Abu Sayeed completes “Ekjon Kobi'r Mrittu”

Abid Haider is a nature-loving poet with an existential crisis: he cannot do star-gazing due to a thick grey coating caused by air pollution that covers the night sky over Dhaka. He feels it is his right not only as an individual but that of his generation to enjoy to the hilt a star-studded sky.

Haider wants nature free from pollution but his desire goes beyond that: he wants unhindered communication with the stars and the universe. This is a non-negotiable demand for the poet who sticks to it even after his death.

This, in short, is the story of award-winning director Abu Sayeed's crowd-funded feature film “Ekjon Kobir Mrittu” that stars veteran actor Jayanta Chattopadhyay in the role of the poet, and Irina Sultana in the role of 'Death'.

The work on the country's first crowd-funded feature film is over, and will soon be submitted to the Censor Board for clearance, Sayeed tells The Daily Star. He adds that he also has plans to send it to the international festival circuit along with the release in Bangladesh.

Chipping in with money ranging from Taka 100 to Taka 300,000, more than four thousand people from different strata of society have contributed to the making of the film since October 2015.

The filmis “slightly surrealistic and experimental in nature,” says Sayeed, who earlier made six feature films and short films. Some of them, like “Kittonkhola” and “Nirontor” have won win national and international awards.

 “Ekjon Kobir Mrittu”, whose story and script is written by the director himself, was extensively shot in Dhaka and its adjoining areas, Sirajganj, on the highway from Sirajganj to Bhandabari village in Bogra.

Asked if concerns over environmental pollution inspired him to make the movie, Sayeed says it was one of the reasons but the bigger motivation was to explore a person's intimate links with the universe and how he or she communicates with it.

 “That is why my film shows the poet trying to communicate directly or indirectly with the nature and the universe even after his death,” said the director, adding “I have attempted a new manner of presentation.“

Sayeed said one-fourth of the shooting of another of his crowd-funded films, “Sanjog”, that began in the year 2016 is also completed, and the rest would be completed soon. The director is also working another feature film “Dressing Table”.