For most of this year, the screens at Dhaka’s older cinema halls have been quiet. There are not enough new Bengali releases to fill them, and the halls that have survived the last two decades have been running on thin programming.
This week, Madhumita presents a different kind of event. Starting today, August 22, the Motijheel cinema is paying tribute to the past: thirteen classic Bengali films will be screened over seven days, until August 28.
The program, titled Hridoye Dhaka 416, is organized by the South Dhaka Municipal Corporation (DSCC) to commemorate the capital’s 416th anniversary. Details were announced at a press conference on Wednesday, August 19, where DSCC administrator and freedom fighter veteran Abdus Salam presented the plan, according to risingbd.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapan is due to inaugurate the film festival. State Minister for Cultural Affairs Ali Newaz Mahmud Khaiyam and Hamidur Rahman, MP for Dhaka-7, are listed as special guests.
The full seven-day schedule
Opening night gets a single screening. Every day after that carries two — one in the afternoon at 3pm, one in the evening at 6pm.
Friday 22 August
- 6:00 PM — Mukh O Mukhosh
Saturday 23 August
- 3:00 PM — Nabab Sirajuddaula
- 6:00 PM — 13 No. Feku Ostagar Lane
Sunday 24 August
- 3:00 PM — Jibon Theke Neya
- 6:00 PM — Nantu Ghatak
Monday 25 August
- 3:00 PM — Ashikkhito
- 6:00 PM — Rangbaz
Tuesday 26 August
- 3:00 PM — Sabuj Sathi
- 6:00 PM — Nacher Putul
Wednesday 27 August
- 3:00 PM — Durdesh
- 6:00 PM — Dohon
Thursday 28 August
- 3:00 PM — Dost Dushman
- 6:00 PM — Bodhu Biday
Opening night: the film that started everything
There is a reason Mukh O Mukhosh goes first, and it is not nostalgia alone.
Released on 3 August 1956, it was the first full-length Bengali-language feature ever produced in what was then East Pakistan. Before it, cinema halls in Dhaka ran films made in Kolkata or Lahore. Afterwards, there was an industry here.
The story behind this has been told many times, and it still resonates. In 1953, at a meeting about the feasibility of producing films in East Pakistan, it was argued that the region’s humid climate made the idea impossible. Abdul Jabbar Khan, a playwright and theater director with no film experience whatsoever, decided to answer that question by making a film himself.
He directed it, wrote it, and played the lead male role. Filming began in December 1953 and took place in Kaliganj, on the opposite bank of the Buriganga River, Lalmatia, Tejgaon, Jinjira, and along the banks of the Turag River in Tongi. Editing and printing had to be done at Shahnoor Studios in Lahore, as Dhaka lacked the necessary facilities.
At the time, no one wanted to release it. Distributors in Dhaka rejected it. The Daily Star reported that rumors circulated before the premiere suggesting that audiences would be so disappointed they would break their seats. Kamal Babu, owner of the Rupmahal and Mukul cinemas, took a risk and screened it.
It premiered at Rupmahal on 3 August 1956, with then-Governor Sher-e-Bangla A K Fazlul Huq attending. It went on to play in Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayanganj and Khulna, and drew crowds who had never seen their own city and their own language on a cinema screen before.
That was seventy years ago this month. Watching it in a Dhaka hall in 2026 is about as close to a full circle as the industry gets.
A festival inside a bigger celebration
The Madhumita screenings are one strand of a wider DSCC programme marking Dhaka’s 416th anniversary.
Kalbela reported that the overall program also includes a theatrical performance in Sutrapur from August 16 to 22, a traditional regatta on the Buriganga River on August 21, and a historical cruise from Sadarghat. On August 28, the closing day of the film festival, a procession is planned from Lakshmibazar to Nagar Bhaban in horse-drawn carriages, rickshaws, and palanquins.
This program is based on the premise that Dhaka’s history deserves to be performed publicly rather than archived. The film week perfectly embodies this idea: it features not restorations for a specialized audience, but popular films that once filled these very theaters when they were packed.
Fifty-eight honours on the final night
Closing day is not only screenings. On 28 August, 58 people are set to receive special recognition for their contribution to film and cultural life — a list that spans actors, directors, writers, singers, music directors, lyricists and cinematographers.
For a generation of technicians and performers who worked through the industry’s best years and then watched it contract, a public honour at Madhumita carries a particular weight.
Who is organising it
A dedicated committee is running the festival. Akhter Unnesa Shiuli, Regional Executive Officer for Zone-2 of the Dhaka South City Corporation, is the convener.
The committee members bring the industry side: actress Dilara Zaman, producer Abdul Aziz, actor Shiba Sanu, and journalist Ahmed Tepantor.
One thing still unclear
None of the coverage published so far specifies ticket prices, or whether entry is free. For an event organised by a city corporation, free or heavily subsidised entry would not be unusual — but it has not been confirmed, and we are not going to guess.
If you are planning to go, call Madhumita directly or check at the hall. We will update this article once the position is confirmed.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the festival being held? Madhumita Cinema Hall in Motijheel, Dhaka — one of the city’s oldest surviving single-screen halls.
What are the dates? 22 to 28 August 2026, seven days in total.
How many films are being screened? Thirteen Bengali films. One on opening night, then two per day.
What time do screenings start? Opening night is a single 6pm show. From 23 August onwards there are two screenings daily, at 3pm and 6pm.
Who is organising it? The Dhaka South City Corporation, as part of its Hridoye Dhaka 416 programme celebrating the city’s 416th anniversary.
Which film opens the festival? Mukh O Mukhosh, the first full-length Bengali-language feature made in this region, released in 1956.
Why this matters
Dhaka had roughly fifty cinema halls in the 1990s. Most are gone. Madhumita is one of the survivors, and a week of programming will not reverse that trend on its own.
But there’s something worth highlighting about this choice. Faced with a shortage of new releases, the theater isn’t closing its doors or filling its program with imported films. It’s screening classic Bengali cinema, betting that audiences will come to see them.
Whether the seats fill this week will say something about how much of that audience is still out there.