Interpretive framework in Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom, 1995): (Re)vision of history and gender by a popular documentary film on the Liberation War of Bangladesh

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article explores the interpretive framework of the documentary film, Muktir Gaan (Song of Freedom, 1995) in representing history and gender. Muktir Gaan is a feature length documentary film on the Liberation War of Bangladesh, directed by Tareque Masud and Catherine Masud. Along with pre-existing newsreel and archival footage of the war from various sources, this documentary mainly incorporates the footage of 1971 shot by an American filmmaker, Lear Levin. The film became the most popular documentary in Bangladesh on the theme of the Liberation War. It uncovers the real journey of a musical troupe during the war. Many Bangladeshis greeted the documentary film to be an objective recording of the war. The film, however, contains both fictional techniques and factuality, even when it incorporates archival moving images or found footage. I suggest the film as an audio-visual collage of alternative history. My main concern is not to find the level of truth or falsehood of the past depicted in the film. I would rather look at its interpretative framework, raising the question: how does the film incorporate pre-existing footage from various sources, including the archive, and re-enacted footage for interpreting the past? I aim to unpack the politics and aesthetics of the war documentary film, Muktir Gaan, contextualizing it as it intersects with the socio-historical context. I also probe its strategies of gender representation.