Alamgir Kabir (1938 - 1989) was a Bangladeshi film director and cultural activist. He was one of the pioneer figures of modern Bangladeshi film. Three of his feature films are featured in the "Top 10 Bangladeshi Films" list by British Film Institute.
He was born in 1938 at Rangamati. He completed the matriculation in 1952 from Dhaka Collegiate School and the intermediate in 1954 from Dhaka College. After completion of bachelors from the Dhaka University in Physics, he went to England to study Electrical Engineering at Oxford University. It is during this period that he came across the The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman. He watched it several times and became attracted to filmmaking. He went to British Film Institute to complete a number of courses on the history of the film industry, film direction and aesthetics.
He also got involved with the Communist Party of England and became a reporter of the Communist Party newspaper, the Daily Worker. As a reporter of the communist daily, he took interview of Cuban President Fidel Castro. He also took part in the wars of liberation of Palestine and Algeria. Alamgir was the founder of organisations such as East Pakistan House and East Bengal Liberation Front at London and was active in the campaign against racial discrimination.
In 1966, Alamgir came back to Dhaka. The Ayub government imprisoned him for his involvement with the leftist movement. Later, he started his professional life as a journalist. With the start of the war of independence in 1971, he joined the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra as the chief of its English section. He also worked as the chief reporter of the Bangladesh government in exile. This period also marks the start of his directorial life with the making of documentaries.
After the war of independence, he started making feature films. During 1981-82 Alamgir was the coordinator of the Film Appreciation Courses organised by the Film Institute, Government of Bangladesh.
Some of his notable feature films are "Dhire Bahe Meghna", "Surja Kannya", "Simana Periey", "Rupali Saikate", "Mohana", "Mahanayak", "Parinita" and more.
Alamgir drowned at Jamuna River at Nagarbari ferry ghat when returning from Bogra after attending film seminar on January 20 in 1989.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
