Home ›› 23 Dec 2021 ›› Show Biz
After suffering the wrath of the ongoing global pandemic of Covid-19 for the majority of the past two years, the film industry in Bangladesh finally made its long-awaited glorious comeback this year with a handful of quality films and queues for tickets outside the cinema halls.
The “almost dying industry,” according to many tired and retired moviegoers and industry-experts, observed the return of the cinephiles at the multiplexes and cinema halls across the country, celebrating a few major releases - which set the year on a restarting mode, seeking an even better future.
According to the data collected from the producers, distributors and cinema hall authorities across the country, there are less than 60 active cinema halls currently showcasing films in Bangladesh. The number is astonishingly poor, considering the fact that Bangladesh had approximately 250 active cinema halls before the pandemic, and more than a thousand running halls back in the 90’s.
It is an undeniable fact that the cinema industry around the world suffered the havoc of the pandemic; however, the situation in Bangladesh had been worsening for such a long time even before the pandemic.
Undoubtedly, the trailblazing film for this year has been the much talked about and several accolades conquering film ‘Rehana Maryam Noor’. The second directorial venture of talented filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad earned the glory of becoming the first Bangladeshi film showcased in the prestigious Un Certain Regard category at the 74th Cannes International Film Festival this year. The film finally hit the silver screens across the country on November 12.
Another film which has similarly created the buzz around the world was young filmmaker Rezwan Shahriar Sumit’s maiden film ‘Nonajoler Kabbo’ (The Salt in our Waters), released for the moviegoers in Bangladesh on November 26.
The year also observed the grand release of the much-anticipated, multi-starrer cop action thriller ‘Mission Extreme’ on December 3, and for the first time ever any Bangladeshi film was released across three continents (Europe, North America and Australia) at the same day of its local release.
Speaking of Dhallywood debutant Oishee, her other major film ‘Raat Jaga Phool’ is also scheduled to be released as the final Bangladeshi film of 2021. The film is made with a government grant and scheduled to be released on December 31.
The year has also observed some other major releases and a good number of those films are periodical, historical movies including ‘Chandrabati Kotha,’ ‘Sphulingo,’ ‘Padmapuran,’ ‘Lal Moroger Jhuti’ and more.
The year should also be marked as one of the most satisfying, engaging, busy and successful years for the OTT platforms and their contents, a significant part of which were some of the unique films.
With a good number of upcoming films namely ‘Shaan,’ ‘Damal,’ ‘Golui,’ ‘Operation Sundarbans,’ Ananta Jalil’s ‘Deen - the Day,’ ‘Noor,’ ‘Mission Extreme part two,’ ‘Dhaka 2040,’ ‘Beauty Circus’ and a handful of other films including the highly anticipated biopic of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman titled ‘Bangabandhu’ - the year 2022 has all the potentials to be the gamechanger for the cinema industry in Bangladesh.
