High hopes on Lilliputs

A scene from the film Lilliputra Boro Hobey

In Hasan's words, "There are three types of human beings described in Swift's novel: the Lilliputians, the giant Brobdingnagians and the normal human beings. And this classification is a metaphorical satire on our society's crude class system--the lower class, the upper class and the middle class. My film gradually unfolds that social structure where the lower class is suppressed and exploited by the upper class and the middle class is not there to help them out."

Shot in a village called Birulia, the story of the film Lilliputra Boro Hobey starts with the protagonist of the film Abdul Karim, a teacher of English in Birulia High School. One fine day, while giving lessons on Gulliver's Travels to the students of class nine, he makes them realise that although the characters of the story seems unreal, they are actually very much real. The Lilliputs symbolise the lower class, the Brobdingnags stand for the powerful upper class while Gulliver himself is the symbol of the opportunist middle class. Karim's explanation spreads all over the village and his social work makes him popular among the oppressed people of the village.

Pitted against Karim is Aftab Mollah, a representative of the upper caste. Eventually Karim, a lone voice, realises the helplessness of the lower class. He realises that in order to survive in this world, the Lilliputs should come forward. He sticks to his belief that if these people unite, they can overcome many odds.

Raisul Islam Asad, Afsana Mimi, Azad Abul Kalam, Khairul Alam Shabuj, Chitralekha Guha and others act in the film. The graphics is done by Toufiq Elahi. The playback singers are Syed Abdul Hadi, Moutushi Islam and Prokriti.

Explaining the raison d'être of this film, Hasan says, "By criticising humans and their vanity and folly, I have tried to project the view that people are capable of better behaviour and I hope that this work will convince people to reconsider their conduct."

Importantly, the satirical film is being made completely with the help of the digital technology. The film is going to be treated as the same genre as films like Split Decision, Radiohead, Redboy 13 which are a mix of digital video to 35mm and regular 35mm, informs Hasan. As the director says, "Produced by Creative Promotions, we have used digital technology in the pre-visualisation, filming, editing, sound mixing and almost each and every sector."

But that doesn't mean that this film turns into a mechanical one. "We've tried to maintain the artistic sense all through this neorealistic film," assures Hasan.

"The film is done in Digital Theatre System (DTS), and the sound output will be Dolby SR. The release print will be 35mm in Wide Gate print. I hope to release Lilliputra Boro Hobey on the first Monday of October on the occasion of World Children's Day," ends Hasan.