Chittagong

Yes... You can find him in this movie but main focus is on Jhunku. So how call this movie as Chittagong I do not understand.

A few years back, Ashutosh Gowariker also chose the same subject for his movie "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se" in which he majorly failed due to his faulty casting more than his own direction. Ashutosh tried to bring in some commercial value in the project by casting Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone in the lead which actually fell flat, resulting in a film standing in the mid-way. Thankfully, the mistake is not repeated by Bedabrata Pain in his Chittagong, which has the same story told from a different angle and is a better film too if compared to KHJJS in a broader sense.

In Bedarbrata's CHITTAGONG the incident is narrated by "Jhunku", a participant of the revolt himself, giving you a first-hand experience of the brave & tragic chapter of 1930s. The film is executed well with some note-worthy cinematography, a fine background score, a well composed song "Bolo Na" and brilliant performances from the entire cast featuring Manoj Bajpayee, Delzad Hiwale, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raj Kumar Yadav, Barry John, Vijay Varma, Sauraseni Maitra, Chaiti Ghosh and more. Though the proceedings become slow post intermission when the after effects of the heroic revolt are being shown. Still it successfully keeps your interest alive through some new viewpoints added towards the climax, which eventually help CHITTAGONG to become a different movie as compared to Ashutosh's KHJJS in totality.

But at the same time, that doesn't mean that KHJJS had nothing good in it justifying the important subject. On the contrary, there were certain scenes in CHITTAGONG where I strongly felt that KHJJS had something superior as mentioned below.

1. It was quite strange to see that where in KHJJS, the young school boys are chosen & used due to their own self confessed desire, fighting spirit & fearlessness, CHITTAGONG uses them just because they have white cards, which is not a negative feature associated with their existence in the British Empire (unlike the Red Card given to others).

2. Where in KHJJS, Ashutosh extensively shows you the selection, training and grooming of the young boys by their master in details, CHIITAGONG speeds up this important part by just showing them being trained in gun-shooting in few scenes only.

3. In KHJJS the attacks on 3 different spots are shown in great length and details, whereas in CHITTAGONG the detailing is missing, probably because it later has to tell a lot more about "Jhunku", even after the hanging of Surjaya Sen (the end point of KHJJS). So where KHJJS focuses completely on giving the account of the zealous attacks made by the team on different key point of British operations, CHITTAGONG is majorly about these attacks plus its aftereffects years later.

4. Lastly, there is one thing which I respected the most in KHJJS, when they showed the original pictures of all the young boys and their leaders along with the pictures of actors enacting them on the screen in their end credits. In CHITTAGONG too there is short interview of "Jhunku" which deservingly gets a standing ovation in the theater. But truly speaking, the impact of watching those original pictures was much more in KHJJS.

On a concluding note, I am neither in favor of writing off Ashutosh's attempt completely nor in favor of praising Bedabrata's honest attempt whole heartedly. I deeply respect all the martyrs of this brave revolt of 1930s, have tremendous regards for the makers of both the films and salute their spirit behind their earnest efforts sincerely. But here I have to admit that may be I was expecting a lot more from the film as a second attempt.

In short, CHITTAGONG is a simple and straight forward portrayal of that unbelievable kind of chapter from our own Indian History. It mainly scores higher due to its rich execution and polished realistic performances from a well chosen talented cast. But I really wish it was more powerful infusing new life into our blood revisiting that historical event again. In its present version, the experience of watching CHITTAGONG is just like reading a simple enlightening biography of a calm soul, remembering his young days of a freedom fighter with a divine smile on his old face like "Jhunku".

The movie narrates true events. It deals with the armed revolt in the 1930s, against the British rulers in Chittagong, executed by a master with the participation of school boys. Subsequently, there was also a peasant uprising in the same town, led by one of the school boys, against these British rulers.

The movie is not jerky, awkward, hurried or too slow.

However, it has taken up disproportionately more time in narrating the armed revolt and its aftermath; less time has been given to the later peasant uprising which happened in order to regain the food-grains forcibly commandeered by the Britishers.

This 'peaceful' peasant uprising was equally interesting and should have been detailed better. There are no scenes of how much has been commandeered by the British, what was the layout map of their location vis-a-vis the food-grains godown, how they planned the tunnel routes, how they planned the digging teams, how the teams actually dug the tunnels, the travails of digging the tunnels secretly, time frames involved, the general heroism of it all. The narrative was cursory here.

There was an immediate reason for the peasants to rise against the Britishers as their lands, crops and food-grains had been forcibly commandeered by them. However, it is not clear what particular events triggered the master in Chittagong to plan a revolt. The movie could have shed some light on that. If there were no particular events which triggered, then the movie could have explored how a widespread wave of resistance to the Britishers was building up in the entire country, and how the Chittagong folks were not unaffected.

Delzad Hiwale (as the young Jhunku) has acted very well. Nawazuddin Siddique, Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao are well known actors and did well in this movie. However, a common observation for all these four actors (and particularly Manoj Bajpayee) is that their facial expressions were not so nuanced.

Vega Tamotia (as Pritilata Waddedar) acted well and also used facial expressions more.

All the actors in the movie have acted well. There was no amateurishness anywhere.

The good costumes did a lot in creating the period story effect in the movie. Apparently, a lot of care has been taken here. This whole thing was quite pleasing. Kudos to the Costume Designer Nilanjana Ghose.

The film location was apt, with the villages, the rural folk, the thick jungle, the rocky terrain, the single railway line and the deserted road lined with thick foliage.

This is a film production of high calibre, with good homework all around. The movie has mostly Indian actors and Indians in key non-acting roles. Only the Cinematographer and the Editor appear to be non-Indians.

