BLiterature-Apratim

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Sunil’s poems are a unique play-world of sexy, smart and lucid words with a
delicate sense of morbidity. Often his poems are Dadaistic and sometimes those
lack logic or reason. His love poems are tinged with physical sensations. Pun and
humor are his likings.
He is a champion of historical novel. Another strong contender for this honor
is obviously Bankim, but he, to our judgment, focused on portraying human instincts
more perfectly than depicting the past. On the other hand, Sunil presented
picturesque document of the dark gloom of our past in his fictions.
His first novel – Atmoprakash (Self-Revelation) is the tale of a bohemian
young man.
His most acclaimed novel is Shei Shamay (Those Days); in this novel, he
drew an accurate socioeconomic picture of the 19 th century Bengal, which was in
transition from a feudalistic to a bourgeois construction through Renaissance. He
brought here a large number of historical figures – Vidyasagar, Devendranath,
Michael, Bankim, Dinabandhu, Kaliprasannna Simha (although he is fabricated) etc.
He astonishingly presented us the exact dialect of those days’ Bengali people
centering Calcutta. And his empathy for the poor and therefore his Marxist outlook
too are revealed in this work.
Purba-Paschim (The East and the West) is set in another era of history. The
politically segregated India of the 20 th century is drawn here. The dark and
impenetrable psyche behind the catastrophic partition of India (in 1947 and ’71) is
attempted to uphold. The novel begins with personal duality and ends with universal
dilemma. He portrays man’s mental, carnal and intellectual darkness and his
endeavor for achieving freedom from those. And his philosophy is that an East and a
West exist not only in the planet but also in our mind.
Prothom Alo (The First Light) is a sequel to Shei Shamay. Here too, a large
number of historical characters are presented. They include Ramakrishna,
Girishchandra, Vivekananda and even Tagore. In this novel, Sunil also tells the story
of a journey of the Bengali nation into the grand road of the world civilization.
Sunil has written novels on contemporary issues too, which however, do not
reach the perfection of the above three ones.
He also wrote novellas like Rakta (Blood-line), Radha-Krishna and Shandhar
Meghmala (The Evening Clouds). These are, however, worthy in literary appeal.
However, to my own judgment, Sunil’s historical novels surpass any other
writers’ attempts. His oversize and thoroughly contemplative novels bearing
historicity, in a simple word, stun us in artistry. Moreover, the documentary and
credible pictures of society in his novels rank him among the great writers of the
world; he will certainly have a long lasting fame in the genre of historical novel.
Mahmudul Haq (1941-2008)
Mahmudul Haq is famed in Bangla fiction for his poetic language, perfect use
of dialects, true portrayal of life and deep insight of human inner soul. Although he