The fans of Humayun Ahmed has much to rejoice about yet again. The movie ‘Doob: No Bed of Roses’, that is anticipated to be loosely based on his real life incidents was released in 22 June, 2017 and has already managed to win to hearts at the Shanghai Film Festival of 2017.
While the producers of the movie have gone to great pains to insist that this is indeed not a biopic of the great Bangladeshi writer, very few are convinced including the late writer’s wife Meher Afroz Shaon. And you wouldn’t have to look far to see why. The main character of the movie, Javed Hasan is a celebrity filmmaker who leaves his apparent happy and subsequent devastated family to marry his daughter’s classmate. You know what they say: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then its probably a duck.
The movie has a power packed cast, starring Indian actors Irrfan khan and Parno Mittra and the Bangladeshi actor Nusrat Imroz Tisha. The writer-director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has already made a name for himself at the festival circuit with the help of movies such as Television and Ant Story.
This indie movie is bound to end as a favorite in more film festivals given the world wide following Irrfan Khan commands. However, in Bangladesh the movie seems to have hit some road blocks. With the biopic and attempts at defaming accusations running rampant, the movie was briefly banned in February.
While the accusations were dropped, it seems like the topic of divorce of an eminent member of the society who later marries a much younger woman is still considered to be taboo by the government officials in Bangladesh. This is disconcerting as there are no lewd scenes in the film, just a quality movie as hoped by many. At present Doob awaits censorship approvals so that it can be released at the local theaters in Dhaka.
Here’s hoping that Bangladesh censor board is quick to do their job so we can put all the ridiculous finger pointing aside and enjoy a great movie together.