It was a bit incredulous to see two bicycling policemen approaching the secret training ground inside the forest, where training to fire a rifle was being given to the school boys, and not hear the noise of the firing.

The music (songs) composing team of Shankar-Ehsan-Loy is quite popular in Bollywood. But, their extensive crooning in the background was inconsequential and jarring. This was a put-down and gave a Bollywood-like effect to an otherwise well crafted movie.

What worked: What made this movie special is the content the movie presents; a pre independence times in India, lead by the group of school students. This true story makes its impact fully when the movie ends because that's when the real revolution became a reality in Chittagong. Well written, acted and directed, also the scores are good. The lead Manoj, Rajkumar and Nawaasuddhin shine as always. What did not work: If I were the makers,maybe I would put some more time depicting the psyche of the revels, especially the leader and also introspective reflections so that the intend became inevitable. Final verdict: recommended

Going through the pages of history I used to think that India is filled with rich historical events and characters yet we hardly see them being made into compelling cinema. While foreign countries have churned great cinema out of their history, India has taken the back-seat. Somehow the interesting historical events are never turned into engaging films barring few. With growing empathy towards our own history the film-makers are showing no interest as market value seems to be turkey. Yet there are people like Bedabrata Pain, a genius Nasa scientist who dared to follow his passion making a great film of courageous men who symbolizes triumph of human spirit.Earlier a film made on similar events by Gowariker(Khelien Hum Jee Jan Se) was naive and childish attempt.

Chittagong uprising is an important incident in Indian freedom struggle led by a school master Surjo Sen. The uprising was of more significance as his army mainly consisted of teenage school students thus making more impact in creating a national uproar. But the film doesn't pivot on Masterda neither it's a homage in memorial of all the martyrs involved in it. Instead it focuses on Jhunku who is narrating his experience of the Chittagong revolution and after getting released from Kalapani how he created a movement involving peasants. The film ends with the footage of real Jhunku (in his early 80s) showing the passion and research work done behind making of the film.Recently no other historical film comes close to Chittagong in terms of authenticity and honesty.

Probably one has seen it in Gowariker's version but Pain's execution brings in layers to the characters. Those revolutionaries were but human it the end. They had weaknesses and fear of failures which are captured with precision. The revolutionaries are portrayed as mortal with strong will power and self-belief. MasterDa's characterization is flawless and the strategic depth in the movement comes out effortlessly through the proceedings. The masterstroke of the screenplay (Co-written by Shonali Bose) is telling the whole story through the eye of a boy named "Jhunku". Through his eyes we build an image of Masterda, NirmalSen, Preetilatha and other revolutionaries of his gang. With people already aware of the fate of Masterda, Jhunku's angle gave a fresh perspective for audience viewing. Brownie points must be given to the writers for showcasing the human side of the British officers. Barry John's character shows inner conflict which is too evident from being a family man. Anurag Aurora as Ahsanaullah & AllexO'neil as Johson depicted sadism with perfection.

Pain excels in his directorial debut. His style of execution should be a lesson to film-makers, even those who are directing for over years but still fails to show any spark. The film gives ray of hope to all of us, that making an honest effort is more important than success or failure. After all leaving NASA to make a film on this uncharted territory speaks volume about the person. Pain also got ample support from his technical team. Eric Zimmerman's cinematography is brilliant. The way he had captured the forest terrains helped the audience to visually stretch back to the era of 1920s. With ample support from teams of Production Design (dependable SamirChanda), Costume design (NeelanjanaGhose) and Art Direction ( AmitRoy) the realistic feel of the freedom struggle is aptly created, reliving those days of uprising. Aldo Velasco's editing deserves mentioning. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music flows with the narrative."Ishaan" -nice composition and with the tragic history behind the song one can't help but to admire the spirit of the director who is an inspiration to many.It's difficult to move ahead with life after such a tragedy.

The film boasts of some finest actors of contemporary cinema. ManojBajpayee fits in as MasterDa and again surprised us with his abilities. NawazuddinSiddiqui is getting is due after a long struggle and showing meteoric rise with meaningful cinema. After GOW, Siddiqui sparkled as Nirmal Sen in this film. He is one of the rare actors of current cinema who can emote with his whole body. RajKumarYadav as Lokenath Bal and Jaideep Ahlawat as Anant Singh are superb. All these four seem to carry the energy of GOW (though Chittagong was shot much before GOW). Delzad Hiwale should be given standing ovation for his portrayal of Jhunku who is awestruck by Masterda and gradually becomes part of the revolution. His transformation from a shaky rich kid to a rebel with a cause has been textured with perfection. Another find of this film is Vega Tamotia who played the role of Preetilata has flawless expressions. Veteran Barry John adds human value to Wilkinson who is serving the queen and at the same time is empathetic to Jhunku. Vijay Verma as older Jhunku leaves good impression. Dibyendu Bhattacharya (last seen as chunni in DevD) is brilliant as Ambika and should get more opportunities in future. Overall the huge supporting cast are as fine tuned as the leading cast.

With people's apathy towards our own history more such Chittagong needs to be made so that we can at least feel pride in something which has been long lost with corruption. Chittagong also reflects triumph of human spirit at every level. Chittagong also boosts such independent film makers to come with their own style and start a new wave in Hindi cinema.Kudos to Anurag Kashyap,Pranay Roy for supporting this brilliant independent cinema which was made 3 years back and got subdued by the biggies of the business.

Immediate Box office might not be huge; but it will go down in the history as a brilliant film that fought all odds to get release.It also shows a new angle to freedom struggle, scanning unknown characters from the page of history books to reality. The film is a must watch for cine-lovers, history-lovers and all who wants to know about bunch of fearless,self-sacrificing young souls who can inject ray of hope to the new generation & helps in becoming strong, righteous characters.