Culture Desk

Pyari Begum, the lead female actress of the first ever Bangla feature film ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’, passed away on Tuesday. She breathed her last in the afternoon at her Uttara residence. She was 87.

Pyari Begum’s son Rabiul Amin confirmed her death news to the media.

Pyari Begum’s demise follows the passing of Zahrat Ara, her co-actress in ‘Mukh O Mukhosh’, on July 19 in 2021.

‘Mukh O Mukhosh’ was the first Bengali-language feature film to be made in Bangladesh (the then East Pakista). It was produced by Iqbal Films and directed by Abdul Jabbar Khan.

The film was released in theatres on August 3 in 1956. It was released in Dhaka, Chittagong, Narayanganj, and Khulna. The film was a great success as viewers thronged to watch the first film to be made in the region.

Abdul Jabbar Khan started working on the film in 1953. At that time, the film industry in erstwhile East Pakistan was virtually non-existent, and local film theatres screened mostly Urdu films from Lahore, Hindi films from Mumbai, and Bengal films from Kolkata.

To establish the film making infrastructures, a meeting was held in 1953 where F. Dossani, a West Pakistani film distributor, claimed the local climate was not suitable for film production. Abdul Jabbar challenged him and starts making the film.

He worked on the film for two years. In the absence of any local film production studios, the negatives of the film had to be taken to Lahore for development.

The cast of the film includes Aminul Haque, Inam Ahmed, Ali Mansoor, Zahrat Ara, Abdul Jabbar Khan, Kazi Khaliq, Purnima Sengupta, Piyari Begum, Saifuddin Ahmed, Golam Mostafa, Abul Khair, Sona Mia and Bilkis Bari.