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Except the committed young film makers, the average movie viewers of the country had yet to develop the taste for better cinema. The period was the early 1970s, the years belonging to the times immediately after the Bangladesh independence. The average audiences were still under the spell of the popular commercial cinema, i.e. films made in the erstwhile East Pakistan. Amazingly, few attempts were there to make new movies suiting the spirit of the newly emerged Bangladesh. But there were a number of young talents who became restless for making truly modern films.
Syed Salahuddin Zaki (b.1946), who died September 18, was one of them. He didn't wait for long. After completing a 3-year film making course at the Pune Film Institute, India, Zaki returned to Bangladesh, enriched with bold ideas about 'new cinema'. With few of his contemporary youths starting their creative ventures of any kind, Zaki had been impatiently in search of a directorial career. The trend of affluent producers coming up to finance feature films by new makers had yet to become a major one. Zaki was quite fortunate. It's because he could, somehow, attract the notice of the financiers. It resulted in the making of his 'Ghuddi' in 1980. He got the opening after an agonising wait for three years. In spite of the early start of his film career, Salahuddin Zaki, in the later years became disillusioned with the adverse times staring him in the face. 'Ghuddi' drew youths in droves in the early weeks after its release. But it began fizzling out later.
The movie dealt with the aimlessness of the time's educated youths, resulting in deep-seated ennui. The film's subject was aptly chosen and a group of upcoming talented artistes appeared in its major roles. As critics viewed it, Zaki conceived of 'Ghuddi' as a movie much ahead of his time. As a Pune-trained director, he may have been averse to making a movie highlighting idealism. Zaki left the task of drawing the conclusion of the movie to the audience. However, many spectators, including the youths, were not prepared enough to decipher the message. In spite of it, Salahuddin Zaki's 'Ghuddi' has carved out a unique place among the movies made in the very first decade of Bangladesh. In terms of directorial techniques, Zaki has used a few modern forms in the movie. He made the film impromptu, meaning there was no written script. Many shots and sequences were reportedly visualised on location.
The director later made a few other films. They include 'Laal Benarasi', 'Ayna Bibir Pala'. In the recent years, he made a few telefilms. Zaki was able to complete the work of 'Aporajeo Eka' and 'Krantikal', the two feature films which he would not be able to watch on the big screen in their complete forms. Salahuddin Zaki wrote screenplays for several movies. They include 'Agami', 'Utthan Poton', 'Shey', 'Nodir Naam Modhumoti', 'Meghla Akaash' and 'Laalsalu'. The late director had a knack for literary activities.
Prior to making his debut in the film world with 'Ghuddi' in 1980, Zaki published 'Kaak', a well produced little magazine. Although the magazine had the known senior and young writers of the country in its list, it made itself quite distinctive. Soon after its publication, 'Kaak' was warmly greeted by Dhaka's literary circles thanks to its rich and varied content. The magazine distinguished itself with its avant-garde name 'Kaak' (Crow), and emphasis on non-conventional subjects. Literary critics unanimously recognised the publication as of the magazine as one of the major events in the literature of Dhaka. Moreover, both the literary and general readers were highly impressed by the publication's overall look. Causing great disappointment to the younger writers, 'Kaak' couldn't see its second issue soon. It came out after a long gap. However, in the interregnum the persons involved with the publication of 'Kaak' brought out a socio-cultural journal called 'Swakal' (Present times). Had there been the second issue of 'Kaak' immediately after the opening one, the magazine would have been a perfect successor to 'Naa' (No), the mouthpiece of the literary group 'Naa Goshthi'. The anti-establishment 'Naa Movement' was launched in Dhaka in the mid-1960s. It had shaken the Dhaka literary scene for half a decade, up to the late nineteen sixties. In fact, 'Naa' was an anti-establishment group patronising only experimental writers and writings. 'Kaak' was essentially an assemblage of movie enthusiasts occasionally making forays into the region of literature. Thanks to his bonhomie with the then Dhaka's poets and prose writers, the group chose Zaki as the editor of 'Kaak'. It's also true Salahuddin Zaki was an amiable and sprightly person having a rare leadership quality.
Prior to his enrolment with the Pune Film Institute, the young Zaki had been directly involved with the Dhaka-based film society movement. By the mid-1970s, this exclusive movement emerged as a strong one. The pioneering front of the movement --- Bangladesh Film Society (BFS), had been active in launching a better cinema audience movement since the mid-1960s. In independent Bangladesh, nearly a dozen film societies assembled under the banner of the Federation of Bangladesh Film Societies. Despite being a pure film club, Zaki's Cine Art Circle chose to remain independent all along. Prior to becoming an active film maker in 1980, Zaki put in the best of his efforts to give his Cine Art Circle a strong organisational shape. Making 'better movie audience movement' and that of 'better cinema' at one point of time became an avowed mission for many of the country's film society activists. Zaki and Badal Rahman, also a Pune alumnus, were among them.
Lots of movie-aesthetes in Bangladesh believe there should have been a strong film-making platform based on unflinching bond of unity from the very start. It was because there were senior activists like Alamgir Kabir and the younger Salahuddin Zaki, Badal Rahman, to be joined later by Morshedul Islam, Tanveer Mokammel, Tareque Masud et al who could boast of their creative powerhouse to change the direction of the Bangladesh movies. To the woes of the lovers of better cinema, it didn't happen. Many gifted, and award-winning, movie geniuses like Shaker-Sheikh Niamat, thus, remained veritably unsung. So were many low-budget movie directors. All this could have been averted with the solidarity of committed makers. Unfortunately, this camaraderie proved a chimera.