written in the same manner. I’m proud to present this book.”
Some other famous humour books by Nurul Momen are Adikkheta, London Probashe, Ho-jo-bo-ro-lo, Forbidden Pleasures and others.
To be Continued…
Eminent critics from home and abroad like Malcolm Muggeridge, Mohitlal Mojumder, Sajanikanto Das, Ashutosh Bhattacharya and others have hailed Nurul Momen as the Father of the Theatre of Bangladesh. He was pioneer of drama and satire. He was a lawyer, essayist, philanthropist and educationist as well. His acclaimed single-character play Nemesis is considered to be of world class. Nurul Momen did for our drama and satire, what Kazi Nazrul Islam did for our poetry and Zainul Abedin did for our fine arts.
He was born in an aristocratic family of Buraich in Alphadanga of the then Jessore district (Alphadanga is now part of Faridpur) on 25th November in 1908. He breathed his last in his Gulshan residence at Dhaka on 16th February 1990.
In the early ‘20s he, as a student of Dhaka University, pioneered in the field of Drama among the Bengali Muslims. That pioneering role reached its apex when in the ‘30s and early ‘40s his plays Rupantor (Transformation) and Nemesis came out and took Bengal by storm. These are the first two modern plays of Bangladesh. Following the footsteps made by Nurul Momen his students Munir Choudhury, Ashkar Ibne Shaikh, ‘Syed Waliullah, Sikander Abu Zafar, Sayeed Ahmed and others gained prominence. Professor Nurul Momen, besides being a playwright, is also the pioneer of humorous and satirical essays. It is unprecedented in our literature to have a pioneering role in two fields of literature. His plays and personal essays in English as well, have still no match. He was also a pioneering and legendary broadcaster from the onset of BBC Dhaka Radio and Dhaka Television.
Nurul Momen, was educationist, playwright, director, humorist, lawyer, broadcaster, philanthropist and essayist of Bangladesh. He pioneered modernism in the theatre of Bangladesh and was the dramatist and director of the first couple of modern plays of East Bengal. He was also the playwright and director of the first experimental play of Bangladesh. It is almost incomprehensible today, to reckon how much difficulty and hindrance he had to endure for establishing a theatrical and performing-arts identity of the then conservative, predominantly Muslim Bangladesh. For his contributions to drama he has been bestowed with the title of Natyaguru (The master-tutor of drama). He was also the pioneer of satirical Essays in Bangladesh. It is unprecedented to be the pioneer in two fields of literature. Nurul Momen paved the way for modern BangIa dramas and satirical essays of the post-forties.
He was the son of Nurul Arefin, Zamindar and physician. Nurul Momen had primary education in Kolkata. In 1916, he got admission in Khulna Zilla School. In 1919, his first poem in form of a play, Shondhya (Evening), written in the same verse as Tagore’s Shonar Tory, was published in the reputed journal Dhrubotara. Kanti Chandra Ghose, translator of Rubaiyyat’s of Omar Khaiyyam, praised that verse play profusely and took the 10-year-old Nurul Momen in his lap. In 1920, he was enrolled in the Dhaka Muslim High School. He resided in the famous Dafrin Hostel. In 1924, he matriculated obtaining the 32nd position in the entire country. He then studied at Dhaka Intermediate College. Passing intermediate, he studied BA at the newly established Dhaka University from 1926.
He was a resident of the only Muslim hostel ‘Muslim Hall.’ His dormitory was Burdhawan House which is now the BangIa Academy. In 1927, he became the first Bengali-Muslim student to win in several athletic events in Dhaka University’s annual sports. Later that year, he was crowned as the champion at the first drama festival with all three halls (Dhaka, Jagannath, and Muslim) combined. He acted in the role of Botu in Muktodhara (1922), which was then a new play by Tagore.
No other Muslim student took part in theatre or performing arts before that, let alone getting a prize. Through Nurul Momen, Muslim Hall participated and won in any cultural or sports activities for the first time.
In 1928, only two students from Dhaka University got the First Billet Intelligence Test (later known as IQ test) prize. One was Nurul Momen passed BA examination from Dhaka University in 1929. He studied MA in Calcutta. He studied law at Kolkata University College passing BL examination from there in 1936, following which he started practising law at Kolkata High Court.
From the onset of establishment of All India Radio in Dhaka (1939), he began broadcasting talks written and read out by himself. He was the first Muslim playwright of Dhaka Radio. In 1942, he wrote and directed the first modern play of Bangladesh Rupantor (Transformation) for Dhaka Radio.
