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Published : 02 Jun 2026, 10:58 PM
What do you say when the daredevil spy of the fictional Bangladesh Counter-Intelligence, BCI, has pink lips?
Well, watching the latest Masud Rana film, out this Eid, the first baffled reaction: Masud Rana the spy or Masud Rana the romantic lover!
At one point, I was waiting for the epic line: “Chowdhury Saheb, I may be a simple secret agent but your daughter has given me her heart and soul!”
And then, the secret agent, originally modelled after Ian Fleming’s 007, is seen doing a dance number.
If this is how the film franchise is developing then the third version of the movie may very well be called, “Masud Rana: License to Masti”!
Or how about “Masud Rana: Mission Jhakanaka”.
After watching the current movie, an aghast Rana lover, said: “We’re not too far away when we may see a title like: Masud, Ei dil Shudhu Tomar!”
Jokes aside, the film fails to create the dark world of espionage, becoming just another commercial action flick where most of the acting seems forced and contrived.
The Masud Rana film will disappoint most Rana aficionados and outrage readers who have been keenly following the agent’s exploits for ages.
Masud Rana has a deep cultural and social root going back to the pre-independent days, developing well throughout the post liberation decades.
As a war-ravaged nation slowly began her journey to prove detractors wrong, Rana became the symbol of a nation’s resilience.
Readers knew that an agent of a desperately impoverished country travelling the globe, eating sumptuous meals and getting involved in swashbuckling adventures in exotic places was a fantasy, but in a time of relentless social and political struggle, Rana became the escape, the character who whisked us away from pervasive unsavoury reality into a world of make belief.
That is exactly why any perceived abasement of that character from how it was presented in the books seems like sacrilege.
Masud Rana is Wearing Lipstick
The new movie has some uplifting features: the starting song about Rana works along with the introductory sequence featuring silhouettes.
The placement of playing cards is reminiscent of Casino Royale but that’s alright.
Then slowly, the movie begins to show faults, descending into the cliched commercial template.
Haphazard plotline, failure to create an air of suspense and wooden acting are topped with Rana in a typical masala film dance number.
A suave agent, slowly dancing at a dinner ball, could have been inserted as part of the plot -- something Bond had done in many of his films but Rana doing a common commercial film dance severely trivialises the protagonist and the film.
And why the pink lips?
That actors in Bangladeshi movies wear lipstick is well established and, as far as I know, this is done to make the lips more appealing.
Perhaps that works for romantic heroes but certainly not for a secret agent whose appearance has to be gritty.
Rana is never portrayed as a lover-boy agent.
He is presented as a patriotic but morally ambiguous spy blithely flouting the conventional norms of right and wrong.
Rana, like Bond, lives in a grey zone where moral and immorality have swift changes of definition, depending on the circumstances.
He should be an enigma and not easily fall for a member of the opposite sex.
The famous line from the Rana book: Shobaike Taane Kintu Badhone Jorae Na (attracts all but never gets entangled), appears incongruous with the bizarre dance and the overuse of the line: you are beautiful!
That brings us to the script.
For the 1974 Masud Rana film, the writer, Qazi Anwar Hussain, wrote the script and won an award for it.
The script in the 2026 film is monotonous with no subtle jokes.
Interestingly, the audience is never told on which book the film is based or, if the plot line was a mixture of several books.
No One Read the Books Before Casting
There’s a serious case of miscasting here.
The part of Rahat Khan, Masud Rana’s boss and a former military person, is one of gravitas and sophistication.
In the early books there’s a clear description of him: back brush, salt and pepper hair, baritone voice and smoking a pipe.
The pipe bit can be removed if needed but the boss of the fictional Bangladesh Counter-Intelligence (BCI) is an image of dignity and he may be shown wearing dark glasses if outdoors and never inside an office.
What is the point in showing Rahat Khan like a two-time convicted but unrepentant dealer of counterfeit Gucci bags, remarked Shahriar, a journalist after watching the film.
The same goes for the role of eccentric scientist Kabir Chowdhury, portrayed as Masud Rana’s nemesis in countless books.
The word “eccentric” does not mean mad, which is what we get in the film.
Kabir Chowdhury’s role is more like the proprietor of a shady massage parlour, commented Zahirul Islam, one viewer.
Masud Rana fans will agree that before attempts are made to make a film on the spy, the books need to be read thoroughly, analysed by a panel of Rana readers and the cast selected based on their recommendations.
Acting Comes First, the Physique Second
A spy has to be athletic, agile and slim but in a movie, the acting takes precedence.
The strategy is not to take a new face without proper acting exposure but an established actor who can be moulded to fit into the role.
When Sean Connery was chosen to play Bond in Dr No, writer of Bond, Ian Fleming, an upper-class Englishman, was unimpressed but the writer was assured that Connery, who had already made a modest name in acting, could be transformed to ooze the 007 panache.
We all saw how that turned out when Connery uttered the famous line, Bond, James Bond at the card table in Dr No.
Of course, for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George Lazenby, was a rookie and had no acting experience but had been a fashion model.
Lazenby did a laudable job in the film but was erratic and left soon after.
He never did many acting roles later and, till today, is still remembered for that solitary 007 outing.
In the South Asian context, where romance, songs and glamourous sets are essential pulls, to make an action flick commercially viable, one needs known/acclaimed actors.
Puja Chery is already an acclaimed actress and she did her part flawlessly, hats off to Syeda Tithi too for her commendable performance.
Russell Rana, playing the key role of Masud Rana, has a sculpted body, he looks (if you take off the lipstick) smart, wears the suit with elegance but is not an actor.
The most crucial moment in a Bond or a Masud Rana film is delivering the name effortlessly with poise and conviction.
Sohel Rana, who acted in the 1974 film, reportedly had acting experiences from his university days which proved to be an asset when he portrayed Masud Rana.
Russell can still be a great MR9 once he hones his acting skills and, of course, wipes off that lipstick.
Masud Rana purists will not be too thrilled with the new film because it unnecessarily adds masala film ingredients.
Before another attempt is made to make a Rana film, the producer and director need to sit with a panel of Rana experts, dig deeply into the characters and employ an established actor to play the part.
One may laugh but with three months of coaching, Shakib Khan can be a top-notch Rana for the big screen, Sabyasachi Chakraborty will be suitable for Rahat Khan and Afzal Hossain an acceptable Kabir Chowdhury.
There are others who are eminently suitable but the casting needs to be done carefully, after consultation with a panel of Rana readers.
All Masud Rana fans wait eagerly for the movies but unfortunately, the excitement is never rewarded.
If it’s too much of a challenge then better not waste time and money in making Rana films.
Shahriar Feroze, a senior journalist, has an intelligent suggestion: “The producer should make a low budget Rana film for the OTT platform with TV actors and shoot the film totally in Dhaka or any other area in Bangladesh.”
Add some twists to the plot, plausible action scenes, intelligent camera work and then, see the reaction of the movie lovers, added Shahriar.
In 1994, the original Rana book Pishach Dwip was adapted for a TV drama where Adil Hossain Noble and Bipasha Hayat played Rana and Sohana respectively.
That same book may be used for an OTT telefilm.
The bottom line is, whatever is done, please do not abase the much- loved fictional hero anymore, appealed Shahriar.
[Towheed Feroze is a journalist!]
