A heart-to-heart with Asaduzzaman Noor

Born on October 31, 1946, freedom fighter and former Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor began his journey as an actor with theatre. His memorable roles include Baaker Bhai from Kothao Keo Nei, Nandail'er Yunus from Maatir Pinjirar Majhe Bondi Hoiya and Chhoto Mirza from Ayomoy, among many others. At the moment, he is attending a cultural festival titled 'A Season of Bangla Drama' in London organised by London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Recently, Noor shared his thoughts with Elita Karim of The Daily Star.

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now, I am busy rehearsing for a play. Actually, I rehearse whenever I get time to! It's an adaptation, written by Pantho Shahriar, of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". I am playing Shylock. It will probably be staged soon. You will find plenty of elements from Bangladesh in this adaptation—for instance, the shipbreaking set up amongst others. Pantho will direct the play as well.

What was your childhood like?

I have no memories of the time when my family moved here from India after partition. I was hardly one and a half years old or two in 1948. We still have some distant relatives in India but we are not really in touch. I was educated in Nilphamari right from the beginning, except for the two years that I did at Charmichael. I then moved to Dhaka in 1966. In Dhaka University, I got into Law but then shifted to Political Science. But it was during my MA first paper that the war broke out in 1971, which is why I could not continue with my education. It's not like I ever really wanted to study a lot as it is!

Did you always know that you were going to be an actor on stage and TV?

I was not very serious about acting. When I was growing up in Nilphamari, there were no big establishments for theatre actors or the audience. Maybe once or twice a year, the elders would get together and decide to put up a play. My father was interested in theatre, which is why I too would get involved and follow the elders around. I was of course just an audience member. Maybe I would do a small role or two in a school play. But I never saw myself becoming a celebrated actor. I would perform on stage because I liked to.

We grew up in a small town, hence we would do anything and everything that grabbed our interest—recitation competition at school, drawing or sketching competitions, writing something for magazines, etc. But back then, it was not like the elders in the family would give us some extra encouragement for these activities, the way parents do today. Reciting, acting, writing, singing, dancing, etc.—these were very common back then, and it was taken for granted that children and youngsters would definitely participate in them. And it was not only me, of course. There were many others who were involved in the same activities.

Can you share a few memories from your Sanskritik Shongshod days?

In Dhaka, as part of the Chhatra Union, we created a cultural group called Sanskritik Shongshod. I was the president for a while and was involved in the administration and organisational work, rather than acting on stage. When I was studying in the law department at Dhaka University, the head of the department was Professor Abul Momen, who himself was a writer and would write plays. He made me act in some of his plays. Back then, we would request actors and directors from outside the university to come and work with the Shongshod. For instance, Hasan Imam would direct, Golam Mostafa would be acting—Ataur Rahman, Dr Enamul Haque and many more would join in as well. Many of them had day jobs while others were students. If I were lucky or if it was needed, I would probably do a small role or two. Otherwise my job was mainly to supervise and see if everything was working on schedule, getting the stage ready, sometimes make tea for everyone, looking for rickshaws at the end of the day to take everyone home, etc.!

It was only after independence that I had begun to act. Back then, I worked at the Soviet Press Information. There was also a broadsheet newspaper called Chitraly which would come out every week with cine news. But it also had a section for literature, history and theatre. I used to work part time with the paper as well. In fact, lots of big names and well-known writers had worked for that paper, for instance the famous poet Syed Shamsul Haque.

I was asked to do a story on the rising number of theatre groups in Dhaka. So, while interviewing directors and actors, I met Aly Zaker, who was already working as an actor. And then I was asked to watch their rehearsals which used to take place in Rajarbagh. Eventually, I got involved in these rehearsals and would often prompt the actors with their dialogues. That way, all the dialogues would be in my head, memorised. One day while rehearsing for a fight scene, Abul Hayat got punched badly and broke his nose! The play was only two days away. Someone had to take his place and I was the only one, since I knew all the dialogues. Essentially, that's how I got on the stage and began to act!

What was it like being a student politician back then?

As a student politician I was very active. I think it was mainly because of my father who was a left-wing politician. He was of course a teacher in Nilphamari, which is why most of his work was done behind the scenes, and he preferred it that way. Both my parents were teachers, by the way. Things had begun to get tense after 1962. It was the era when protests of all types would happen against Ayub Khan. I too became part of the protests by participating in a protest march against Ayub Khan. One may say, it was my induction into politics. And since then, I have been marching!

When we were students and involved in politics, things were definitely different. I don't think we used to think the way many of the student politicians think today. You see, I used to stay at Iqbal Hall while studying at Dhaka University, which is now called the Zahurul Haq Hall—a major platform for student politics. We had enemies of course and often we would also get into fights. Every other week our mattresses and pillows would be left burning inside our rooms! At one point we got so tired of buying new mattresses and pillows that we gave up! But I don't think the idea of expecting money from contractors for building university structures ever struck us.

Today when I see a student politician travel in expensive bikes and cars, I go back to my own student days, when some of the big names in politics were seen travelling mainly in rickshaws. I remember an incident when a famous politician, I would not want to name him, received a car from his in-laws after he got married. We were ecstatic! He would often come around to the halls in the car leaving us mesmerised. Otherwise, life was simpler back then and young politicians were sincerely thinking about the betterment of the country.

Despite all that, I still think student politics should be in practice. In a democracy, it is natural for young minds to discuss and debate. Otherwise, soon there will be a generation of people who will only think of themselves and be indifferent to what is happening to other people. As a student politician, we would also think about how to keep the students busy in healthy activities. We used to organise football tournaments and other activities, in a way taking care of the student body as well. Young people will raise their voice and nobody can stop that. However, student politicians today must also realise that being a politician means giving, helping and speaking for those who cannot, and not taking advantage of his or her position. They must speak out against what is happening in society today. They should speak against children getting raped, violence against women and many of the ills that are taking place every day in the country.

What advice would you give to the young people who follow your footsteps?

I have never really thought about dreams or had any aspirations as such. I faced situations and followed the paths life took me to. But for the present generation, I would say that they need to have a proper plan as to how to achieve the target they have set out to achieve. They are young and they have a lot of energy, hence they must be ready to work hard and not look for shortcuts. That's the secret to success.