Salehin, Meer Moksudus

Salehin, Meer Moksudus (1929-1988) actor, director, and organiser of group theatre movement, was born at Gafargaon in Mymensingh district. He passed ICom and BCom (1955) from Jagannath College in Dhaka and then took admission in Dhaka University to study MCom. In 1961 he went to the United States on a scholarship for higher studies in dramatic art at the East-West Centre in Hawaii. He then took permanent residence in New York, opening a shipping agency there, Sagar Limited.

Moksudus Salehin';s initiation into acting began at the end of his school life when he saw plays and jatra in his village. Between 1946 and 1948 he organised a number of plays in association with other boys in the village. In the fifties, he acted and directed several plays staged at Jagannath College, Salimullah Muslim Hall and curzon hall of Dhaka University. He was entertainment secretary of DUCSU in 1955-56 and organised a cultural festival in which five plays were staged. He directed the DUCSU productions of N'i'ldurpu'n' and Nabasangskara'n'. He also acted in the Salimullah Hall production of Dui Puru's'. The play M'a'nchitra directed by him was well received. He also acted in the play Keu Kichhu Balte P'a're N'a' and assisted in staging munier chowdhury';s kabar.

During 1956-57 Moksudus Salehin organised the Drama Circle in association with Tawfiq Aziz Khan, Abu Zafar Obaidullah Khan, Monirul Alam, Abed Husain, Bazlul Karim and others. This group set a new trend in presentation of plays, acting, stage setting, and lighting. Under his leadership and direction the Drama Circle staged plays in Kolkata and several cities of West Pakistan. Among the plays produced by the group were Kabar, Keu Kichhu Balte Pare Na, Raktakarabi, R'a'j'a' O R'a'n'i, T'a'ser Desh, Sab'a'i 'A'm'a'r Chhele, Bahip'i'r, Oedipus, Arms and the Man, Saptash'u'rer Thibi, 'A'krama'n', Danter M'rt'yu and K'a'lbel'a. He also acted as assistant director of the film Tanh'a' (1964). [Anupam Hayat] [Hayat, Anupam former Public Information Officer, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh]