Rear Window is a 1954 Hollywood classic. Set in Manhattan, James Stewart plays a photographer nursing a broken leg. He sits bored in his Greenwich Village apartment, passing the time by spying on his neighbors — a dancer who likes to practice in her underwear (it’s summer), a woman who lives by herself, a musician working at his piano, and several married couples, including a salesman with a bedridden wife. As the movie progresses, Stewart, his girlfriend Grace Kelly, and us the viewers, start suspecting that the salesman has killed his wife. But we never know until the very end whether there really was a murder, because all the unusual things raising suspicion had reasonable, innocent explanations. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the movie is considered as one of the best thrillers ever made.
I have often wondered what would happen if the movie was set in today’s Dhaka, where life is every bit as hectic and alienating as it is in 1950s (or even present day) Manhattan. Dear reader, if you were sitting with a binocular in the balcony of your Uttara/Mohammadpur/Poribagh/Shantinagar flat, and saw suspicious going ons in the neighbouing building, what would you do?
When I open rear window and gaze thru binoculars , I don’t find my dreams anymore, they are blown away by unruly gusts. All I see is, the sky is clouded with Bangabandhu and Zia’s dreams !! And Bangladesh is barely visible ! Waiting for a storm, may be the clouds will clear and a sunny Bangladesh will start rising !
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jyoti bhai,
when i open my windows in my village home i see the rubber plantations and a spotted deer or two in the city home i see the beautiful rolling khulshi and foy’s lake green hills, oh boy! beautifully exhilirating and refreshing. far away from the maddening crowds of dhaka – tnk allah pak.
do hv great weekend, t.c.
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