The Big Picture
Collider’s Steve Weintraub sits with the cast and crew behind the heartfelt Bangladeshi drama
Saba
at TIFF 2024.
Maksud Hossain draws from personal experience in his directorial feature debut, aiming to invoke authentic emotion through performances and editing.
Mehazabien Chowdhury transforms into an unrecognizable character in this universal story about hardship and letting go.
International cinema has been left at the wayside for far too long, and in recent years it has finally been getting the recognition it deserves. At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, an installment from Bangladesh completely captures our hearts as the film tells a universal story about hardship, pain, and moving on. Saba follows its titular character, played by Mehazabien Chowdhury, who cares for her paraplegic mother by herself. She faces the poignant dilemma of escaping her world or striving to build a life somewhere within the tragedy, a story that is told in vibrant colors and visceral emotions.
Collider’s Steve Weintraub sits with Saba’s first-time feature director Maksud Hossain, and cast members Chowdhury and Mostafa Monwar during TIFF 2024. They delve into creating this heartfelt story that will resonate with people universally despite being specifically set in Bangladesh while also revealing that it is inspired by the writer-director’s own personal history. Hossain explains his approach to editing this directorial feature debut, stressing the importance of rhythm and the “sweet spot.” Chowdhury also comments on how she aimed to make herself unrecognizable, as she didn’t want people to conflate her popular reputation with this character. You can hear about their experience in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
‘Saba’ Is a Drama Based on the Director’s Personal Story
Image via Fusion Pictures
COLLIDER: We can’t really talk about so many specifics because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone. How have you been describing the film to friends and family?
MAKSUD HOSSAIN: The best way to tell you about the film is I’ll tell you how I came up with it. My wife and writing partner, Trilora [Khan], and her mother were in a near-fatal car accident almost 25 years ago in Bangladesh. Ever since then, my mother-in-law has been a paraplegic, and she depended on my wife and her father to take care of her on a daily basis. After the death of my father-in-law, I saw my wife really struggling to take care of her mother even though she had access to money, family, and resources. That’s when Trilora and I started thinking, “What if we tell a story of a young woman named Saba who lives in lower middle-class Bangladesh without any help, without any money, and she has to take care of her paraplegic mother by herself? What would Saba do in a situation like this to make sure that her mother lives at any cost?” So that’s the film, and it’s called Saba.
One of the things that I found so well done about the film is that it has no Hollywood gloss. It is a very realistic portrayal. It’s not glamorized at all. Putting that on screen is tricky because you don’t want to have any false notes. Can the three of you talk about how you got ready to make the film to make sure it felt as authentic as possible when you were filming?
HOSSAIN: That was very important that it felt authentic and everything felt emotionally truthful. We had an extensive period of rehearsal with our actors; Mehazabien Chowdhury and I rehearsed for almost six months, and so did [Mostafa] Monwar. We did a lot of improvisations. We spoke about the characters, and we constantly asked ourselves what would feel emotionally truthful. For me, as a writer-director, it’s very important that there is an emotional experience that feels very authentic and very honest to the audience members. That’s where I came from. That was our goal from the very beginning.
MOSTAFA MONWAR: We had quite a few sessions, discussions, and rehearsals, and we were constantly exploring our characters. There is no fixed thing about our characters and the script; he always encourages us to explore and improvise. He helped us to explore the true tonality of the characters. It should be really convincing and believable.
Mehazabien Chowdhury Has Never Played a Role Like ‘Saba’
MEHAZABIEN CHOWDHURY: They have said everything. I have nothing to say. As an actor, I always try grabbing characters that I haven’t played or portrayed before. For me, Saba was something very fresh. I’ve never done a role where I play a caregiver. When I do something that is new, it actually shows on screen. The amount of rehearsal, the amount of hard work we have put into it, that is what actually shows right now on the screen. Apart from that, Maksud’s mother-in-law — it’s based on her life and our co-writer’s life. We had conversations with them to know what they actually had been going through. We put that in the story and wanted to do things in a spontaneous kind of way so that nothing feels very scripted. That is what makes the whole story very raw and fresh.
