Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

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Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
মোস্তফা সরোয়ার ফারুকী
Mostofa Sarwar Farooki at Wikipedia 15 celebration in BSK (08).jpg
Farooki in 2016
Born (1973-05-02) 2 May 1973 (age 50)
Nationality Bangladeshi
Occupation(s) Filmmaker, producer, and script writer
Years active1999 – present [1]
Notable work Television (2012 film), Third Person Singular Number, Doob: No Bed of Roses, Ant Story
Spouse
(m. 2010)
ChildrenIlham Nusrat Farooki (b. 2022)

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (born 2 May 1973) is a Bangladeshi film director, producer and screenwriter. [2] [3] His films Third Person Singular Number , Television, No Bed Of Roses were critically acclaimed across the world and received numerous international and national awards. He founded filmmakers' movement called "Chabial". [4] [5] [ citation needed ]

Contents

Early life

Farooki was born 2 May 1973 in the Nakhalpara neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He attended Tejgaon Government Boys' High School. [6]

Career

Farooki has set a new trend in terms of presentation [7] and direction in the early 2000. His debut film was Bachelor (2003) starring Humayun Faridi, Aupee Karim, Ferdous Ahmed, Shabnur and many others. Then his second film, a political satire Made In Bangladesh (2007) starring Zahid Hasan, Tariq Anam Khan, Shahiduzzaman Selim and others. His third film Third Person Singular Number starring Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Topu, Mosharraf Karim was premiered in Busan International Film Festival (2009). It had its European premier in International Film Festival Rotterdam, It was also in the official competition 2009 Middle East International Film Festival. After that he made a short film named Ok Cut. His fourth feature Television (2012) starring Chanchal Chowdhury, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Mosharraf Karim and Kazi Shahir Huda Rumi was the closing film of Busan International Film Festival and won the APSA Grand Jury Prize in 2013, as well as a further five international awards from Dubai, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Rome's Asiatica Film Mediale, and Kolkata International Film Festival. His fifth feature film Ant Story starring Sheena Chohan and Noor Imran Mithu was nominated for the Golden Goblet Awards and the Dubai International Film Festival's Muhr AsiaAfrica Awards. In 2014 it was also in competition for APSA and both the Singapore and Kerala International Film Festivals. He finished his sixth feature film Doob: No Bed of Roses starring international star Irrfan Khan, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Parno Mittra, Rokeya Prachy and others. [8] [9] It was an official project of Film Bazar India 2013. It won Dubai Film Market Award and Kommersant Jury Prize at Moscow International Film Festival 2017. [10] He is all set to release his upcoming ambitious project, a one-shot film, Saturday Afternoon starring Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Parambrata Chatterjee, Zahid Hasan, Eyad Hourani, Mamunur Rashid, a Bangladesh-Germany-Russia co-production inspired by the Dhaka terror attack incident of 1 July 2016 at the Holey Artisan Bakery, Gulshan. The film had its world premiere at the main competition section of 41st Moscow International Film Festival 2019 and won the Russian Federation of Film Critics Jury Prize and Komersant Prize. It is the first of three films of his identity trilogy, the second one being No Land's Man starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and the third, Memoria will be based on the Rohingya refugees .[ citation needed ]

Farooki was appointed as an international jury of Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2015, [11] Busan International Film Festival 2017 [12] and Kolkata International Film Festival 2017 and Dhaka International Film Festival 2020. He was also an invited guest and speaker at many other prestigious film festivals. In 2019, he received the Fazlul Haq Memorial Award 2018 and was also honoured by Kaler Kantho newspaper on their anniversary.

Farooki also makes commercials for local and international brands like Djuice, Citycell, Banglalink, Ekhanei.com, Crown Cement, Grameenphone, Close-Up, Robi etc. His most popular commercial was for Meril Soap bar starring Tisha. [13]

Cinematic style

Farooki's body of work address such themes as middle class angst, urban youth romance, deception-hypocrisy and frailty of individual, frustration about the confines of one's culture and conservative Muslim concepts of guilt and redemption.

