Golam Mamun (TV Series)
8 Episodes
2024
Golam Mamun – has recently premiered on the OTT platform Hoichoi. Despite being a spin-off, the series is not a typical character-driven story. In Ayan Chakrabarty’s plot, police officer Golam Mamun is accused of murdering a delinquent named Nasir. Concurrently, Mamun’s colleague Sakib and Sakib’s wife, journalist Tania, are murdered, with all fingers pointing at Mamun. While on duty, Mamun is presented in court but escapes, becoming a fugitive who investigates the connections between these murders. He eventually discovers a link to his brother-in-law’s murder, another police officer.
In his quest to uncover the mysteries, Mamun faces betrayal, distrust, and the disguised faces of those around him. Can he rise above these challenges, or will his astute colleague, officer Robin, catch him? Are Robin and Mamun rivals or allies? The series answers these questions.
The screenplay, written jointly by Shihab Shaheen and Mezbah Uddin Shumon, opens with a tragic scene: a little girl narrates her deceased mother’s condition over a phone call, setting a gloomy tone. The series interweaves numerous events, maintaining a cohesive pattern without becoming irrelevant. Shaheen aimed to present this story on a wide scale, introducing peripheral issues through brief dialogues. Some parts were effective, but not all. For instance, the attempt to address national issues like power outages through dialogues was commendable, but the absence of a generator in such a flat seemed unrealistic. Some plot twists were weak, such as Milon retrieving files from the court, and fugitive Mamun waiting with a car at the court, or the rationale Mamun provided for killing his brother-in-law.
The attempt to introduce the narrative of domestic violence in the marital relationship of Mamun’s brother-in-law and sister was praiseworthy. Dialogues like “Although everything in this world is not real, there are dodgers. Yet, I will trust you” and “You won’t get ripe fruits unless you venture to the tip of the branch” kept intense moments lively and realistic. Shaheen avoided the common trope of unnecessary smoking and drinking to make the characters relevant to violence, instead telling a different story. The scene of Quran recitation after the minister’s son’s death was beautiful, although the recitation beside the dead body should have been faster. Issues like the fire at Chattogram port, gold smuggling, and national instability were covered, showing their interrelated interests. Shaheen addressed these through the characters’ dialogues. However, naming these issues under an imposed ideology like ‘Hukumat’ primarily conceals the administrative authority’s failure.
Even though “Golam Mamun” is a spin-off series, Shihab Shaheen uses it to reflect our current socio-political realities through fiction and brief dialogues, highlighting numerous inconsistencies in our surroundings. However, we should question his portrayal of everything under an invisible shadow, or ‘Hukumat’. This ‘invisible’ aspect implants a spectral reality in our minds, which eventually seems insurmountable. The ruling apparatus takes full advantage of this, becoming more active in masking their failures.
Storytelling plays a significant role in creating such narratives, leading to a gradual decline in the audience’s tendency to question authority. This decline is certainly not beneficial for any governance system or the state itself.