You’re fantastic in the movie. I can only imagine when you read the script and you saw everything you were going to be doing. It’s such a juicy role to get behind. Talk about once you were presented with the script, were you just like, “I’m taking this role? This is for me?”
CHOWDHURY: It was sort of like that. I’ve been working as an actor from a very young age. It was almost 12 years that I’ve acted in different kinds of dramas, and I didn’t actually choose a movie role before this. I was actually waiting for something that has that weight, that kind of role where I will actually be able to portray myself in a very different way, in a way that people haven’t seen me before. At the end of the movie, the audience will say, “That’s Mehazabien, and we haven’t seen her in that kind of character before.”
When Maksud came to me with the script, I was listening to what he was feeling about it and I found that he was very confident. That is the story that he wants to [tell]. His confidence actually reflected on me as well. Saba is the kind of girl who has so much courage and, in real life — I don’t know if I should say this on screen — I’m not that courageous, but I wanted to do that on screen. That was the first kick that actually kicked me off to choose this role. Apart from that, when I heard who all the other actors were going to be, my co-actors, they were great. He’s been to places before. I felt that this is the movie that I wanna do because this actually is the whole package.
‘Saba’ Is a Universal Story
“The more specific you get, the more universal you become.”
Image via Fusion Pictures
If I’m not mistaken, this is your first feature. You’ve directed a ton of short films?
HOSSAIN: You’re correct.
How much did you debate what you wanted to be your first feature? Was it in your head a little bit, like, “Do I want to make this kind of movie? Do I wanna make that kind of movie?”
HOSSAIN: When Saba started back in 2021, I wrote the first draft. Before that, I’ve been making short films for 21 years. I was in my head. I wasn’t sure what I wanted my first feature to look like. As it gets a little late in your career. Once I had the first draft of Saba, I just instantly knew that this is [what] I wanted my first film to be. At the very beginning, before I talked to all of the actors, there weren’t a lot of people who were very excited about this film. But I knew in my heart that the vision that I had, if I could achieve it, if I could make the film that I wanted to make, I’d be proud of it, and it would connect with an audience. The audience will emotionally respond to it. I was right.
The thing about a movie like this, in my opinion, is that it might be told in Bangladesh, but it’s a universal story. Everybody deals with a family member who needs extra [support]. We all are going to deal with it. It’s a universal story that just happens to be being told in Bangladesh.
HOSSAIN: The reason that I moved to Bangladesh back in 2009 — I was in the States for 10 years — was I wanted to make personal films about my culture, the people that I knew best, which are people from Bangladesh because I am a Bangladeshi and my parents are Bangladeshi. I believe, even during the rehearsal, that the more specific you get, the more universal you become. I stole that from one of my heroes — I forget which filmmaker. I think that’s very, very true for any form of art. With Saba, people would keep telling me that, “This is too specific to your culture,” and they wouldn’t understand it. But I’m like, “No. I want it to be extremely specific so that people relate to the human emotion of it.”
Mehazabien Chowdhury Is Popular on the Streets of Bangladesh
“But they couldn’t recognize me.”
Image by Photagonist at TIFF
You guys film a lot on location in the movie. I’ve never been to Bangladesh, so I don’t know how movies are made there. Do people care or was it chaos on the streets?
CHOWDHURY: We did try to control the audience or the crowd a lot, but we also wanted to keep the film as raw and as authentic as possible. We did have backgrounds where people were non-actors. I think that worked for the movie because with the budget that we had, we couldn’t actually afford to have like at least 500 people in the background. The funniest thing is me being a known face in Bangladesh. It is very hard to control the crowd, even with him.
MONWAR: She has a huge following in Bangladesh. She has over 5 million followers. It was very difficult.
[Laughs] Throwing you under the bus.
CHOWDHURY: No, no, no, it’s nothing like that. Like I said earlier, I want to do characters that I haven’t done before. When we were discussing Saba, I wanted her to look very different from what I actually look like in real life. We were experimenting with what the hair should be, what she should be wearing, and she should look like a very regular girl. That’s what we did with the look, and we did shoot in places where there were people, but they couldn’t recognize me. That was something that we were able to pull off as a team, and we are very proud of it.
