Masud Rana: the James Bond of Bangladesh

An untamed daredevil spy of Bangladesh Counter Intelligence. On secret missions he travels the globe. Varied is his life. Mysterious and strange are his movements. His heart, a beautiful mix of gentle and tough. Single. He attracts, but refuses to get snared. Wherever he encounters injustice, oppression, and wrong, he fights back. Every step he takes is shadowed by danger, fear, and the risk of death. Come, let us acquaint ourselves with this daring, always hip young man. In a flash, he will lift us out of the monotony of a mundane life to an awesome world of our dreams. You are invited. Thank you.

The are the opening lines of Masud Rana, the spy fiction from Bangladesh written by Qazi Anwar Husain and published by his Sheba Prokashoni. Since 1968 Masud Rana, or agent MR-9 is thrilling Bangladeshis in cheap newsprint paperbacks. In my teens I was mesmerized with Rana thrillers and used to devise ways to buy/collect and read them without being seen by elders. Rana has a womanizing character like Bond and thus the paperbacks were deemed unsuitable for teens.

It has been long since I last read a Masud Rana series (the latest was no. 371). Mahmud Rahman does this excellent review in the Daily Star. It was interesting to know that Masud Rana is still like the old days but has become a bit conservative with his erotic style. Probably the mindset of the writer has been changed due to changes in society.

You can get Masud Rana thrillers anywhere in the world from Boi Mela, one of the largest online Bangla Book Stores. Boi Mela website is the official web presence for Seba Prokashoni books. Most of the books that had been published by Seba Prokashoni in the past 4-5 years has Boi Mela's name printed in them as their web reseller.