Nurul Momen

Nurul Momen (25 November 1908 – 16 February 1990) was a Bangladeshi playwright, educator, director, broadcast personality, orator, humorist, dramatist, academician, satirist, belletrist, essayist, columnist, translator and poet. He served as a faculty member in the capacities of professor and dean at the Faculty of Law in the University of Dhaka. He also served as a lawyer. He is called "Father of Bangladeshi theatre" and "Natyaguru" (or Natyo Guru or Natto Guru) of Bangladesh (The Grand Teacher of Drama and Theatre). There he was known for including elements from literature and music into the law classes. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was one of his favourite students, who enrolled in that department in 1948. Nurul Momen encouraged Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to read the works of George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell. He encouraged Munier Chowdhury to get interested in theater and become a playwright. Momen encouraged him to read George Bernard Shaw and got many other students interested in theatre. He later translated You Never Can Tell. From 1948 until 1951 Momen was on leave from the university, undergoing higher studies in England and graduating in law from London University. Upon his return, he found the language movement at its height. He encouraged the students to demand for the Bangla language. On 21 February 1952, Nurul Momen and his student Mohammad Toaha was in the DU playground, when the shooting took place & martyrs were fired upon. When the second Shaheed Minar was constructed in 1954, Nurul Momen was the prominent intellectual, who inaugurated the monument.

In 1961 he, along with his friend Justice Syed Mahbub Morshed, celebrated the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore.

In 1964 he organised the quarter centenary or, in other words, quadricentennial birth celebration of William Shakespeare.

Pseudonyms

Natyaguru Nurul Momen sometimes contributed two articles for the same newspaper at the same time using the penname "Magus".

He wrote the satirical post-editorial "Lest We Forget" as Nurul Momen, spanning 5 years for The Bangladesh Times; while he wrote for the literary magazine the series, "Forbidden Pleasure" under the pseudonym "Magus".

Theatre theory

Nurul Momen has devised a new theory in dramaturgy.

Fourth Unity

In 1944, the Bengal playwright Natyaguru Nurul Momen, introduced the fourth unity in Nemesis. In this one-character play (monodrama), Nurul Momen immaculately maintained all the three Aristotelian unities of Time, place & action. Moreover, he introduced the Fourth Unity in the history of dramaturgy.

In the introduction of his 1944 one character play Nemesis, he wrote, "In this play a fourth Unity is added to the traditional three unities of The Greek Tragedies -- Time, Place and Action. A new experimentation has been done by introducing a new unity --- ‘Unity of Person’ despite maintaining the format of The three unities."

Literary works

Awards Bangla Academy Award best Playwright and litterateur, 1961 Ekushey Padak for drama and literature, 1978 Sitara-e-Imtiaz, 1967 (which he renounced and destroyed in 1971)

Personal life In 1936 Momen married Amena Momen, née Khatun (died 1993). They had four children – Momena Momen Saara (died 1995), Ahmad Nurul Momen (died 2009), Hammad Nurul Momen and Faisal Mahmud Tukun Nurul Momen.

Legacy On 25 November 2008, his birth centenary was celebrated at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA). Natyaguru Nurul Momen's legacy remains carried on by his students & disciples Munier Chowdhury, Syed Waliullah, Ashker Ibne Shaikh, Sayeed Ahmed, Momtazuddin Ahmed, Syed Shamsul Haq, Abdullah Al Mamun, Humayun Ahmed, Selim Al Deen and others who followed Momen.