Brisbane's Asia Pacific Screen Awards says of his work, "His films often deal with the way individuals free themselves from the limitations placed on them by their identity, economic circumstances and belief systems. To counter the deprivation they face in real life, his characters often seem to create a fantasy world around them, lending elements of magical realism to Farooki's signature style." [14] "Mostofa Sarwar Farooki could be the next South-east Asian filmmaker to break out", The Hollywood Reporter wrote in the review of his film Television. Variety 's Jay Weissberg wrote. "Mostofa Sarwar Farooki is a key exemplar of Bangladeshi new wave cinema movement".

Personal life

Tisha and Farooki in 2015 Tisha-Farooki in 2015.jpg
Tisha and Farooki in 2015

Farooki is married to the actress Nusrat Imrose Tisha since 16 July 2010. [15] [16] Together they have a daughter who has been named as Ilham Nusrat Farooki, born on 5 January 2022. [17]

Filmography

YearFilmsNotesReferences
2003 Bachelor
  • Official Selection - New Jersey Independent South Asian Cine Fest
  • Official Selection - Third Eye IFF Mumbai
  • Official Selection -Asiatica filmmediale, Rome
  • Winner, Best Actress at Bangladesh National Film Award 2004
2007 Made in Bangladesh Winner, Special Mention (Best Film) - Dhaka International Film Festival 2008
2009 Third Person Singular Number [18]
2010Ok, Cut
2012 Television
2013 Ant Story
2017 Doob: No Bed of Roses
2019 Shonibar Bikel
2021 No Land's Man
TBAA Burning Question
2023 Something Like an Autobiography [32]

Television

TitleNotes
Ekanno Borti
69
Choruivati
420
Upsonghar
Tal Patar Shepai
Unmanush
Carrom (Part 1)
Carrom (Part 2)
Balok Balikara
Spartacus 71
Emon Deshti Kothao Khuje Pabe Nako Tumi

Web content

YearTitlePlatformNotes
2021 Ladies & Gentleman ZEE5 [33]

Chabial

Farooki is the founder of Chabial, a film makers club. [34] [35] This group of young film makers used to be Farooki's assistant directors. [36] They then used local cable television networks as a platform to master their hands in story telling and created an audience for the stories they tell. Their works have managed to connect primarily with the youth in urban and suburban parts of the Bangladeshi society for the realism in story topics and realism in execution. [37] [38]

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No Land's Man is a 2021 American-Bangladeshi-Indian drama film directed and written by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. The film follows the journey of a South Asian man which becomes complicated when he meets an Australian woman in America. The plot of the film deals with fascism and identity crisis. It stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Eisha Chopra, Tahsan Rahman Khan among others. The film, a joint production of United States, India, Australia and Bangladesh is produced by Farooki, Shrihari Sathe, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Anjan Chowdhury, Faridur Reza Sagar and Nusrat Imrose Tisha. A.R. Rahman also joins the film as an executive producer and music composer..

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<i>Ladies & Gentlemen</i> (TV series) Bangladeshi television series

Ladies & Gentlemen is a Bangladeshi drama streaming television series created by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. Starring Tasnia Farin as Sabila Hossain, an ordinary girl, the other main cast includes Afzal Hossain, Hasan Masood, Maria Nur, Partha Barua, Chanchal Chowdhury, Iresh Zaker, Mostafa Monwar, Mamunur Rashid and Saberi Alam. The series was released on 9 July 2021 on ZEE5.

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Something Like an Autobiography is a 2023 Bangladeshi film directed by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. It is a part of the ‘Ministry of Love’ 12-film anthology for Bangladeshi streaming platform Chorki. The title of the film, borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's book of same name, resonates with events that question the boundary between reality and fiction from the plot that is presumed by Variety to be inspired from Farooki and his wife Nusrat Imrose Tisha’s personal lives. The film is produced by Redoan Rony and co-produced by Anna Katchko, former Film Bazaar chief Nina Lath, Nusrat Imrose Tisha and Farooki. It is co-written by Farooki and Tisha. It marks Farooki's on-screen debut.

References

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