Syed Badrul Ahsan

The stories of cultural icons are an indispensable and integral part of a nation’s ethos. Drama, films and songs, in their richness and profundity, strengthen the place of a country in the global arena. The passing of Zeenat Rehana speaks to us of the mortality all of us are hostage to.

More than that, when her life came to an end not long ago, it was for us to recall her contributions to the world of music in Bangladesh, contributions which necessitate focusing on in our particular artistic interest. 

Many among us have been going back to Zeenat Rehana’s iconic ‘shagorer teer theke’ to remind ourselves of the sheer beauty which defined the world of our melody in the 1960s and 1970s. In her mother Zebunnnesa Jamal, Zeenat had a songwriter whose reputation straddled the entire landscape of Bangladesh’s music in a past which is as alive for us today as the stars which shower light on our world every evening.

But then comes the question: how much have we, from that cultural perspective, done to keep the legacy of our singers and lyricists and music directors alive, the better to have our legacy in melody ensured for coming generations to draw lessons from? Not many are there in Bangladesh today to recall the songs which once captivated us in our youth, songs which were on everyone’s lips in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. 

There is a sadness associated with forgetting beautiful times, forgetting music which once gave a powerful lilt to the soul, enough to lift it out of the banality of life and transport it to the heights of romantic imagination. These days, some individuals, and they are no more than a handful, remember our singers, actors and music makers on social media. But that is about all. Not much is said or written about them on our ubiquitous television channels and in the newspapers.

It is our misfortune that we have little time for any focused conversations on such stalwarts as Mahmudunnabi, Saiful Islam, Anwaruddin Khan, Bashir Ahmed, Rathindranath Roy, Mustafa Zaman Abbasi and so many others who made a difference to our world of music in the past.

Again, what measures have been taken, if at all, to preserve their songs in the way artistes in neighbouring India have had their musical contributions form part of the cultural heritage? Our old movies from the 1960s have begun to look grainy, to a point where it becomes difficult to sit through a session watching them and trying to relive the emotions which stirred in us when we first experienced them once they were released in the cinema halls.

How many of us are today around --- and we speak of the generations of Bengalis born in the 1970s and 1980s --- to reflect on the quiet passion which underscored Mahmudunnabi’s ‘tumi kokhon eshe dnarhiye achho amar ojante’ or Saiful Islam’s ‘tumi shondhakasher tarar moto amar mone jolbe’? Bashir Ahmed’s ‘tomar kajol kesh chhorhalo bole ei raat emon modhur’ and Khondokar Faruk Ahmed’s ‘aami nijer mone nijei jeno gopone dhora porhechhi’, Abdul Jabbar’s ‘tumi ki dekhechho kobhu’, Syed Abdul Hadi’s ‘doyal tor bhoroshae amar buuk baindha’ and Mohammad Ali Siddiqui’s ‘na hoy rakhle amar kotha aager moto’ are among the most appealing of songs in our part of the world. Do we have any references to these songs in these present times? 

Turn your attention to Ferdousi Rahman, Shahnaz Begum (before she became Shahnaz Rahmatullah), Farida Yasmeen, Niloufer Yasmin, Sabina Yasmeen, Runa Laila, Anjuman Ara Begum and Hasina Mumtaz. At odd moments we recall their songs, but is that enough? In this ongoing world of cacophony which has certainly pushed symphony out of our lives, we do not recall the songs which once were played on the radio in our homes. Recall ‘akasher haate achhe ek raash neel’, ‘jibon shey to poddo patae shishir bindu’, ‘aakhi tai to emon kore bolechhe’, ‘eki shonar aloey jibon bhoriye diley’, ‘phooler kaane bhromor eshe’, ‘ke amar ondho moner bondho duaar’ and all the other compositions in their vast repertoire.

And the lyricists? K.G. Mustafa, Dr Moniruzzaman, Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal as well as the brilliant music directors who have contributed so immensely to the making of melody in pre- and post-liberation Bangladesh added substance to our cultural moorings. Robin Ghosh’s contributions to music for Bengali and Urdu movies are unparalleled. There is Khondokar Nurul Alam’s ‘chokh je moner kotha bole’, a song which has romance come alive in the soul. 

Zeenat Rehana’s death is an embarrassing reminder to us of the myriad ways in which we have failed to keep alive the legacy of our artistes dead and alive. Those whose lives have drawn to an end have had no more than small news items making note of their passing in the media rather than meaningful obituaries for people to go into a study of the productive lives they led. Alive, they were mostly ignored when the public expectation was that they would be invited by the media to reflect on the road they travelled before ascending the heights to fulfilment in their careers.

It ought to be the responsibility of such organisations as the Bangla Academy to institute programmes aimed at a preservation of the legacy of our artistes in the world of music, theatre and movies. The well-endowed and reputed publishing houses could come in as well to be part of this needed exercise. Subhash Dutta, Nasima Khan, Azim, Razzaq, Sharmilee, Reshma, Rahman, Shabnam, Shabana, Babita, Suchanda, Sumita Devi, Suchorita, Rozina, Faruk, Kabori and others came into Bengali movies at a decisive phase in Bangladesh’s history. Where are the details about their lives and careers we would like to pass on to the young? 
The story of a nation comes by enrichment when its poetry, art and literature are added to its cultural framework. Individuals qualified to explore and research the lives of the eminent people who have made invaluable contributions to our artistic arena ought to be commissioned to undertake the responsibility of filling in the gap which now exists. The families of our reputed singers, actors, music directors and lyricists as well as serious observers of their performances are yet there to be approached for information on the lives of the stars who rose to the heights from the comfort of their homes.

Our playback singers, our Rabindra and Nazrul and Lalon artistes, indeed everyone who has been part of the rich cultural landscape of this country deserves honourable mention in our history. Be it in the form of biographies, special issues, discussions, newspaper articles and seminars, their lives and careers should be highlighted before citizens. Culture is that significant link which ties the past to the future through the present. Nations thrive when their cultural history links up with their political history and thereby ensures for them a proper niche in the global scheme of things.  
Zeenat Rehana has passed into the region beyond life. She thus joins the illustrious Bengali artistes who have preceded her to the world beyond our temporal one. It is for us a moral compulsion today to have all of them live on in our world of aesthetics, to shine on in our universe from beyond the grave, to remind us of the beauty they draped our lives in through the power they brought into play in their time, the better to give us, the living, a compelling reason for being.    
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Syed Badrul Ahsan writes on politics, diplomacy and history