Tausif Sanzum converses with Rubaiyat Hossain about her upcoming film Under Construction
Photo credit: Courtesy
Rubaiyat Hossain’s second movie Under Construction premieres at the Dhaka Film Festival before releasing on January 22 in four theatres – Star Cineplex, Blockbuster, Shyamoli and Balaka. “My film was supposed to release in July. However, I got an offer from Dhaka Film Festival that they want Under Construction as their opening film. Their theme for this year is women in cinema. They are also having an academic conference with Dhaka University based on this theme. I thought it would be a great opportunity if my film was shown here and thus decided to push back my initial release plans. We will have two screenings at the festival – National Museum and Public Library,” explains Rubaiyat.
Her movie has also done the rounds at several international film festivals. Successfully concealing the pride in her voice, Rubaiyat says that the experience has been overwhelming, “It started in June when it premiered in Seattle and the two shows there were completely sold out. After Seattle, it was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival, where it recieved great reviews. It has been to a lot of other film festivals including Sao Paolo Film Festival in Brazil.” On a funny note, she shares that, “It is great when people pay you to go to a country, put you up in a nice hotel, and you get to meet a lot of directors from different countries, to whom you can show your work.”
Rubaiyat talks about the perception of Bangladeshi movies at film festivals. She points out, “There aren’t many films from Bangladesh out there, but they really want to see our films. One of the reviews of my movie described my protagonist as way too liberated. So I think when people out there think of Bangladesh, they have this vision of seeing oppression, Islamic militancy and poverty which is not completely depicted in my movie. However, I believe that if people who come to these festivals can connect to a film, they will love it regardless of the elements present in it.”
Without giving out any major spoilers for the movie, Rubaiyat gives us a sneak peak of her latest film, “There are two women in the film – a theatre artiste and a garments worker. It is about how Moina, the garments worker, influences the theatre artiste’s adaptation of Tagore’s play Raktokorobi. I have tried to show the journey of women through different classes.”
Shot over a period of 36 days, Rubaiyat talks about two major difficulties which she faced, “Firstly, we wanted to shoot inside a garments factory but we weren’t getting permission. The owners were apprehensive about how their factories might be portrayed in the movie. Secondly, we have a scene where we show a young sapling growing among the ruins of Rana Plaza. This scene conveys the message that life can emerge from ruins, it was also the inspiration behind Tagore’s play. We went to the Rana Plaza site and on the second day of the shoot, the police started questioning us.”
Talking about the Bengali diction of Shahana Goshwami and Rahul Bose, Rubaiyat recalls, “I read out all of Shahana’s dialogues and recorded it. I told her to keep listening to them and when she finally performed it, she was spot on. When you watch the film, you will be unable to discern the differences in dialect but you might find it with Rahul’s at times.
When asked if the current unrest in the country will affect the reception of her movie, she notes, “It is always in the back of our minds. When we see these incidents, we are paralysed with fear, but with time we forget them and move on. I am just hoping to enjoy the Dhaka Film Festival. On a brighter note, I am actually happy that it has been a good year for Bangladeshi films as five of them have been in major international film festival circuits.”
From directing Meherjaan to Under Construction, we ask her what has changed. To which she shares, “I think at the core, I am still the same. But I think, I am a lot calmer now and this has come with age. These days, for instance, if I hear that my film is going to a big festival, I don’t get too happy. And if something goes wrong, I do not get too upset. I have learnt that it doesn’t matter at the end – you are who you are and your work is what it is.”