Suborna Mustafa

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Suborna Mustafa (Bengali: সুবর্ণা মুস্তাফা) is a Bangladeshi actress. She is also the daughter of famous actor Golam Mustafa and the wife of actor Humayun Faridi.^[1]

[edit] Childhood

Suborna Mustafa was the second in a family of three children . Her father Golam Mustafa was acting in films and mother was an actress, producer in the radio and a playwright. Suborna did her S.S.C. from Viqarunnissa Noon School, H.S.C from Holly Cross Collage, Honors and Masters in English from Dhaka University. Her school and college days were spent in all women institutions. By the time she was in the university she was already a known face.

She has been reigning the drama lane from the late '70s. At present she is not appearing much on screen and the audience is feeling her vacuum tremendously. Till now none could substitute her fabulous performance nor her unique expressive eyes or her beguiling smile which is so full of mystery. In the field of our drama, only one person could fulfill all the criteria of an ideal actress and she is none other than Suborna Mustafa.

Born in a family with a rich cultural background, like most children Suborna Mustafa dreamt of becoming a doctor, and then she planned to be a flight attendant. Being inspired by her father, renowned actor Golam Mustafa, she, however, came into the drama circle when she was very young. Once she started, within a few years, she achieved the top position permanently through her fine performances. She considers it a blessing of God that she is Golam Mustafa's daughter. Her father was her best friend, teacher and adviser though he never forced her to do anything against her will. His view of life was that we learn only from our mistakes.

She learnt from her father that poetry augments our inner vision, which is very important for an artiste which is why she considers poetry as a part of her daily life and not just a hobby. She enjoys Rabindranath, Jibananda Das, Jasimuddin, Shakespeare, late 19th century English Romantics and T. S. Eliot. The Waste Land by Eliot is her favourite piece. Among the contemporary poets, she likes Nirmolendu Gun, Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, Abul Hassan and Mahadev Saha.

According to her, acting is something inherent, which practice can only sharpen and develop further. All the media attract her equally- from stage one can learn, while T.V. is an easier medium and the radio is very useful for voice modulation and definitely film is the strongest among all. Her approach to different media is different and that is the secret of her excellence. She thinks films should be the ultimate goal for a promising artiste though she is not happy with the present condition of our local films.

She worked for twenty-five years with the Dhaka Theatre but due to dearth of democratic attitude she left the group. On the other hand, she is also not willing to form a new group because according to her dividing a group is not pleasant. She says, 'A performer should have freelance access to act in any group, the liberty that the Indian performers have at the moment. If the Group Theatre Federation allows this, I think, it will help to introduce professionalism in our country.'

She is not happy with the principles of the package programme of BTV or other TV channels. She says, ironically, that BTV is confined by rules and regulations. But the organisation does not maintain a proper selection process. Moreover, she comments that artistes are often politically victimised. If this system goes on, the whole cultural arena will suffer.

In theatre, her favourite plays are Hamlet, Shokuntola, Kittonkhola, Keramot Mongal, Dewan Gazir Kissa, Inspector General, Daakghar and Raktakarabee. Her favourite playwrights are Shakespeare, Rabindranath, Arthur Miller, Ibsen, Synge, Selim Al Deen and Mamunur Rashid. Among the directors her favourites include Mamunur Rashid, Aly Zaker, Nasiruddin Yousuff and Jamil Ahmed. Among artistes Abul Hayat, Ferdousi Majumdar, Asaduzzaman Noor, Humayun Faridy and Wahida Mollik Jolly impress her enormously. She thinks Tania, Tarin and Jeetu are promising performers.

She never bothers whether the character is central or not, if it is interesting she likes to perform it. She was happy with her own performance in Baraf Gola Nadi, Shokuntola, Jaiboti Konnyar Mon. She suggests that the new performers should be absorbed in their media and then try to understand his/ her role according to its demand.

She is very proud of Faridy's success. They live a happy and friendly family life and enjoy traveling. Some of her husband's typical attitude makes her laugh in her lonely hours. She likes gossiping, cooking and traveling.

She is willing to give stage direction and is at present giving direction to some TV plays. Suborna Mustafa won the National Award as best actress in a supporting role in Nuton Bou in 1982 but she refused it on the grounds that she played the central character in the film not the supporting one.