Tareque Masud (তারেক মাসুদ), the brilliant Bangladeshi independent film director, is no more.

He died on 13 August, 2011 in a road accident on the Dhaka-Aricha highway, at Joka of Ghior upazilla in Manikganj district, while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj, having visited a shooting spot for his latest project “Kagojer Phool”. ATN News CEO, eminent media personality Ashfaque (Mishuk) Munier, son of 1971 martyred intellectual Munier Chowdhury, and teacher of video communication at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of the University of Dhaka, and three others also died in the fatal road accident as the microbus carrying them collided head-on with an oncoming bus.

Tareque Masud was renowned and recognized worldwide as an auteur extraordinaire, directing such classics as “Muktir Gaan” (1995) and “Matir Moina” (2002), which was released to effusive international critical acclaim and for which he won a number of international awards, including the International Critics’ Prize and FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize for Best Film at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Apart from a director and an author, as a human being, Tareque Masud was many individuals, many ideals molded into one. He was the personification of humility, creativity and conscientiousness. He was at once our national pride, our collective conscience and our champion of the just, social cause. His death is a great loss to Bangladesh, the world of film and humanity in general.

But in the hallowed halls of heaven tonight, there sits a mighty man, solemn yet smiling, on his regal throne. We toast to your eternal soul. Salud! Señor Masud.

Image: Tareque and Catherine Masud at a shoot. Tareque Masud full of life & directions.

A brief introduction to Matir Moina, interviews with Tareque Masud and the international film reviews follow: