A film with B'desh liberation war as backdrop (With pix)

December is the month of victory to every Bangladeshi and one of the most important messages of the nine-month long liberation war of 1971 is communal amity that saw Muslims and Hindus fighting shoulder to shoulder for the birth of an independent country.
This message comes out effortlessly in "Anil Bagchir Ek Din" (One Day in the Life of Anil Bagchi), the latest feature film of Morshedul Islam, one of the foremost directors of meaningful cinema in Bangladesh.
Recently shot, it portrays on the big screen how a Muslim man risks his own life and tries to save a Hindu youth from being killed by Pakistani troops during the liberation war.

It is in the middle of 1971. Fighting rages during the Bangladesh liberation war. Anil Bagchi, a Hindu who works in an insurance company in Dhaka besieged by Pakistan occupation army, gets a letter from the head master of a high school in his native village where he studied, that broke the news that his father's has been killed by Pakistani troops.
Anil's sister Atasi, who has kept her affair with a Muslim boy under wrap, has taken shelter in the headmaster's house. The headmaster, however, asks Anil not to visit his house as the village is still not safe for young people. But Anil, breaking from his image of a person lacking courage, decides to risk his life and takes a bus to the village.

On the way, he is introduced to middle-aged Ayub Ali and his family members. Ali is reactionary but slowly his humane side unfolds as he counsels Anil to identify himself as his brother-in-law Mohsin if the Pakistan army catches him on the way.

As expected, the army stops the bus and checks the identity of each passenger. Anil reveals his true identity. Ali risks his own to life in a bid to save Anil but fails. Before Anil is whisked away by the occupation army, Anil requests Ali to meet Atasi and tell her to marry the Muslim boy she loves.

As Anil is led by his captors to the bank of a river for execution, he fully enjoys the splendour of the full moon night.
All this happens in a day and the story "Anil Bagchir Ek Din" is written by Bangladesh's most popular writer, late Humayun Ahmed.
57-year-old Islam, who has to his credit 12 feature films since taking the Bangladeshi parallel cinema by storm by his two documentaries "Aagami" (1984) and "Chaka" in 1993, told PTI from Dhaka that what inspired him to make "Anil Bagchir Ek Din", which is expected to be released next March, was the message of humanitarian appeal and communal harmony emerging from the story of Anil Bagchi.