From Puppet Man to Visual Storyteller

There are only a handful of figures in Bangladesh's cultural history whose identities cannot be confined to a single profession. Mustafa Monwar was one of them.

He was a painter, television producer, educator, puppet maker, presenter, cultural organizer and, above all, one of Bangladesh's greatest visual storytellers. Whether working with paintbrushes on canvas, television cameras, studio lighting, wooden puppets or stage design, Monwar transformed every medium into a language of storytelling.

On June 29, the revered artist passed away at a private hospital in Dhaka after a prolonged battle with pneumonia, a lung infection and other age-related complications. He was 90.

The following day, thousands paid their final respects at the Central Shaheed Minar, Bangladesh Television (BTV) and the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka before he was laid to rest at Banani Graveyard. Yet while his earthly journey has ended, the creative legacy he leaves behind—where art, technology and mass communication converge—will continue to inspire generations.

The Making of an Artist

Mustafa Monwar was born on September 1, 1935, in Nakol village under present-day Magura district, then part of the undivided Bengal Presidency. His ancestral home was in Manoharpur village of Jhenaidah.

He was the youngest of six siblings. His father, the celebrated poet Golam Mostofa, was one of the leading literary figures of Bengali Muslim literature, while his elder brother Mustafa Aziz was also fond of painting. Growing up in such an environment, art became a natural language for the youngest child in the family.

Although he inherited a rich literary legacy, Monwar chose to express himself through images rather than words.

If his father painted emotions with poetry, Mustafa Monwar would later paint those same emotions with colours, cameras and puppets.

Following the Partition of India, his family moved to Dhaka. He became one of the earliest students of the then Dhaka Art Institute—today's Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka—and later graduated with First Class First from the Government College of Art & Craft in Kolkata in 1959.

Returning home, he refused to be confined within the boundaries of painting. He taught, produced television programmes, promoted fine arts education and became one of the country's foremost advocates for children's cultural development.

His contribution earned him Bangladesh's highest civilian honours, including the Ekushey Padak and the Independence Award.

His family also reflected an extraordinary artistic lineage. His nephew, Nafis Bin Zafor, would later become Bangladesh's first Oscar-winning animator—an evolution that symbolically carried the family's creative journey from poetry to painting, from puppetry to digital animation.

The Artist Who Chose the Camera

Mustafa Monwar quickly realised that while a painting might remain inside a gallery, a television frame could enter millions of homes.

That realization drew him toward Bangladesh Television.

He did far more than produce programmes. He fundamentally reshaped the visual language of television.

Frame composition, lighting, colour psychology, set design and visual rhythm all bore the unmistakable imprint of a trained painter. From patriotic productions during the Liberation War to children's programmes in independent Bangladesh, he demonstrated that television could itself become an artistic medium.

Where Puppets Were Engineered by Hand

Perhaps nowhere was his genius more evident than in puppetry.

Long before 3D printers, CNC machines or digital modelling became available, Monwar built every puppet almost entirely by hand.

He selected the wood himself, shaped puppet heads on a lathe, painted every face, assembled eyes and limbs, and designed the mechanical linkages that allowed movement.

Each facial expression, each blinking eye, every moving hand and opening mouth required not only artistic imagination but engineering precision.

In Monwar's workshop, art and mechanics became inseparable.

Puppetry Before the Digital Age

Today's children grow up surrounded by CGI, 3D animation and AI-generated characters.

Mustafa Monwar belonged to another era.

Working with little more than wood, cloth, strings, lighting and imagination, he created characters that laughed, spoke, performed and connected emotionally with audiences.

In many ways, his puppets represented Bangladesh's earliest form of analogue animation—a handcrafted precursor to today's digital storytelling.

Designing for the Camera

Monwar understood something that many painters of his generation did not. Colours that appear striking on canvas do not necessarily translate well on television. Every backdrop, costume, prop, lighting arrangement and set design was therefore planned with the camera in mind.

What we now call production design and visual design was, in Bangladesh Television, pioneered by artists like Mustafa Monwar decades before these disciplines became formally recognised.

Notun Kuri: A Factory of Talent

For generations of Bangladeshis, Notun Kuri was more than a television programme. It became a national institution.

Countless singers, actors, reciters and performers made their first public appearances through its stage. Under Monwar's creative guidance, the programme nurtured confidence, imagination and artistic discipline among children across the country.

Its impact extended far beyond television. It helped shape an entire generation of cultural practitioners.

Technology Was Never Just a Tool

For Mustafa Monwar, technology was never merely equipment. It was another artistic language.

Whether designing puppet mechanics, experimenting with multi-camera television production, composing studio lighting or creating visually balanced sets, he consistently explored how technology could deepen storytelling.

Today's animators, motion designers, YouTube creators and digital visual storytellers may use sophisticated software, but the interdisciplinary thinking behind their work echoes principles Monwar had already embraced decades earlier.

Long before the digital revolution, he understood a timeless truth: People love listening to stories—but they love seeing them even more.

The Final Farewell

News of his death prompted an outpouring of grief across Bangladesh. Artists, writers, journalists, educators, cultural activists and former students shared memories of the man many affectionately called Bangladesh's "Puppet Man," a mentor who transformed childhood imagination into cultural confidence.

Tributes highlighted not only his artistic achievements but also his role in shaping the country's visual identity.

His final journey—from the Central Shaheed Minar to Bangladesh Television and the Faculty of Fine Arts before burial at Banani—reflected the many institutions that had been shaped by his life's work.

Beyond the Final Frame

Bangladesh has produced many remarkable painters and many accomplished television producers.

Few, however, have successfully united canvas, camera, craftsmanship, engineering, children's imagination and visual culture into a single creative philosophy.

Mustafa Monwar did not merely paint pictures. He taught images to move. He did not simply carve wooden puppets. He gave them life. He did not only produce television programmes. He helped construct the visual grammar of modern Bangladesh.

To remember him only as a painter would therefore diminish his true legacy.

He was a pioneer of visual storytelling—a creator who looked beyond the limits of the canvas and taught an entire nation to see stories through the camera's frame.

Long after the curtain has fallen, Mustafa Monwar remains where all great storytellers ultimately belong: In the frame.

// Writer: Journalist, Exective Editor, DIGI Bangla; VicePresident, Cyber Care Awareness Foundation.