On the occasion of Martyrs' Day and International Mother Language Day, which is observed on February 21, Zahir Raihan Film Institute and the Govt. Graphic Arts Institute has joined forces to organise a film festival titled ‘Matribhashar Chalachitra Utsab’.
To promote distinctive mother languages, films made in Bengali, Chakma, Marma, and Garo languages will be screened at the day-long festival today at the Government Graphic Arts Institute Auditorium, Satmasjid Road in Dhaka.
Chairman of the Bangladesh Technical Education Board Ali Akbar Khan will be present as the chief guest at the event, while Mrinmoy Chakraborty, Director of the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre, on behalf of the Indian High Commission, will be a special guest. The discussion will be moderated by Niher Ronjon Das, Chairman of the Graphic Arts Institute.
In a statement, Zahir Raihan Film Institute president Shankar Shawjal said, "Every year we organize various events to commemorate the sacrifice of the language martyrs. Although Bangla is the national language of the Bangladeshi, various indigenous groups in our territory have their mother tongue. We also want to pay tribute to the mother tongues of the indigenous people by screening films. Every year the number of people speaking minority languages is decreasing. As a result, it will be difficult to maintain the language-based diversity in Bangladesh in the future. Therefore, it is essential to embrace all other languages alongside Bangla.”
In a statement, Director Pradip Ghosh, another official of Zahir Raihan Film Institute, said, “February 21 has been celebrated as the International Mother Language Day in recognition of the sacrifices of the martyrs for establishing the rightful place of Bangla. So we need to be sincere towards other languages.”
“This year the film festival is going to be held on a small scale. We will try to organise this festival on a large scale every year. We will encourage all the indigenous filmmakers to make films in distinctive languages to come forward and join this festival. We will try our best to assist them,” he added.
