Bulbul Chowdhury
World famous dancer
January 1, 1919 - May 18, 1954
Bulbul Chowdhury is the third person in the history of Bengal after Nazrul and Zainul Abedin. Bulbul Chowdhury alias Tunu's real name is Rashid Ahmed Chowdhury. In the evolution of time, all the previous names have been lost behind the name of Bulbul Chowdhury.
Big brother of all three brothers and four sisters. Everyone's younger sister Rabeya Begum. When Tunu was five years old, according to the rules of a Muslim family, he was taught Arabic-Persian at home by Maulana Sahib.
When Bulbul alias Tunur was admitted to the school, his father Azam Ullah Chowdhury moved to Howrah due to his job. As a result, Tunu was admitted to Howrah Primary School in Howrah one morning in 1923. He later moved to Hooghly and was re-admitted to Hooghly Model School. They moved to Manikganj in 1931 and were admitted to Bulbul Manikganj High School. He likes the natural environment here very much. As a result, attracted to natural beauty, he started painting. In 1934, his picture won the first prize in the Manikganj School Exhibition Competition.
In 1934, Bulbul successfully passed the entrance examination from Manikganj High School. After the entrance exam, one of the programs in Manikganj got the opportunity to dance for the first time. At the Bichitra event in Manikganj, Bulbul surprised everyone by performing 'Chatak Nritya' at the request of everyone. 'Chatak dance' was the first dance of Bulbul Chowdhury's life. Later, at the request of all, he performed 'Chatak Nritya' for the second time in the presence of renowned storyteller Abul Fazl at a reunion ceremony in Satkania.
When Bulbul started dancing, dance was not accepted as an art not only in the Muslim community but also in the Bengali Hindu community. It was Rabindranath who organized dance performances at the first Tagore's house and made dance a part of cultural activities in the Bhadra society. Meanwhile, Uday Shankar, however, returned to the country with special training on dance in South America, performed in Britain and France, and was acclaimed in all quarters.
Bulbul was admitted to Presidency College in 1934. The first dance performance was held in Calcutta while studying in this college. In a bizarre event at Baker Hostel or Presidency College. After that, she danced at University Institute Hall, Campbell Medical School, Reunion, etc. and gained acclaim from all quarters. As an amateur choreographer at the time, his dance performance planning and presentation made the art connoisseurs of the time amazed by his novelty and sense of art. Seeing Bulbul dancing at Presidency College, Mrs. Hemlata Mitra fell in love with Bulbul. On the day of brother's death, Mrs. Mitra's daughter Anna Mitra accepted Bulbul's forehead with sandalwood tilak. Bulbul's enthusiasm was further heightened by a benefactor and patronage like Mrs. Mitra.
On 19-23 February 1936, Fast Empire Liet performed the first public dance with Madhu Basu and Sadhana Basu, a popular stage and film artist of the time. A large section of the Indian people, who considered dance to be a leisure entertainment of the zamindars, that is, Baiji Nortal Kurfan, were hundreds of hands away.
Recalling Uday Shankar's contribution with gratitude, Bulbul Chowdhury wrote, "Uday Shankar is at the beginning of the introduction of dance in this country. With the advent of Uday, a storm of dance has risen in our society. The flexibility and elegance of his thin body, the flexibility and elegance of his body, the splendor, the costume, the planning, the arrangement of dazzling lighting, the unity of his amazement over all these have created a wonderful revolution in our minds. Shankar has awakened the innumerable interest in dance among the countless teenagers of Bengal with the help of golden sticks. As if Shankar was a prince who illuminated Rajpuri with his words, he woke up the sleeping princess of one hundred years.
He followed Udaya Shankar but he did not consider dance as the only culture of the country even though he was dedicated to dance. Bulbul dreamed of conducting discussions, research, seminars and symposiums on art culture. With this in mind, the Oriental Fine Ice Association (UFA) was established in 1935-36.
