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The fire that quenched too soon

Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier's second death anniversary

Fahmim Ferdous
August is a sad month for Bangladesh. The month is crowded with occurrences that have left the nation bereaved: be it the death anniversaries of the two greatest poets of the Bengali language, Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, the assassination of Bangabandhu, to grenade attacks, coordinated bomb blasts across the country, to the demise of intellectuals like Humayun Azad.
The latest blotch on the cursed calendar was the demise of two great minds of our times, Tareque Masud and Mishuk Munier. Two years ago on August 13, the filmmakercinematographer duo were returning from Manikganj's Chlor after selecting shooting spots for the former's latest film “Kagojer Phool” when a tragic road accident took them both away.
Masud was a class apart in Bangladeshi films. With his directorial
debut 'Adam Surat" on artist SM Sultan in 1989, he displayed his prowess as a storyteller, but along with Catherine Masud, it was with "Mukti'r Gaan" (1995), a stirring documentary of the ventures of "Mukti Sangrami Shilpi Parishad" during the Liberation War taken from footage by US filmmaker Lear Levin, that Masud really made his space in the film arena.
That was followed by his first full-length feature "Mati'r Moyna" (2002), a film adapted from Masud's own childhood, which took him places. The film debuted at the Cannes, won the International Critic's Award and the FIPRESCI Prize, and cemented his place in the hearts of Bangladeshis. His two next films, "Antarjatra" (2006) and "Runway” (2010) also bore the imprints of a master camera-craftsman.
Ashfaque "Mishuk" Munier was the direct descendant of the great Munier Chowdhury, professor-playwright-educationist-literary critic
extraordinaire, who was abducted on December 14, 1971. Mishuk was a pioneer in uplifting Bangladesh's electronic journalism, playing a crucial role in its meteoric growth as the director of news in the country's first satellite channel, EkusheyTV. He also
worked for BBC, WTN, ARD1, Channel 4, CBC, The Real News and Discovery Health in India, Afghanistan, Singapore, Malaysia and Canada. Later he returned to Bangladesh and joined ATN News. Apart from being a prolific newsman, he was a gifted photogra-
pher and cinematographer. Mishuk was the chief cinematographer of several of Masud's films, including "Runway" and "Mukti'r Kotha" (1999), and was working for “Kagojer Phool". He extensively worked on conflict zones, natural disasters and political upheavals. He also worked as the director of photography for Nelofar Pazira's "Return to Kandahar" (2003).
One aspect that set the two men apart from their contemporaries was their love for the country, and the drive to tell stories of substance. Even when Masud made feature films, they spoke of historically and culturally significant phenomena - and he found a cinematographer in a friend who shared that passion. They both passed away in their early 50s, at a time when they had so much more left to give. But gone as they may be, Masud and Mishuk both live on through their works, through the stories they told, and the hearts they touched.