Actress receives acclaim as a director

Kabori Sarwar (L) with Sharmila Tagore in Spain

The imagineindia V Madrid Indian film festival is a competitive film festival dedicated entirely to films related to India. The chairperson of the panel was famed Indian actress Sharmila Tagore. Recently back from Spain, Kabori shared her experience with The Daily Star.

"This year the central theme was the 'Partition of India'. Hence movies from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India were screened. But the movies that made it to the official competition section were Daivanamathil, Hasina, Iqbal, Page 3, Amu, Sarkar and Laaz.

Daivanamathil won the first prize," says Kabori.

"While I was being introduced to Sharmilaji, I was speaking in English. She said that as both of us are Bengalis we should speak in our mother tongue. I was initially embarrassed, but from then on we got along very well. Though Sharmilaji was the chair, she used to always elicit my opinion first. In most of the cases our opinions matched. There were two Spanish actresses with us on the jury board. They also shared similar opinions," she adds.

Sharing her experience at being a jury member, Kabori says, "We narrowed the competition down to Amu and Daivanamathil. Both were excellent movies with no technical gimmicks. While Amu was about the Sikh search for identity, Daivanamathil was on a more contemporary topic 'religious fundamentalism'. The storyline was great and the making uncomplicated. The director could have put extra effects if he wished, he expressed the movie at face value, the way a young university student from a middle class Muslim background would if he turned into a religious fundamentalist. It was superb."

Since the success of her directorial venture Aaina (a film based on acid victims), Kabori feels that such movies from Bangladesh should go to international film festivals. In her words, "Obviously we cannot compete with developed countries on technical grounds. Neither will they judge us based on that. However, we have inspiring stories depicting lives in a realistic manner. I think we stand a fair chance."

Kabori's next venture as a director will be based on the novel Priyo by Emdadul Haque Milon. She plans to cast either Moushumi or Purnima and Riaz. The movie revolves around a family of two brothers and a sister. The parents die and the two brothers want to give the family plot to developers whereas the sister wishes to preserve the memories of their parents and keep the house in one piece.