Third Person Singular Number

I've always felt apathetic whenever it comes to Bangladeshi cinema except Tareque Masud's The Clay Bird (Cannes 2002, FIPRESCI winner for script). After a long wait,I've got something to cheer about. That's Mostofa Sarwar Farooki's Third Person Singular Number. The first thing that I like about this film is the multidimensional approach perfectly applied by the director in creating sequences and building characters. All the character seemed so fresh, alive, and multi-dimensional. There was no black and white. The story has a number of layers. From one angle, the film looks 'okay that's what you wanted to say'. From another angle, it's just completely different. It handled a kind of feminist issue! That's why I was always scared if the film gets to stereotypical. But the director truthfully avoided the trap of being stereotypically feminist. In typical feminist works in Bangladesh, you rarely get to see any woman to be bad or wrong. Women are always right! Men are always wrong! But in this film, no one is bad or good forever. Everyone is a human with good and bad intentions. Sometimes Ruba is the victim. Sometimes she victimizes the others. Sometimes she is victimized by men, sometimes by women. I want to give a special thank to the director for creating such a wonderful character called Ruba. It reminded me of one of our old friend. Ruba resembles her so much! Like Ruba, she was wilful and emotionally fragile at the same time. Like Ruba, she had a wings to fly but a middle-class backbone didn't allow her to fly. Ruba perfectly portrays the contradictions and energy of a typical middle-class girl from a broken family.

Now let me talk about acting. It was just so natural as if I was watching something through a door-hole! Tisha, Mosharof Karim, and Topu played their characters so truthfully that it was hard to single out who did the best!

At the end, I want to talk about the ending. The whole film was done in such a fresh style that I was wondering where the director would end the film. In most of the Bangladeshi movies, no matter mainstream or art-house one, directors end a film with a conclusion. The audience leave the auditorium with an answer. But here Farooki leaves the audience without giving any conclusion. Instead of coming out of theaters with an answer, they come out with a question! Cheers!

In my opinion, I really do not get the so "HI-FI" thing about this movie? People are calling it so "JOSH" and "Heavy Hoise" etc. But really is it really that good? When you have nothing to eat, if you were given a bread, you would say "Thank You". But when you are already eating bread, you would be looking for some Jam and Jelly with it. The movie is not that bad, but the thing is that it is better than the running Bangladeshi Movies. I really like the multiple personalities of RUBA and there were some scenes which made me belief that Faruki can do better. But again, it seems he is looking for only mass-media attraction.

wake up!

Lot of hype was there! Big festivals like Pusan, MEIFF (Abu Dhabi), Rotterdam was there! A kind of patting review from Variety was there! At the same time, some strong criticism from Islamic and moral vanguards were there as well! So I entered the theater with a kind of mixed state of mind - kind of suspicion ! But to be very honest I was taken straight into the story- to be precise, I was taken into the psychological tempest of the protagonist Ruba! With a girl roaming on a lonely street and with the camera doing an unnerving hand-held, I was smelling a different kind of cinematic journey! The journey was sometimes poetic, sometimes humorous, sometimes emotional, and sometimes disturbing! At the end I must admit one thing - this film kept playing in my mind for many hours even after i got out of theater. I should admit something more - I've never been a fan of Farooki! But after this film, I've changed my mind. He did an excellent job here in narrating the story in one of the most freshest of ways! The cinematic expression was mind blowing! So was camera ! Acting was absolutely natural ! Mosharof, Topu, Hayat - all of them did splendid. But Tisha's acting in Ruba's role was a class act! I wish them all! One thing I didn't like - the length! I thought it could easily be a 100 minute film!

Movie got released in 2009 and i watched this movie at 2024,clearly my opinion would much differ obviously from the other reviews here. But hear me out, i thoroughly enjoyed watching this film. Songs from this film are a banger still now and their placements were good. The characters had good sense of humour and i got my comedic relief from that which made the film interesting and not boring to watch at times. I gotta say one thing though,i was surprised to see topu act! Other than that casting and acting by the actors were great.

This film tells the story about a girl named ruba who faces enormous tough challenges after her live-in boyfriend gets arrested for crime. Also how long distance relationships always has a problem and consequences that needs to addressed later.

Highly recommend watching this amazing art of film by mostafa sarwar farooqi and for sure i can say that you won't be disappointed!

Mostafa Sarwar Farooki is one of the rising big shots and a veteran in Bangladesh TV and film media. I don’t doubt his genius and eccentric creativity for which he is specially acclaimed. But again, being a popular television drama director and a film director are totally two different things. His television dramas are fantastically unique and sometimes weirdly funny. When every other television dramas are full of monotonous cliché and disgusting imitation of Indian soap operas, Sarwar Farooki always comes with a promise of completely different sets of entertainment. When he first came up with his first film “Bachelor”, it was an unbelievably successful film in Bangladesh considering the response from the youngsters. And this film was made for youngsters. I would say, the film has done revolution in contemporary Bangladeshi films. But when he came up with the second film (“Made in Bangladesh”) it was unrealistically and unexpectedly an out of class film. Actually, there is nothing to talk about this one. This time, Sarwar Farooki came up with his third film which was long awaited “3rd Person Singular Number”. I had a chance to watch the film a few days ago. I don't care what others have to say…but I put my hat off to Mr. Farooki. He is indeed a master and a potential hope in our hopeless film industry.

The story circles about a lone girl who has been misfortunate, exhausted and manipulated by the male dominated society of ours where every woman searches for physical and mental security. The protagonist is completely homeless and deserted her family as her husband remains in the jail for murdering someone and her mother stays with her second husband. The film starts with a real kick from the very beginning with dark and tensed sequences and keeps it intact. I am not a feminist but I shared the pain, misery and irony of the central character. There are fun and also disturbance in a good ratio. Some of the sequences are absolute cliché and average. In the character of the “husband”, Mosharraf Karim provides another very “into the character” performance. Topu also delivered an enjoyable and amusing role which was humorous and interesting. Cinematography was good as expected.

Some of the very bitter truths are exposed in the films as good films always do. The psychological and moral dilemma of the central character which Tisha played was gripping and sometimes suffocating. According to our society, ‘living together is not supported at all. Some viewers complained about it but I think there was nothing to complain about this issue because the film also does not support living together without marriage and it shows the evil outcomes of doing it in a conservative society like ours. But I didn't like the ending part that much. It reminded me of watching “Jules and Jim” and other European films which does not match with our socio-cultural and psychological structure. But a director should always have the right to escape to his imagination where reality ends. The most engaging factor is, the film has nothing sinister or shocking plot-line but simple yet meaningful way of showing things. That's the fact I liked most.

To me, it was a film for matured viewers. You will not like the film if you are always looking for funny sequences like Farooki’s previous works. This is unlike his other works…with more depth, messages and reality. In a nutshell, it is a sensible and worth watching film.