Natoknama
I grew up in the 1980s and 90s — in that strange space between war and globalisation, between radio and satellite TV.
In our house, the television wasn’t just entertainment. It was time itself.
The day revolved around the evening transmission. News. Then natok.
This blog, Natoknama, was born out of a longing to revisit those stories. But also, to understand what they meant — to me, to us, and to the countries and cultures we belong to.
Before Humayun Ahmed made storytelling feel effortless and familiar, before Ei Shob Din Ratri or Bohubrihi ever aired — the Bangladeshi television screen was shaped by a different kind of storytelling.
Directors like Amjad Hossain, Abdul Monem Selim, Mostofa Monwar, and Momtazuddin Ahmed dominated the screen — not just with craft, but with message.
These were natoks shaped by the war’s aftermath, by the urgency of rebuilding a cultural identity from the ashes.
As I dive deeper into the earliest years of Bangladeshi television drama, I realize this: the archive is scattered, undocumented, often fading.
The works from 1965 to 1970—such as Ektala Dotala or adaptations by Munier Choudhury, Abdullah al Mamun, and others—show flashes of brilliance, but details remain elusive.
In the early days of Bangladeshi television, Ondhokartai Alo (Darkness Yet Light), written and directed by Nurul Momen, was one of the very first plays broadcast. It featured Syed Hasan Imam in his inaugural television role—a theatrical piece heavy with philosophical depth and sparse staging.
In parallel, producers like Mustafa Monwar, Al Mansur, and Atiqul Haque Chowdhury brought their theatrical sensibilities to original teleplays and literary adaptations. Mustafa Monwar’s rendition of Tagore's Raktokarobi, for instance, showed just how ambitious BTV could be.
BTV began its programming in the 1960s, operating under the umbrella of Pakistan Television until Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. The years between 1964 and 1975 were transformative—not just politically, but culturally too. BTV’s early natoks (tele-dramas) were often rooted in theatre, literature, and social commentary, and they set the stage for what television could become in a newly independent Bangladesh.
Do you remember these names!!!
Ektola Dotola - This was the first ever teleplay broadcast from the then PTV Dacca ( old spelling of Dhaka) station, marking the official entry of televised drama in East Pakistan.
Ronger Manush — experimental and folkloric.
Somoy Osomoy — a television drama where time itself was a character.
Matir Kole — stories rooted in rural lives, never romanticised.
They weren’t easy viewing. Some of them felt boring to us as kids — slow pacing, long monologues, greyscale morality. But they were mirrors. Raw and unresolved.
And then, as the 80s ended and 90s began — something changed.
So Why Start Natoknama Now?
Because we’re forgetting.
So much of our screen culture from the 70s, 80s, and 90s lives on YouTube now — often unlabeled, poorly archived, sometimes wrongly credited.
And even more lives in memory — unrecorded, unanalysed.
Natoknama is my attempt to write it all down. Not as an expert. But as someone who grew up within the glow of those stories.
I want to talk about why Baker Bhai mattered.
Why "Borof Gola Nodi" felt like my story even in 2025.
This is not just nostalgia.
This is cultural memory.
Stay tuned for longform essays, podcast episodes, and reflections.
And if you remember something — a scene, a line, a face — write to me.
Let’s archive this together.