I apologize. I do not know how famous you are in Bangladesh, but was it refreshing to walk through crowds and have no one care?
CHOWDHURY: I don’t know.
HOSSAIN: People cared. [Laughs]
CHOWDHURY: We did take a lot of retakes because people were staring at us or at the camera. Someone with a boom, you don’t usually see that in the crowd or in the road, but we actually were able to pull it off.
You see the shooting schedule in front of you. What day do you have circled in terms of, “I can’t wait to film this,” and what day is circled in terms of, “How the F are we gonna film this?”
CHOWDHURY: For me, if it is an early morning shoot, I would be like, “Oh God, this is gonna be a very difficult day.” I think we had it sorted out in a very, very good way, and we didn’t overshoot anything. We were very specific about what we were going to shoot and did a lot of retakes. The planning itself was very well done by Maksud.
MONWAR: It was very organized.
CHOWDHURY: I think because the story is so personal, everyone was emotionally involved in the movie. Everyone was like, “We have to finish this on time. We cannot go overboard with the budget.” Everyone was very much into it.
Was there a certain day of the shoot that you were looking forward to?
MONWAR: For me, every day is exciting. Every day is a challenge for me. I found it equally exciting.
Image by Photagonist at TIFF
CHOWDHURY: For me, I would say the pre-climax scene where we lose one of our characters. I won’t say the name. That would be a spoiler. That was nerve-wracking for me because we were actually planning to take it in a single shot. That was the initial plan. We were actually planning to take it in a single shot. That was very nerve-wracking because with so much going on, and the emotional peak of that particular moment was so important. Everything relied on that particular scene, because the journey of Saba actually comes and ends there. That was the day I was very nervous.
I understand why you would feel that way.
HOSSAIN: The most exciting day was the first day of shooting because I’ve been waiting so long to make a feature film, and I couldn’t believe it the night before that, “I’m finally here!” I was like a boy in a candy store. That was very exciting for me for sure. Everyone gelled, as Mehazabien and Monwar were stating, that the team was really on it. Everyone wanted to do their best, and everyone did. We’re eternally grateful to all our team members. For me also, that scene was very challenging. That was a very challenging scene for everyone, and we were very emotionally taken. When we were working on that scene, it was very tough for all of us. The entire crew was wrecked and the actors, and me.
Because it’s also a universal story.
HOSSAIN: Also, the personal connection and everything.
Director Maksud Hossain Finds a “Sweet Spot” When Editing
“It’s all about rhythm.”
Image by Photagonist at TIFF
I love talking about editing with directors because it’s ultimately where it all comes together. You get in the editing room. After showing the film to friends and family, how did the film change in ways you didn’t expect?
HOSSAIN: What happened was we started editing and we did a three-hour cut.
Was it an assembly cut or a cut that you were like, “Oh, this is pretty good?”
HOSSAIN: [Laughs] No, no, it was an assembly cut, and I edited myself. I did a lot of editing myself. Even though my credit is not there, because there are too many credits with my name. I knew that there was something going on. I felt quite confident. A lot of filmmakers say they don’t like their assembly cuts; this wasn’t the case with this film. I did like it. I knew it wasn’t there yet, but I could see that there were pieces that needed some polishing, needed to be rethought. We slowly were getting rid of the fat, the things that we didn’t need. Once we were down to roughly 110 minutes, I started showing it to people and people started getting excited.
Then I felt like we needed an editor with much more experience. Then I went to Nitin Baid, who is the supervising editor on the film. He has worked as an editor on films like Masaan in Cannes Film Festival — he knows what he’s doing, and he’s one of the top editors working in India today with all the big films. He watched the film, and he gave us notes that were very helpful. Now, the running time is 95 minutes with the titles. The titles itself are 4.5 minutes front and back. It’s around 90.5 minutes I think, which is a good length for this film. I debated taking out one or two more minutes, but I feel there’s a sweet spot in the edit where you take out 30 more seconds and the film somehow doesn’t work. I felt that 90.5 was that sweet spot for us.
This is why I talk about editing all the time, because people don’t realize one minute either way or one scene either way can make or break.
HOSSAIN: It’s a huge difference. I’m gonna go a little bit geeky now. Sometimes a couple of frames in a shot makes it, because it’s all about rhythm. People talk about movies and film in all sorts of terms, but the only art form that can be compared to movies, directly, I think, is music. It’s all about rhythm. When they were acting, I was looking for rhythm from them. Sometimes I would have my eyes shut because I was just listening to it. It doesn’t have to be my rhythm, it can be their rhythm, but do I have something going there? With editing, as well, it’s all about the rhythm.
You two work together, there’s like a relationship between your two characters and the fact is, if you lose certain scenes or add certain scenes, it changes the complete dynamic on your relationship.
HOSSAIN: For sure. We took out a couple of scenes that we shot. We had a few more scenes. I don’t think any of your scenes got canned because I love him on camera so much.
CHOWDHURY: Yeah, you don’t love me. [Laughs]
HOSSAIN: You’re in the entire film. That’s a flawed argument. [Laughs]
MONWAR: She’s in every scene.
HOSSAIN: She’s in every scene. That’s how it was designed.
If the title is Saba, and you’re playing Saba, you’re probably in the whole movie. I’m just throwing that out there. I’m smart, I have to know these things.
‘Saba’s Showing at TIFF is Important for Bangladeshi Cinema
Image via Photagonist at TIFF
I have to ask you about being in the Toronto Film Festival. When did you find out you were in it? Did you think you were gonna get into a festival like this or were you just like, “Oh my God, we’re going to Toronto?”
HOSSAIN: I’ll give you the director answer, and they can give you the actor answer. It was complete, “Oh my God.” It’s one of the biggest festivals. It’s in the big five. When we were making this small film, Saba, in Bangladesh, who would have thought? You dream of things. We would have loved to have come to TIFF when we were shooting it, but it’s a distant dream. It’s a dream when you finally get that email from Robyn Citizen saying that she loves the film. She wrote a couple of paragraphs on the film, talking about very specific things, talking about the relationship between Saba and Ankur, that shows she thought about the film and she took the time to write this beautiful email. That’s amazing. That’s amazing. We found out in early June that we were in.
CHOWDHURY: June 18. [Laughs]
She was very, very happy.
MONWAR: Last year, I acted in four films. I was desperately waiting for some good news from any one of the films, actually. It makes me feel so good that we got selected for TIFF. It’s really good news for me. I was desperately waiting for some good news about my films.
This is great news.
CHOWDHURY: As you know, I still remember the date when we got the email, so that shows my excitement. This was my first film, and I wanted it to be international, and I think TIFF is the platform. This is the biggest platform that I have ever been to. It’s a big achievement for the Bangladeshi cinema industry, as well. I’m very proud that we are here competing with cinemas from all over the world. We have made a film that people can relate to. Not just now, even 50 or 100 years from now, because the core of the movie is based on a very sensitive emotion of letting go. I think we did do justice, and TIFF was very generous, I would say, to let us come with the movie and then show it to the world. Bangladeshi cinema is starting to evolve. Just one of our movies had been to Con recently. This is the moment where we take our culture and our movies into the world. This is just the beginning.
Image by Photagonist at TIFF
I hope you’re right because that would be fantastic. My last question, obviously, you must have enjoyed this process of making your first film. Are you working on other screenplays now?
HOSSAIN: Mehazabien keeps telling me that I enjoy the process too much because I take so long. I’m working on a screenplay. My next screenplay is based in the US. I’m trying to work on something in English. That’s all I can tell you for now.
Special thanks to MARBL Restaurant for hosting Collider, as well as our additional sponsors Range Rover, the official luxury vehicle partner of the Cinema Center and Collider Media Studio, poppi, Tequila Don Julio, Canada’s premium spring water brand, Legend Water, and People’s Group financial services.