Mukh O Mukhosh

Mukh O Mukhosh (Bengali: মুখ ও মুখোশ) (The Face and the Mask) (1956) was the first Bengali language feature film to be made in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). It was produced by Iqbal Films and directed by Abdul Jabbar Khan. The movie was released in East Pakistan on 3 August 1956. It was released in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj, and Khulna. The movie was a great success as viewers thronged to watch the first movie to be made in the region. It earned a total of Rs. 48,000 during its initial run.

Mukh o mukhosh part 2

Background

The story of the movie was based on Abdul Jabbar Khan's play and history, Dakaat (Robbers). Khan started working on the movie in 1953. At that time, the film industry in erstwhile East Pakistan was virtually non-existent, and local film theatres screened movies from Kolkata, or Lahore. Jabbar Khan was reportedly incensed by the remarks of a Calcutta movie producer, F. Dossani, who claimed the local climate was not suitable for movie production. Khan worked on the movie for two years. Local actors, who had no prior experience of acting in films, performed in the movie for free. In the absence of any local film production studios, the negatives of the film had to be taken to Lahore for development. Playback singers for the two songs in the film were Abdul Alim and Mahbuba Rahman, wife of Khan Ataur Rahman. However, the song by Abdul Alim is lost, as the film of that part of the movie has deteriorated completely. Mahbuba sang the other song in the movie - Moner Boney Dola Laage Hashlo Dokhin Hawa. All song lyrics in this movie were written by M. A. Gafur (Sharathee) and the music was composed by Samar Das.