Chittagong
Year: 2012
Director: Bedabrata Pain
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Delazad Hiwale, Nawazuddin Siddiqi, Vega Tamotia, Alexx O’Nell

To make a period film is never easy and more so if that film is made on a true historic event. The history is full of moving stories, which have not received their fair share of limelight. 1930’s Chittagong revolt is one such overlooked, undervalued event from Indian freedom struggle.

Ashutosh Gowarikar had earlier made a film Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se on the same subject and it was  an underwhelming experience. So is Bedabrata Pain any different as a film-maker in Chittagong?

Plot

In 1930, Surya Sen alias Masterda, a school-master-turned-freedom fighter, formed an armed revolutionary outfit called Indian Republic Army. He was helped in this venture by his colleagues Nirmal Sen, Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Bal and Pritilata Waddedar. Most of the recruits of this group were teenaged students, one of whom was Subodh Roy alias Jhunku, a rich lawyer’s son, who looked up to Masterda as his mentor.

On 18^th April 1930, the revolutionaries staged a surprise attack and took control of Chittagong’s armoury. Cutting off the telegraph, telephone and railway lines, they made sure that the British in Chittagong wouldn’t be able to get immediate help from Kolkata. For one day, Chittagong was out of British control and under Indian flag!

Some miscalculations and the obvious mismatch in the military might meant that this revolt could not lead to a more sustained, significant revolution. Yet the daredevil freedom fighters continued their armed struggle through guerilla warfare for the next few years. One by one, they either got killed or captured by the British. Many of them (including Jhunku) were sentenced to life imprisonment in Andaman and Masterda was sentenced to death.

Their armed revolt and their brief victory remain glorious chapters in Indian history.

The film

Beginning with a flashback, Chittagong takes a while to get going but then turns into an engrossing tale of patriotism and daredevilry. Bedabrata Pain’s strength as a director is his subtle, understated style. The beautiful cinematography; imaginative framing/lighting of the scenes; era-specific costumes/language and Shankar-Ehsan-Loy’s superb music- everything gels together to create the perfect period feel.

Among the many memorable performances, Manoj Bajpai’s Masterda, Delazad Hiwale’s Jhunku, Nawazuddin Siddiqi’s Nirmal Sen, Alexx O’Nell’s British magistrate and Vega Tamotia’s Pritilata leave a special mark.

Verdict

Bedabrata Pain’s Chittagong is something else compared to Gowarikar’s surprisingly amateurish Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se. It is one of the finest period/historical films made by an Indian film-maker. It tells an inspiring, soul-stirring historical tale as it should and does that without falling into the trap of jingoism.

That it failed badly at the box-office does not detract anything from Chittagong’s cinematic merits. It just reflects on the ‘Entertainment-Entertainment-Entertainment’-centric approach of the audiences!