He Fought Tears

He said, "Don't ever stop reading."

I cannot say I have read any Humayun Ahmed novellas published in the past 8-10 years seriously. I took them with me to the bathroom - yes; but could not particularly remember what I read there after I came out. Of course in the age of social media and paranoid entertainment I was also not ignorant of his personal life and all the little gossips that were surrounding everything he did in recent years. I must also confess of the negative impressions about him that I carried around in some remote part of me. But when around midnight my brother called and gave me the news I could not but be sad. I continued to watch some Batman series but my heart was heavy.

One of the fondest memories that I have and will always cherish of my childhood ( circa 1993/4) is that of going to Nilkhet with my mother on a weekday. She took all of three of us, hired an autorickshaw and we went to New market area which was about 30 minutes by autorickshaw from our place back then . I can't clearly remember the events such as meeting my Aunt( mom's sister) , roaming around in new market, Mother and Aunt buying sarees and other household utensils although logic suggests that is possibly what happened. What I do remember of the event though is standing in front of Nilkhet and her buying stacks of books. All old. All Bengali.  And a big huge pile of Humayun Ahmed.I think she tried to catch up because we had just come back from overseas after a substantially long period of time. I can remember the sky was cloudy and I can remember she was happy. (By the way we were not allowed to read them cause the books were all for adults or Boroder Boi as we'd be told.)

One of my earliest memories of watching a movie in a cinema is also with mother, also around New market and has also to do with Humayun Ahmed. It was based on his novel Shankhanil Karagar and it was in Bolaka Cinema opposite new market. I can smell her nostalgia even today because of the way she told us how she used to always come to Bolaka while a student in Dhaka University. Anyway it was the three of us again with mother waiting in the queue. And it was a long queue. At some point she said it would e impossible to get a ticket if we waited in the queue. So the strategy was that she was with my elder brother in one queue and younger brother and I queued up in the next counter. I cannot remember how the movie was entirely.

I dont wait for Himus and I dont wait for his new novels for a long time now.In fact I cant remember waiting for them ever as there were so many already in our house that I could not finish reading before already growing out of him . He did not make me want to be a writer. I cannot say I have affinity for the films he directed. There is one thing he did and that is he made me want to read more and more.

It makes me infinitely sad.

She Loves Woody Allen, He likes him too

Okay, this is He speaking, and we've been on a roll with Woody Allen's movies for some time. It started a long time after we had a roll with the Coen Brothers' films. We find it hard to believe what Woody Allen is doing, in this age of special effects and high drama! "You gotta love him!" is the way we feel about him.

Whether its a big budget blockbuster strategically released for the summer holidays or a small budget indie project, they are all eventually meant to be telling stories. In that story lies the ingenuity of Woody Allen. A glimpse through IMDB tell us that he wrote 70 titles whereas he directed only 48! Its definitely the writing that scores him the points with us. Woody has always picked a classical and forward way to tell stories, and they are usually simple stories with wonderful deviations and twists. We have found some works we didn't warm up to, especially from the recent stuff (like You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger), but for the most part, its a treat. His opening titles are always the same way, almost like the familiarity of opening a book, and at the end of the movie, you might even get the feeling of finishing a good book. He keeps a steady camera, often in a wide angle on the characters as they speak, or just follows them around as they walk around the house talking to each other. Dialogue, is a major feature of the Woody genre, and nothing too orchestrated or theatrical - just candid conversations between the characters. Every movie however has the staple 'Woody Allen' character in them. The one who converses ALL THE TIME, and rants on even when there are no listeners with funny anecdotes and metaphors. If he is not acting in it himself, an actor will usually do that for the film - like Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris or Kenneth Branagh in Celebrity. No matter what your feeling is about this unique director, I for one can really escape while watching some of his work, and they appease me to the point that they makes other films appear boring.

Movies I liked best so far are Broadway Danny Rose, Small Time Crooks and Midnight in Paris.