Ajit Raih

Director Maksud Hossain's film 'Saba' is making a lot of buzz in the competition section of the 4th Red Sea International Film Festival held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In the shadow of the communal riots in Bangladesh, this filmfrom the south Asian brings forth many untold stories of the country's endless poverty and struggles for life.

Jeddah Diary-4

The film is made in the European neo-realist framework. After a long time, a Bangladeshi film has entered the world cinema and it has a long way to go. There is no end to the sorrows of Saba Karimi (Mahjabin Chowdhury), a 25-year-old unmarried girl living in a Janata flat in a lower-class colony of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

She has left her studies due to lack of money. Her father has fled to Norway leaving everyone at the mercy of God. She lives in that small flat with her ailing mother Shirin (Ruqaiya Prachi). Her mother, a heart patient, has been paralyzed below the waist. This is a strange situation. Two women are imprisoned in the same flat.

Shirin is physically imprisoned. She cannot even move on her own, while her daughter Saba is emotionally imprisoned. She cannot leave her mother dying alone. At times, the boredom and despair of both women overwhelm each other. Shirin has not seen the outside world since she was confined to bed. This imprisonment is deadly for both.

A scene from the movie -Saba and Shirin in a park

Saba has to work in a hookah bar in Dhaka to run the household. At first, the manager Ankur refuses to give her a job because girls do not work in that bar,

How can a girl work till late at night in a bar? Slowly, Saba befriends the bar manager Ankur so that he gives her an hour off from work to go home and take care of her mother.

She rushes home in the middle of the day changes her mother's diaper, and feeds her medicine and food before closing the door and returning to her work. In her sadness, boredom, and helplessness, Ankur is her last hope; he wants to save money and run away to France. He often steals some things from the bar.

He starts taking an interest in Saba. His wife has died of cancer. He is lonely. However, Saba has no time for this. One day Shirin's health deteriorates; she is having shortness of breath.

In the hospital, the doctor advises her mother to go for surgery. Saba is asked to deposit 1 lakh taka for the operation. To raise money she tries to mortgage her flat to one of her relatives.

She comes to know that her father has already sold the flat. In a dramatic turn of events, Saba tells the bar owner about the theft by Aknur, and in return he gives her Rs 1 lakh advance salary. It is a tragic situation as Saba has to get her lover arrested to save her mother's life.

She is fired from her job. Her salary for three months is withheld. In this way, her dream of going to France remains unfulfilled.

A Poster of Bangladeshi Film Saba

Maqsood Hossain has portrayed the lower middle-class life of Dhaka in great detail. In one scene, Saba and Ankur escape from the suffocating world of home and office and drink beer in the open air on a Dhaka flyover when the police arrive.

Ankur somehow manages to escape the police by bribing them. In the second scene, Saba lifts her mother with the help of Ankur and brings her to a park. Her mother breathes in the open air for the first time.

However, Shirin does not like Ankur. She thinks that he will take advantage of Saba and ditch her. Shirin insults Ankur when Saba invites him home for dinner.

The film shows that poverty is the biggest curse.

Maqsood Hussain doesn't show overt violence in the film, but the sound of violence is in the backdrop; part of the environment. Every scene has been filmed in a realistic framework. As Saba, Mahjabeen Chaudhary has done an outstanding job.

In the last scene, after all the turmoil, when Saba's mother Shirin refuses to go to the hospital because she wants to take her last breath in her home, Saba goes to Ankur's house again. Both of them meet; the endless silence is deafening.

ALSO READ: Why should Bangladeshi Muslims fear 8 pc Hindus?

There is no political commentary in the film Saba, but it portrays the reality of poverty and helplessness in a country. Shirin's disability has become a symbol of the disability of the entire society. Saba's hopes have also been eclipsed by fate. Despite this, she is fighting the battle of life on the strength of her hard work and honesty.