Culture Desk
The National Award for Brihonnola has been rejected. Brihonnola, a movie directed by Murad Pavez, won in three categories in the National Film Award 2014: best film, best story and best dialogue.
After the announcement, the director of Brihonnala, was alleged for plagiarism. The allegation came under spotlight when Times of India published a report quoting Syed Mustafa Siraj’s elder son Abhijit Siraj.
In the report published in September last year, Siraj claimed that Murad Parvez’s Brihonnola was an adaptation of “Gaachhta Bolechhilo,” a short story written by his father. Unfortunately, Murad did not give any credit to the original writer.
The government had earlier sent a notice to its director, Murad Parvez, asking for his explanation on the allegation that the source of Brihonnola is Syed Mustafa Siraj’s short story “Gachhta Bolechhilo.”
The information secretary said that Parvez had responded to the ministry’s call for an explanation. However, he did not disclose the names of other members of the investigation panel.
West Bengal-based authors Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and Debesh Roy have written to Information Minister, Hasanul Haq Inu, asking the government to pay Rs1,50,000 to the family of Siraj as royalty. Syed Hasmat Jalal, the secretary to Syed Mustafa Siraj Academy, had also written to Inu regarding the matter.
Finally, after two months of continuous allegations, Brihonnola got rejected by the National Award authority in all three of the categories. Murad has always been saying that Brihonnola was his brain child. He told Dhaka Tribune earlier that, “there is no valid ground behind the allegations. Two stories may have characteristic similarities. This is not unusual.”
The film Brihonnola, also funded by the government, starrs Sohana Saba and Ferdous. After a long marital relationship, Sohana Saba and Murad Parvez got divorced recently for reasons that are unknown to all.
