Four films focus on Bangladesh at Kolkata People’s Film Festival
Times of India | 26 January 2026
KOLKATA: Bangladesh is the subject of at least four out of the 39 films that are being screened at the 12th Kolkata People’s Film Festival, which began on January 23. The festival is taking place amid strained bilateral relations, with India designating Bangladesh a “non-family” diplomatic posting. Three of the films are directed by filmmakers of Bangladeshi origin, while the fourth is directed by an Indian filmmaker based in Delhi.
Kasturi Basu, who is one of the founder members of People's Film Collective, and part of the programming team of the KPFF, told TOI that screening films has always helped audiences to connect to common human experience cutting across nationalities and borders. “We believe that in these times, it is important to have these screenings, to do away with imagined and imposed demonisation and otherings” Basu said.
Jafar Muhammad’s “Pankauri” highlights the exploitation of pebble collectors along the Karatoa River in northern Bangladesh. The film focuses on Mujibur Rahman, a laborer who worked for 56 years, advocating for dignity and labour rights. Shekh Al Mamun’s “Drained by Dreams” follows Selim, a Bangladeshi migrant in Korea who, at his family’s request, does not return home and takes a job at a furniture factory. Vivek Bald and Allaudin Ullah’s “In Search of Bengali Harlem” documents Ullah’s journey from the streets of Harlem to villages in Bangladesh.
However, none of the Bangladeshi directors will attend the festival in person. “It's great to be selected in KPFF. I wished to attend this festival but for the political issues between our countries it's hard to get visa. So, I couldn't attend the festival. But through this film I hope our people will connect,” Muhammad told TOI.
Indian director Rishabh Raj Jain is having the Kolkata premiere of “A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness)” at KPFF on Republic Day. He is in town to attend the premiere too. His film follows a Rohingya girl born in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh. “I believe the most beautiful thing about films is that they don’t have borders. In fact, the whole point of telling a story is to bring it out for the world to see and therefore have better understanding of communities, cultures and places they might not get to physically visit. I wholeheartedly commend the KPFF for showing these films from Bangladesh, including mine,” Jain said.
Pointing that India and Bangladesh have traditionally been strong allies, he said, "They have deep economic and social ties, which may be currently strained, but far from being over. I am not too surprised to see KPFF bring films from both sides of Bengal to Kolkata.”
Jain incorporates his return to the camps as a journalist years after his Associated Press reporting unexpectedly affected Khushi’s life, thereby introducing a rare reflective dimension on journalistic storytelling, ethics, and agency. He considers the Kolkata screening particularly significant amid the SIR and the controversial political statements surrounding Rohingya. He emphasised that the 2026 SIR, though used for rhetoric across the political spectrum, is not directly applicable to Rohingya because they are refugees. "While they have previously been dehumanised as ‘bugs’, now they are portrayed as ‘illegal voters’. However, news reports suggest that the number of fake or ghost voters was significantly lower than claimed by some politicians. They actually are a stateless community trying to find a place to live some semblance of a normal life,” Jain said.
He believes that the film will highlight their lived struggles, contextualise what refugee communities endure globally, "Khushi’s story, I hope, gives people an opportunity to appreciate how similar we are to Rohingya, and that no child, despite their country of origin or status, should be denied education and an opportunity to be human.”