Discussion on the literary merit of screenplay at DLF

Dhaka Lit Fest's star-studded panel discussion titled The Stage, The Screen and The Feature Film at the lawn of Bangla Academy on Friday morning shed light on the literary value of a screenplay.  Filmmaker Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, writer Mahbub Aziz, writer-journalist Altaf Shahnewaz and playwright Saymon Zakaria were the members of the panel, which was moderated by actor Bonna Mirza.

Commenting on the screenplay for audio visuals platform, Amitabh Reza commented that since the experience of audiovisual has changed drastically, the screenplay and the entire form of production would have to be moulded accordingly. Screenplay for television or film, according to him, is not a literary piece, but an image-making blueprint.  He also pointed out the economic crisis that leads the writer to take scriptwriting as a profession. According to him, it halts the development of their skills.

To decipher why the screenplay for stage plays often hold literary value, Altaf Shahnewaz went back in history for the answer. “Since Rabindranath Tagore, DL Roy or Dinabandhu wrote screenplays for stage; it inevitably had influence from their literature almost as a byproduct of them.” He emphasized on the artistic value of screenplay more than its literary value. 

Saymon Zakaria, in his argument, said that he finds literary value in screenplay. Giving examples of the impact of dialogues in a film, he said, “It really depends upon who is looking at it. As a playwright, I wrote scripts keeping its literary merit in mind.”

Mahbub Aziz differed by saying that it is not only the dialogues, but the story inside creates the image and consequent impact. If as an individual entity could have literary value then it would have sold like novels.”

The discussion did not end in a concrete thought, but it spurred enough food for thought for the audience to take away.