Tanim Noor opens up about ‘Contract’

Photo: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed

With two released web projects and one under way, writer-director Tanim Noor has been a recurring name on OTT platforms in recent times. His journey however, began more than a decade ago. In a chat with The Daily Star, he shared some of his earliest memories of being in the entertainment arena, and talked about his web series "Contract", which releases on ZEE5 Global on March 18, 2021.

The action-packed political thriller, "Contract", stars Chanchal Chowdhury and Arifin Shuvoo, among others. Based on a story by renowned Bangladeshi author Mohammad Nazim Uddin, it is co-directed by Tanim and Krishnendu Chattopadhyay. The trailer of the show has already garnered the interest of viewers. "Contract" is Tanim's first screen adaptation. "Adaptation is not easy. The change in medium from book to screen is vast. The screenplay is quite different from the original story," he shared.

Born in Dhaka's Shyamoli, Tanim's earliest memory of movies takes him back to Shyamoli Cinema Hall. He was mesmerised by the grandeur of the silver screen. "I was in the second grade. I vividly remember being awestruck by Shabana's performance as a police officer in a film. The larger than life effect of cinema remained with me ever since," Tanim recalled. Growing up, he often went to cinema halls or film festivals in the city and kept chasing his dream of making films.

An apprentice in Dhaka University Film Society, his film career began with a psychological drama, "Phirey Esho Behula" (2011). The idea of it was initiated by plays. "During my master's at Dhaka University, I watched "Behular Bhashan", a theatre production by Syed Jamil Ahmed. I was inspired by his storytelling and how he turned an age old narrative into a feminist dialogue," he said.

Tanim later developed the script, combining the story of "Behula" and concepts of rape culture. "As a filmmaker, I felt I could use the medium for social engineering but of course, I was not limited to it," he shared.

As a cinephile and an avid reader, Tanim believes every filmmaker must have habits of reading and watching. He, along with director Krishnendu, set up Dope Productions and began working on commercial projects. In 2017, Tanim restarted making compelling short films under "Projonmo Talkies", a YouTube-based short film platform by Film Noir. 

"Krishnendu, Auneem, Shawki, Rabiul Robi, Tanvir Ahsan and I share a similar passion for cinema. We discuss and debate about films and help each other out," he said.

After watching Amitabh Reza Chowdhury's "Dhaka Metro", Tanim was intrigued to try series writing. "I liked watching series, but Amitabh bhai, who has been my friend and mentor for a while, encouraged and supported my first web series "Money Honey" on Hoichoi," he said.

Tanim made the series "Ekattor"and a short film in the anthology film, "Iti Tomari Dhaka" around the same time. In 2020, he joined the web series "Taqdeer" as a creative producer. Till date, he has created the highest number of web projects from Bangladesh, and is fondly known as the 'OTT king' among his peers. Tanim however, holds his childhood love for cinema close to his heart.