The book is a well researched as one realises through merely perusing through the pages and flipping through the pictures in a length of half an hour that here is a life and style of the artist, his time and his work which has been carefully studied and selected.

There has been a tight copy. There is not an extra word. The language is compact and precise. In other words there has been an in-depth analysis.

One gathers precise information. One learns what he did and how his work was influenced in stages. One wonders what time was taken for gathering this detailed knowledge.

There are superb angles of the collection of photographs, specially the ones tracing his early years and the period of his rising fame.

The book contains delectable reproductions of his paintings on glossy paper. However, the choice of paper need not have been glossy and could have been more subtle art paper. Surely Shilpakala Academy is government backed and there should be no shortage of necessary funds for the lacking finesse and subtlety in presentation.

All in all, this is a brave effort as far as the English version of the text is concerned. The Bangla translation is more at length and does justice to the subject.

However, demarcation and division of subject matter need not have been so cut and dried. One hoped to obtain a lyrical intonation rhythm while reading it allowed to friends. The subject of presenting a book on the senior most living artist of Bangladesh deserved a poetry in prose style of writing. Safiuddin's joie de vivre should have been surely highlighted more specifically and in more depth. One expected better choice of words in the vocabulary from the author.

The more recent photo of the entire family is not quite clear. One does not know the names and exact relationship of the sons, daughter-in-law and the grandchild. The caption was a vague lackadaisical melange. One would naturally want to know more details of such a famous family. Ahmed Nazir, Safiuddin Ahmed son said Subir Chowdhury of the Shilpakala Academy should have taken more care over the final presentation.