Rupantor, a comedy, had a progressive, urbane and contemporary plot; which was a striking contrast as opposed to historical, Islamist heroism based plays written by earlier Muslim playwrights of Bengal at that time. The protagonist, the only female character in the play, Rijia, a Muslim girl, takes up a job at her husband’s office in disguise. It was an epoch making idea in favour of women’s lib. Even in real life society at that time, no Muslim girl could even dream of taking up a job. It became so popular after being broadcast that, Nurul Momen decided to show it to Mohitlal Mojumder in Kolkata. It was Durga Puja season. Mojumder was ecstatic after hearing the entire play read out to him by the author himself, and wrote a letter to the editor of Anandabazaar Sharadia Special to publish it. It was only five days before the issue hit newsstands. 43 pages were already composed and published matters were cancelled to print l1upantor in pica bold letters spreading over 43 pages of Anandabazaar Puja Special. Only two other items were printed in pica bold in that issue. One was a one-page poem by Tagore, another was an essay by Nandalal Bose.
This event put the Bangladesh (East Bengal) theatre in the map of modem BangIa drama as well as in the theatre scene of entire India. After being published it was so popular that it remained the talk of the town of Kolkata for a long time.
The second modem play of Bangladesh named Nemesis was written by Natyaguru Nurul Momen in 1944. It was the first experimental play of Bangladesh. Only two playwrights on earth did this experiment before him. In the book’s preface Nurul Momen wrote, “From the beginning of world theatre, Greek tragedies theoretically adhered to the perpetual trio of unities: – Unity of Time, Unity of Place and Unity of Action. Keeping the format of these unities intact a fourth unity is being introduced (Unity of Person) to make a new experimentation.”
It was a two-hour play with only one character. Throughout the history of world theatre ranging over 3000 years, only two plays were written with one character before Nemesis. One was Eugene O’Neal’s Before Breakfast another was Jean Cocteau’s La Voix Humain (The Human Voice). But these plays were not more than thirty minutes in duration. So, Nemesis was the first full-length single-character play in the history of world theatre.
It was a tragedy, based on the backdrop of 1943 Famine of Bengal portraying life and death of the protagonist, Surajit Nandee and his illgotten wealth amassed at the cost of the lives of the millions of unfed people. It was praised as a world-class play by the world famous critics Malcolm Muggeridge, Peter Archer, Marjorie Jones, Shajanikanto Das, Ashutosh Bhattacharya, Mohitlal Mojumder and others.
In Bangla Natyashahityer ltihash, the most authoritative reference look on Bangia theatre, Ashutosh Bhattacharya discuses elaborately only on Nurul Momen among the playwrights of Bangladesh. His detailed research highly praise the comedy Rupantor’ and the tragedy Nemesis. He praised Nurul Momen as ‘acting as a bridge between the earlier and later playwrights in terms of content and style.’ About Nemesis he said, “Nemesis is a long one-act play. The craft of its writing is unprecedented. Planning of Nemesis is unique and the entire play is narrated through a long monologue of only one character and the entire gamut of one character is depicted successfully.” The very title Nemesis, naming after a Greek goddess, was in itself a big challenge in the midst of a conservative Muslim society. It was published in Shonibarer Chithi in 1945 and directed by Nurul Momen in Kolkata later that year.
Nurul Momen joined the Faculty of Law at Dhaka University in 1945. He was accorded reception on his joining, by theatre loving students of him, headed by Munir Chowdhury. Nurul Momen suggested Munir, noticing his talent, to read Bernard Shaw and write plays. He later translated You never can tell and Natyaguru Nurul Momen directed it.
At the Department of Law Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was a dear student of Nurul Momen. Sheikh Mujib started reading George Barnard Shaw and Bertrand Russell at the insistence of Nurul Momen (as he insisted all his students). As a result, Bangabandhu became a lifelong fan of them along with Tagore, as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib’s teacher Nurul Momen was. This infonnation was confirmed also in a recent interview of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with the VOA in 1947, Rupantor and in 1948, Nemesis were published as books from his own publishing company, Momen Publishing House. Nurul Momen was himself the artist of Nemesis cover. It was the first ‘Surrealist’ painting of Bangladesh. It depicted a neo-symbolic view of the Greek mythological goddess of vengeance, Nemesis. The original multi-colour painting was simplified and reduced to a two colour sketch due to limitations of zinc-plated letterpress block-printing of those days.
He was the writer of the l first satirical essay book of Bangladesh Bohurupa published from’ Calcutta in 1948.The articles compiled in this book, were written over the earlier ten years and were either published in journals and newspapers or being broadcast from the Radio in his own voice. In its preface, the famous Indian it critic Shajanikanto Dash wrote, “I read these pages at single breath. This powerful writer has fulfilled our hopes. As his soul is ever awake, his eyes sharp; so is his ability exceptional to of express the profound feelings of inner mind in a lighter vein. The language is razor- sharp and hard hitting. If Steele or Addison (Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, the outstanding, world’s best satirical essayists of Augustan Age) were born in Bangladesh in this age, they would have written in the same manner. I’m proud to present this book.”
Some other famous humour books by Nurul Momen are Adikkheta, London Probashe, Ho-jo-bo-ro-lo, Forbidden Pleasures and others.
To be Continued…