He passed BA from Scottish College in 1936. The father wanted his son to go to Britain to study barristery. But the boy wanted something else and in 1943 he passed the MA with distinction by securing first place in the second class in Bengali literature by passing the examination as an irregular student. Although he finished the first episode after reading LB, he did not finish the second episode. Then he walked in the world of dance. Like Udaya Shankar, Bulbul also initially adopted the subject of his dance from Hindu mythology. But later he planned to dance with elements that would be acceptable to the Muslim population, which would reflect Bulbul's cohesive culture. There is a nice resemblance between Nazrul and Bulbul. Nazrul is our national poet in the sense of Hindu-Muslim united Bengal. In that sense, Bulbul deserves the National Artist Dictionary. Among the dances that Bulbul has planned with elements of Iranian-Islamic culture are Hafiz's Dream, Sohrab and Rustam, Iran's Panthshala, Anarkali, etc.
These dances have been highly acclaimed at home and abroad. Bulbul was able to create a dignified seat for dance in the state of Pakistan, especially in the post-Pakistan era, in front of foreign visitors and by performing these dances in various English countries.
In 1941, Bulbul joined Air Raid Precision as an Information Officer. Within a few days of joining the job, he gained widespread popularity among colleagues and higher authorities. Mr. Seth Drucker, the head of the organization, was jealous of Bulbul's popularity. Bulbul was forced to resign from his job due to his conspiracy. After spending some time unemployed, he joined Tata Aircraft as an administrative officer.
He was in this service from 1943-48. During this time he started writing a novel called 'Prachi'. After the partition of the country in 1947, Bulbul joined Orient Airways. In 1950, the commercial airline merged with Pakistan Airlines PIA. As a result, Bulbul was promoted to a higher post and transferred to the PIA headquarters in Karachi. Bulbul decided to stay permanently in Dhaka without joining Karachi.
After passing BA in 1938, the parents tried to marry the son. But they gave up because the boy did not agree to the marriage. It was later learned that Bulbul liked a Bengali Christian girl named Pratibha Modak. The marriage of Bulbul and Pratibha was consummated in 1943 at 112 Street, Calcutta with the consent of the parents of Bulbul's favorite daughter. After marriage, the name of the talent is Afroza Bulbul. Pratibha Modak is a very capable artist. Bulbul Chowdhury's first article on dance was published in Bulbul, edited by Habibullah Bahar and Shamsun Nahar, in November 1943, which was an article on dance.
Since then, Bulbul has written in many magazines about Bulbul Chowdhury in the field of dance, which has been highly praised by the world's major magazines and statesmen, as no other artist has done before.
On March 29, 1950, Bulbul went to Pakistan with his party, where he first faced opposition from Pakistani mullahs. But he brought the situation to his advantage with his own intelligence. He spoke at a reception in honor of him and his party at the Hotel Metropolis in Karachi, which I will summarize here.
‘Islam is an important element in our culture, but it is not the only element. On the other hand, ‘Bengalis, Punjabis, Pathans, Balochs etc. have different human beings living in the vast territory of Pakistan, but they have different significant cultures depending on their natural and geographical environment.’
In 1953, he went on a tour of Europe with his team. During his stay in Europe for more than eight months, he performed in Belgium, France and Holland in addition to England and Ireland. After a long tour of Europe, Bulbul boarded a ship to return home on November 24, 1953 from the port of Southampton. The ship did not leave Karachi but anchored at Bombay on 12 December 1953.
Meanwhile, in 1947, his novel 'Prachi' was published from Calcutta in collaboration with Gopal Haider. The book is covered by young artist Kamrul Hasan. Apart from Prachi, he started writing another novel called Namah Yantrah. But leaving it unfinished, he started writing short stories. Later it was published in 1989 under the title 'Bulbul Chowdhury's Story Collection' from Bangla Academy. He drew the attention of everyone as a good actor besides dance and got recognition as a talented actor. After a tour of Europe, he came to Chittagong in January 1954 and stayed at his sister Raushan Akter's house in Chittagong. At this time his illness was caught. As a result, he wanted to visit his mother at home in the village with high hopes, but his physical illness was so severe that he did not have the physical ability to see his mother's face once in a while.
Specialist doctors examined him and suspected that he had kidney cancer and suggested an operation. But he did not listen to all this and moved to Calcutta. He was admitted to Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital on 19 April 1954 due to increasing physical weakness. Bulbul Chowdhury died on 18 May 1954 at Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital. He was buried in a three-storey cemetery in Calcutta.
SOURCE: FACEBOOK
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