Page 493 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

490 ART AND CRAFTS

published articles and other sources, that in the past decade the number of cinema halls
has decreased in Dhaka as well as in other districts of Bangladesh. 9
The publicity of films became inevitable as soon as commercial film screening and
establishment of permanent cinema halls began. Cinema banner painting was one of
the ways of publicity to attract people towards the cinema halls. But its inception in
Bangladesh is still unknown. However, senior artists related to the profession of
cinema banner painting, in their interviews, stated that cinema banners as we know
them now featuring exaggerated portraits or figures of actors and actresses painted
with bright colors on fabric along with the title and other information regarding the
film written in large fonts, started after partition (fig. 11.1). 10
Before the partition, even though there was no tradition of cinema banner painting of
this kind, there used to be a practice of painting portraits of movie stars and writing
names of films in large fonts on a specific wall of the cinema hall for advertising films.
These can be identified as the early form of cinema banner painting. Before partition,
in the 30s and 40s, Pitalram Sur of Shankharibazar was involved in this kind of painting
on walls of cinema halls in Dhaka. He did not have any formal education. His family
business was in conch-shell industry. But he was an expert in drawing portraits. He had
a shop called ‘Art House’ (?) near Maya (Star) cinema hall in the Wiseghat area of
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Dhaka. Apart from cinema banner paintings, signboards, backgrounds for photo studios
and portrait paintings were also done here. It is notable in this context that, he could
draw the exact portrait of a person he had seen only once without seeing the person a
second time. Besides, he had extraordinary skill in Vidyasagar lettering. 13
12
After the partition, a huge number of non-Bengali Muslims migrated from Kolkata and
other parts of India to Bangladesh (former East Pakistan). Many of them were engaged
in cinema banner painting in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai. They were the pioneers
of cinema banner painting in Bangladesh. As examples Mohammad Selim and Abdul
fig. 11.1 Cinema banner Wahab (80) may be named. Some of the local self-taught artists like Pital Sur, A.Z.
in front of cinema hall, Pasha (student of Art College?), Subhash Dutta (1930- ), but he learnt painting in
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photograph Athahar Mumbai) Sutan Sarker (Dinajpur), and others joined them. In the 50s, even many
Hossain Surjo artists having formal education in Dhaka engaged themselves in cinema banner
painting. We can name, for example,
famous artist and sculptor Nitun Kundu
(1936-2006) and Azizur Rahim, (1939- )
now a film director. 15
It is significant that there was no
remarkable initiative taken for film-
making in Bangladesh before the
partition although the film industry in
Kolkata, Lahore, Mumbai, Chennai
and Karachi was much developed by
that time. Presumably the film industry
of Bangladesh started its journey with