From ‘Room of Laziness’ to statesmanship: Untold stories in ‘Hasina – A Daughter’s Tale’

How Sheikh Hasina, a ‘lazy person by nature’, turned a torrent of grief of losing her parents and most other family members into strength, has been revealed on celluloid through untold stories like her first journey to Dhaka by boat or the first cooking lesson.

Documentary drama “Hasina – A Daughter’s Tale” is replete with stories like how painful it was for her when her dolls were torched by Ayub Khan’s henchmen during searches of their home on the road no. 32 in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi when she was only 11 years old.

The film directed by Piplu Khan was premiered at the Star Cineplex in the capital’s Bashundhara City mall on Thursday evening. It awaits release on Friday at the Star Cineplex, Blockbuster Movie of the Jamuna Future Park and Modhumita Cinema Hall at Motijheel in Dhaka, and Silver Screen in Chattogram.

Piplu Khan

Centred around Hasina, the eldest daughter of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujbur Rahman, the docudrama essentially shares the memories of her sister Sheikh Rehana.

Hasina, the incumbent prime minister seeking an unprecedented fourth term in office, says in the film that she was “a bit untidy” and liked listening to music or reading books in her room during childhood. Rehana, however, quipped that they used to call it “Alsekhana” (Room of Laziness).

Rehana displayed a strict sense of discipline like their mother Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, according to Hasina.

When she visits their mother’s grave at Banani now, Hasina says she wishes she were able to tell Fazilatunnesa that “your Hasu doesn’t live in the ‘Alsekhana’ anymore”.

The movie, produced by Rehana’s son Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Nasrul Hamid Bipu from CRI, is the outcome of an extensive five-year-long collaboration between the CRI and Piplu’s Applebox.

Sadik Ahmed is the cinematographer of the movie edited by Navnita Sen. Debojyoti Mishra has directed its music.

Recalling her first journey to Dhaka, Hasina says it took four days for three boatmen to carry them to the capital from Gopalganj’s Tungiparha in 1952 as Bangabandhu was frequently jailed at the time for protesting against the misrule of the Pakistani regime.

The grown-up children of the family, including Hasina, were allowed to play on the boat’s deck, she says.

Six years later, Hasina recalls, their home in Dhaka was ransacked after Ayub Khan imposed martial law.

 

Rehana recounts in the film how she felt when she saw the news of the deadly grenade attack targeting Hasina on Aug 21, 2004. 

Rehana says she first heard she had lost her sister.

“I saw the news and rushed downstairs…Soon Apa’s car came in. I was standing, waiting”    

“She was entirely covered. Her saree, face, body, eyes – covered with blood,” says Rehana.

 

The two daughters of Bangabandhu survived the Aug 15, 1975 massacre as they were abroad.

On the eve of the carnage, they recall, they celebrated their first candle-lit dinner.

“At that age, a candle-light dinner…in Brussels!” But the joy disappeared soon when they heard the news of the loss.

“The sound of that telephone ringing… Never in my life has a telephone ring sounded more harsh,” Hasina says.

The docudrama starts with a scene of Hasina cooking at the Ganabhaban. She says she used to ask her mother to send food when guests would come to her house after her marriage.

Hasina says she had to learn cooking when she was in exile in New Delhi after the killings of her family members. 

Celebrities and top personalities from politics, media, culture and other sectors flocked to the Star Cineplex to watch the premiere show.

They included Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Post, Telecommunication and IT Minister Mustafa Jabbar, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, State Minister for Information Tarana Halim, and State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak.    

The Prime Minister’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury brought his wife to the show.

“It’s a wonderful movie! Unparallelled, classic! I've learnt many new things!” exclaimed Muhith, who has been in Hasina's cabinet for a decade.