Literary review of Tarek Masud's "Ontorjatra"

            “I felt hesitated whenever my classmates asked me about Bangladesh. Bangladesh was not much of a post card to me. A lot like father, who to me is just a framed photograph. Now the postcard is living. The green horizon is constantly changing .........”

            The central character Shohel of the film “Ontorjatra” by Tarek Masud says these words. These words echo the discovery of homeland by the new generation of immigrants from different corners of the world. “Ontorjatra” is the tale of searching the roots. This is a tale of returning back to one’s own self. This is a tale of search of ones history, tradition and culture. As usual, in this journey Catherine Masud,Tarek’s companion to everything was with him.

            After being separated from his father, Shohel lives with his mother in London. They are now citizens of there. One day news comes that Shohel’s father is no more. Young Shohel comes to Bangladesh with his mother. He doesn’t know anything about his country and his relatives. His mother concealed everything from him. Shohel meets his step mother Salma and his sister Rini.  The two kids get along with each other very easily. Shohel goes to Syhlet to their native village and meets his grandparents and uncles, aunties and his belated father. Shohel feels for his father and his homeland. At the end of the story Shohel understands that the death of his father has not only taken his mother to him but f also himself to his homeland.

            In the movie we find how two people from two different generations perceive their homeland when they live as immigrants in other country. There are differences between the theme of homeland and the real fact. The experience and realization comes to these two different generations differently.

            Last time Shirin came to Dhaka was 15 years ago. When she is in Dhaka she mingles the past with her present. She wants to see these together. On this depends her happiness, achievement as well as her sorrow. Dhaka seems very changed to her. There are high-rise buildings everywhere, traffic and traffic jam. Nothing seems like as before. Shirin’s intention is to see the past standing on the bank of the present.

            But how will they see this city, this country, who are the next generation from that of Shirin? How will they perceive the idea of homeland? Is this the quest for self? Viewers curiously come to know the answer from Antotjattra.   

             “At last I am in Bangladesh. Never thought I would come. Now it seems I have been waiting so long for this. My father.... whom I can’t get as father is dead now, but I cannot feel the woe that much. How could I, for he is dead to me for a long time from now. Mom kept him as dead. I didn’t ask anything till now. Now I want to know everything....want to understand many things”.....Shohel writes this when he is in Dhaka.

            While going to Syhlet, Shohel becomes possessed with the thought of his father and mother. Things which were true to him seem false now. He feels a distance with his mother, because, Shirin kept him aloof from everything. On that journey his mother thinks of how to expose her sad days to his son.

            Shohel finds that there is a real world behind the photograph of the postcard which is big and deep.  This journey is not a merry travel to get loose for a few days. This is where the viewers understand how a piece of land becomes homeland to one. His step sister Rini and grandfather help Shohel to find the links. Viewers here understand how a bond so deep and so rooted is created that makes everyone homebound. Shohel’s fighting with his own self is one of the highest pick of the movie.

            The other works of Tarek Masud are “Matir Moyna” and “Runway”. Once in an interview Tarek said that he had searched for the self through his works. Though “Ontorjatra” is different from other two films in subject matter, there are similarities in the theme with all the mentioned three. Tarek uses long dialogue from the perspective of Shohel’s grandfather who tends to describe “homeland” and to exemplify brings Biharis to the storyline.

            This grandfarger character forshadows the British rules and regulation and the character Lokkhon forgrounds the pain of separation from one’s own country.

            In his father’s funeral ceremony, Shohel finds a new kind of cultural perspective, the Islamic rituals, and the Oria songs, but he feels a lack of stimuli. He loses attention when he listens to the fusion of Anusheh. Why the fusion was necessary should have been cleared in the film. There has been an absence of spectacle here to clarify the two things between east and west. There should have been a clarification otherwise we cannot call Shohel’s search what we are calling “the call from one’s soul.”

            The manuscript is written by the director himself. Catherine Masud helped the screen play. The story is monolithic. There is no major thematic complexity. One big problem of the movie might be the dialect of Syhlet region which might seem itching to some viewers. Tarek did not probably want to experiment with the character. The casts are Sara Zaker (as Shirin), Risakat Rashid (as Shohel), Abdul Momen Chowdhury (Grandfather to Shohel), Rokeya Prachi, Herold Roshid, Joyonto Chttapadhay, Lokkhon, special cast Anusheh from the band Bangla. Every one just matched his/her respective character. Specially Sara Zaker performed outstandingly the train scene to Dhaka where she shows the desperation of revenge, obsessed love to her child and restraining herself from all the womanly need just by facial expression. Had it been made a loud scene, it would have lost its appeal.

            Tarek sets his character to an experimental perspective. Here he didn’t want anything which needs prior justification. Tarek’s works are a kind of documentation also. Viewers will find that flavour too. The representation is not diverse, very little was there which were multidimensional that leaves the representation unpolished.   

            Predictably the cinematography was satisfying. The rickshaw scene of Sara Zaker of old Dhaka could make anybody, from that area, nostalgic. The greenery of the tea states also feels nice to view through the celluloid screen. Technically the movie is different from any other movies of that time. “Ontorjatra” is the first digital film ever made in Bangladesh. The 35mm film format was unique to Bangladeshi viewers as well as filmmakers. This experimentation of Tarek Masud has extended the dream and capacity of young film makers.