Literature-Critique

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Akhtaruzzaman Elias (1943-’97)
Neither a huge number of works he has written, nor has he attempted. But his
works have achieved a significant position in modern Bangla fiction. Elias’s fictions
have equalized with the word ‘photorealism’. His each sentence is like the focus
point of a camera. He mastered the narrative technique of fiction.
His Chilekothar Sepai (The Soldier of an Attic) tells us of the mass revolution
of 1969. Each word of the novel is like an inseparable brick of a grand palace. His
depiction is vivid and heart-touching. He penetrates especially into the minds of the
proletariat. Their lifestyle, behavior and talks (which may seem vulgar to any cultured
mind) are drawn with brilliant skill. The historical revolution of a poor and exploited
nation is depicted like cinematography. The picture of their poverty and deprivation
too is realistic. The fact that the mass insurrection was carried on by the poorest and
most exploited people, is mirrored here. The pictures of both village and city life are
masterly drawn.
The continuous exploitation and persecution of this impoverished nation by
the foreign rulers made traumatic affect on the common people’s psyche. Thus
alienation, a byproduct of the Pak-ruled tyrannical society, often made psychotic
disorder. It is also evident that poetic expressions also sometimes appear in this
work, though not as intensely as in Mahmudul Haq’s novels. An existential quest is
also found in this master novel.
His other novel – Khoabnama (The Tale of Dreams) is a masterpiece of Magic
Realism. It tells us of heartbreak – both in personal and political life of the
countrymen. Beginning in the British reign (during the Tebhaga movement), it is the
story of a village, the folk of which is clad with superstitions and odd behaviors. An
old man interprets people’s dreams with the use of a manuscript that previously
belonged to his wife’s grandfather. However, dreams surround personal ambitions
that differ from man to man. Some person’s aim is to get intimate to an imaginary
power; some aspire for earthly fortune; a woman desires to have her favorite man;
someone dreams of the return of a historically famous revolutionary.
All dreams shatter after the partition of the country. The man searching for a
supernatural idol drowns in the quicksand; the dreamer for a revolution is
assassinated; communal riots occur and the country is flooded by the blood of
innocent common people. The manuscript goes to a young woman’s hand who
interprets people’s dreams in a new way. To her, dreams are no longer the most
important matter; now more important is the men and women in the dreams. High
ambitions are now constrained to some person’s own aspirations. Nights’ dreams
are wrecked, but life goes on in its own way in quest of new dreams. Thus in this
novel, the history of a political disaster is spoken in a symbolic way.
His short stories focus on poverty-stricken proletariat people’s lives. Their
shabby lifestyle, deprivation and vulgar practices are well-written in these stories. His
short stories are collected in three anthologies titled Onyo Ghore Onyo Swor
(Different Voices in Different Chambers), Dudhbhate Utpat (Disturbances in Eating
Milk and Rice) and Dojokher Om (The Heat of Hell).