I have read heartfelt appreciation of Humayun Ahmed’s literary work by Shafin. I agree to most of his commentary on Humayun. Humayun was quite a charismatic and humanist writer. His stories, novels and dramas tell amply about his love for common and middleclass people. They abound in characters, portrayed in the beginning as bad or evil, but, their humanist side ultimately shine through emphasising Humayun’s belief in human capability of overcoming his inner viles.
Humayun has led us to appreciate many characteristics of middle class people which hitherto were not explored fully earlier. No doubt, he will be remembered by our middleclass people, who are becoming extinct quite fast now. Only time will judge whether how much of his works are classic or not.
I did not agree with Shafin to his assessment of Boris Pasternak as novelist and the justification for awarding him with noble prize in literature for his epic novel Dr. Zivago. Although the anti-communist stance taken by the protagonist Dr. Zivago in the novel influenced the award committee in their decision, the beauty and literary achievement of it can never be underestimated. In this novel he has portrayed a time of turmoil and upheaval during Bolshevik revolution in which many artistic and poetic minded people like Zivago perished, as the fiery revolution swept across Russia.
I tried to read the English translation of the novel, Dr. Zhivago, at a very tender age, which was a very inappropriate time to do that. Then after many years, I had the opportunity of watching the movie made from it by the legendary British director David Leen. Since then, it has remained as one of my all time favourite movies for its lyrical portrayal of a love story in one of the most turbulent times of history.
In my opinion, Dr. Zivago, in line with the Russian epics like War and Peace of Tolstoy and Crime and Punishment of Dostoyevsky, would be read and remembered for long long time for its artistic appeal.
Faruk Kader
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Home Page Published on: 18-Sep-2012 
