Moinul Haque’s art of storytelling in silence

Story by ATV | Posted by Aasha Khosa | Date 09-02-2022

Moinul Haque performing on the stage

Ariful Islam/Guwahati

He makes you experience the power of silence. Moinul Haque, a mime exponent in northeastern India, makes his audience realize that silence around them is not just the absence of sound. He proves that unspoken stories are as powerful as their verbose versions. A story told through facial expressions, gesticulations, and body language, as Haque does, is even more evocative.

Moinul Haque, 63, is an international mime artiste, who has never learned the art in a formal setting. He did it instinctively and kept on improvising as he performed for the audience. In 2009, he was awarded the Sangeet Natak Academy Award and has so far performed in 6,000 stage shows.

No wonder, he has trainees all over India.

Moinul Haque receiving award from President Pratibha Patil

In an interview with Awaz-the Voice, Moinul Haque said, "I loved to make people laugh since I was a child. I used to act in small comedy shows and mono-acting skits since I was in school. Then, I started performing in comedy shows at college functions. My first stage show was in Baihata Chariali. Dhruba Kishore Choudhury of Bhaiya Mama fame, Prabin Hazarika, and I came together to set up a group named Sound and Comedy. By the time we finished college, ours was a super hit in comedy shows. We used to portray social issues through our shows. We started getting a lot of shows at that time."

"While performing in the comedy shows, I realized that I have to learn something classic. At that time, our college lecturer Bhuban Lahkar Sir gave me a book on mime art. After reading the book I decided that I’ll make a career in mime. I took time to learn and experiment and it almost took me a decade to earn mime. In 1991, I performed for the first time at Rabindra Bhavan, Guwahati. The same year I started my mime academy,

Though he wished to learn the art of miming, circumstances of his life didn’t allow him to do so and Moinul Haque ended up as a self-taught artist. He started exercising to make his body fit and flexible for mime.

Moinul Haque on the stage

Looking back at his four-decade career, Moinul Haque said: "When I started mime, it was a new art for the people of Assam. Initially, people did not understand mime. When I dressed up and painted my face, people wondered if I was going to perform a monkey dance. But, now people have started understanding mime. Nowadays, many trainees from schools and colleges are associated with mime. Many of my trainees have won awards; two have won the Bismillah Khan Award; five have won the Talent Award and many have been able to win central government awards.”

Though it was affected by the Covid-19 lockdown, Moinul Haque's Mime Academy has a large number of students. Many of his students come from economically backward families and he provides free training and scholarships to them.

So far, Moinul Haque has been raising various social issues through mime. He has tried to spread the word through social media on issues such as Bangladeshi immigration, TRP, child labour, dowry, etc.

Speaking through silence: Moinul Haque during a performance

"The new generation wants higher yield with least effort. This is not a good sign for work culture. Whatever I have achieved is because of a 40-year-long endeavour. I have shared a lot of my experience with my trainees. So, those who work hard will surely succeed. I still practice for four to five hours a day. God gives only those who work hard. There are many things in the world; we need to know what to look for. If one dedicates oneself to something, he will succeed."

Asked about his plans, Haque says, "I had wanted to build a studio. By the grace of God, the studio is ready. Now, I have plans to build a large auditorium."