The world over, currently everyone is talking about the turmoil being faced by the people of Bangladesh due to the ongoing civil unrest, which led to Bangladesh’s longest-serving Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.
Bangladesh has faced similar situations time and again in its history. Coincidentally, international filmmaker Ram Alladi’s upcoming release ‘Panne’ has depicted one such crisis in his film.
“When I see the news on what’s going on in Bangladesh, I feel surprised. I feel the saying History repeats itself fits well with poor Bangladeshis. Two years back, when I was shooting for the Noakhali riots scene for my film, I couldn’t even imagine in my wildest dream that something similar is going to happen when I will be releasing the film. I have a real picture of that time but they are so violent it will make your soul shiver from inside.” Ram Alladi shared, while talking about film Panne’s connection with Bangladesh riots.
Elaborating on the historical connection with Bangladesh riots in the film Ram Alladi said, “The seeds of Noakhali riots were planted during first elections in India in pre pre-independence era 1935 when Muslim community came into power in Bengal. Earlier, under British rule, Hindu zamindars were mainly in power, who were forced to follow new government rules, which created frustration and anger in the society. As a result, differences started in between both the communities in Bangladesh but it became big when the British rule was ending. On 11 October 1946, the Noakhali district in Bangladesh set on fire as riots started. If you see the political history of Bangladesh after this incident also, they have faced many such challenges and rose from the ashes.”
Ram Allad who has won many awards for his documentary films Chiseled (2017) and ‘Ra’s Metanoia’, is all set to release his first full film ‘Panne’ on September 6th on ‘InTalkies’.
‘Panne’ is the story of India’s post-independence period. A daughter of a war widow pursues to achieve her social identity after the dawn of her step grandfather’s political empire. The story travels from the period of border partition to 1960’s independent India.
