Entertainment Desk :
The original script, rare behind-the-scenes stills and piano used in the movie ‘Mukh O Mukhosh,’ the first Bengali-language feature film produced and shot in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), were
officially handed over to the Bangladesh Film Archive (BFA) authority recently. According to the recent press release issued by BFA, Dr Jasmine Zaman, daughter of the film’s producer Nuruzzaman, handed over the items to BFA Director General Md Nizamul Kabir.
Additional Secretary of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Farooq Ahmed, Director of Bangladesh Film Archive Md Mofakharul Iqbal and many other senior government officials were present at the handover ceremony.
Dr Jasmine Zaman in her speech said, “These rare items from the film ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ have been with us for so long. From today, they will be preserved in the BFA Museum and the people of this country will be able to know and see them as they have been handed over to the Bangladesh Film Archive authority. After my father’s death, we kept all of these things very carefully in our house in Dhaka. When we were contacted by the BFA, we felt that if these are kept in their museum, everyone will be able to see them and know about my father. For this reason, I decided to hand these over to the film archive.”
Produced by Iqbal Films and directed by Abdul Jabbar Khan, the film ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ was released in East Pakistan on August 3, 1956. Dr Jasmine’s father Nuruzzaman was the founder of Iqbal Films. Nuruzzaman passed away on December 28 in 1975. Dr Jasmine Zaman also said, “The film’s director Abdul Jabbar Khan gave the original script of ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ to producer Nuruzzaman after the release of the film. Nuruzzaman also had rare behind-the-scenes and launching ceremony stills of the film. The piano was used to write the score by the film’s composer Samar Das. My father bought the piano from a British national who is the managing director of Dhakeshwari Cotton Mills in Narayanganj at that time.”
The piano was made by J&J Hopkinson, a famous musical instrument brand based in London, UK. It was made between 1881 and 1892. Nuruzzaman was an avid music lover and played the piano himself. He was an engineer and contractor by profession. When Nuruzzaman died in 1975, these rare items from the film were given to his wife and only daughter, Dr Jasmine to be kept at the Zaman household in the capital’s Siddheshwari area.
Dr Jasmine Zaman claimed that her father is one of the lead producers of the historical movie ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ but his name is nowhere to be found as its producer. Through this charitable donation, his family members hope that the younger generation can now know that Nuruzzaman was an important part of Bangladesh’s film history. Abdul Jabbar Khan started working on the movie in 1953. At that time, the film industry in erstwhile East Pakistan was virtually non-existent, and local film theatres screened mostly Urdu films from Lahore, Hindi films from Mumbai, and Bengal films from Kolkata. To establish the film-making infrastructures, a meeting was held in 1953 where F Dossani, a West Pakistani film distributor, claimed the local climate was not suitable for film production. Khan challenged him and starts making the film in Dhaka with the help of Iqbal Films.
