Cinema
Glimpses of Life
Jibon Theke Neya
Zahir Raihan · 1970
Synopsis
In a house in Dhaka, Apa, an authoritarian woman, keeps her husband and her two brothers, Faruk and Anis, under her thumb, and keeps on her the bunch of keys on which everything depends. The two brothers marry Sathi and Bithi, sisters of the activist Anwar, and the young wives grow bolder against her, while outside Anwar prepares his posters for the procession of 21 February.
Context
The film was first called Trois filles et une tasse de poison. Shooting began on 1 February 1970, some scenes having been recorded a year earlier, and the military government tried several times to stop it, threatening the director and the actor Razzak. The songs of the language movement, including Amar bhaier rokte rangano, are taken up in it. Faced with public pressure, the authorities could not prevent its release, on 10 April 1970. During the war, it was screened in Calcutta, where Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak praised it.
Who it is for
A film of two hours and a quarter, with songs; it helps to know the Bengalis' struggle for their language in the fifties.
Prizes and reception
Fahmida Akhter regards it as the first political film of East Bengal before independence, and its songs accompanied the fighters of 1971.