Who would be ...

[Saurav]

the five most important filmmakers of Bangladesh?

(well, five is just a number, you are welcome to name less or more)

Can anyone name some of the international awards/recognition these filmmakers might have won?

[fab]

Saurav,
It is nice to see your interest in BD and BD films. To tell you frankly, the BD film industry is pretty dismal and generally produces shockingly hideous films with very few good ones here and there. This is most likely due to the fact we are a poor country with a small market, and so film budgets aren't high on the agenda. But then again, looking at the abysmal quality of Bollywood films, perhaps it's not just money that is needed to make good films It is a shame that the only film industry in the world that is larger than Hollywood (and can actually compete with it) has yet to win an Oscar for a film!

I am only aware of a couple of internationally acclaimed BD directors:

Tareque Masud (won the International Critics Award as the best film in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes 2002 for Matir Moina)
Tanvir Mokammel (Achin Pakhi, Lal Salu)

Perhaps others on here can name a few more.

btw, what is happening with the numerous law suits against Bollywood film makers who blatantly plagarise plots and themes off Hollywood movies? In the last couple of years I've watch 4 or 5 bollywood films, and of the ones I have seen ALL, bar one, was a direct copy of a hollywood film! LOL

[Saurav]

Hi fab,

I am more interested in the Bangladeshi parallel films, rather than the mainstream industry. I remember watching 'Muktijuddher Jishu' (is that the right title?) some years back, and that film was quite good. What were the other ventures of the filmmaker who made that film?

Regarding the Indian film industry (you see, Bollywood merely reflects Hindi films which has nothing to do with the rest of the films produced in the country, so one should not regard Bollywood as a representative of Indian films), many films made have won awards abroad and India is doing quite well in this arena. However, winning an Oscar is hardly a benchmark for a film-lover. An award in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, New York or even Karlovy Vary is as important, if not more. Oscar is simply an award given out by the US film industry, and Hollywood maybe the world's most succesful market in terms of revenues, but it is hardly the most succesful in terms of artistic capabilities. [Oscar markets itself as a 'big deal', and that marketing convinces a lot of people]

Besides, the Indian film industry is not an organised one, so its so-called force is only in terms of size, and not strength.

Talking about law suits, what law suits? ;-) US has never sued any Indian film for plagiarization (they should do well to sue some of the DVD-hacks who pretend to be filmmakers), but again neither Latin America nor Japan sues US frequently for plagiarizing their films. It's all in the game, I guess!

[reverse_swing]

Here is the link of Matir moina.

[fab]

You may be interested to follow the link HERE as it mentions a few Bangladeshi
films, including Ekatturer Jishu.

Apart from Satyajit Roy films (who incidently was a 1st generation immigrant
Bangladeshi!), the odd Mira Nair film and Salaam Bombay, I haven't seen many alternative and/or art house films from India. But I must say the ones I have seen were excellent. How well does this section of the industry do at Cannes? Do you have any recommendations(preferably Bengali or South Indian)?

Regarding how to rate a country's film industry, it all depends. Art and alternative films serve a different purposes and have different objectives to maintstream movies. In my opinion they really shouldn't be compared as it is like comparing apples with oranges.

Regarding plagiarism, come on Bollywood has taken the art of plagiarism to a whole new level. It is sometimes quite embarrassing to watch! But really, Hollywood should be proud, as they say imitation is the greatest form of flattery..

[Saurav]

Thanks for the link.

The independent section does extremely well in the international film festivals. Monsoon Wedding won the Golden lion in Venice in 2002, and filmmaker Manish Jha won the Jury Award in Cannes for the Best Short Film in 2003. 'Lagaan' (though not independent) won an Oscar nomination and the Best Film as per audience recommendation in Karlovy Vary. Devdas got a BAFTA nomination last year(despite being both ostentatious and pretentious).

You may want to watch Aparna Sen's 'Mr and Mrs Iyer' (it got a lot of acclaim, that's what I can say), or Buddhadeb Dasgupta's 'Mondo Meyer Upakhyan' (again, not recommending, just going by the acclaim) or even some of Rituparno Ghosh's films.

In Hindi films, Ramgopal Varma's company regularly churns outs something interesting, original and different, though most of them don't end up as great films. But, there is some great hope here.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra is also a force to reckon with.

In the south, Adoor Gopalakrishnan is undoubtledly a legend. Mani Ratnam has been quite well received as well.

I am not asking you to compare mainstream and parallel films, but in terms of artistic measuribility, independent films hold the benchmark world over. Mainstream films prove whether the industry is succesful from a business point of view, and only 10 per cent of Bollywood's films are hit anyway.

Plagiarism - it's all about lack of organisation, confidence and hard work. Someday all these DVD-hacks would have to go.