Koushik Das Its Unfortunate for us that a perfectly made revolutionary Indian film like this went underrated n less hyped.This film is definitely way better than most other melodramatic movies based on Indian Freedom Movememt.This very film consists of the last phase of Indian Freedom Struggle.A soulful tribute to our beloved MasterDa i.e. Surya Kumar Sen,1st Female Martyr of Indian National Movement Pritilata Waddedar,Nirmal Sen etc. n their freedom struggle including revolutionary Chittagong Armoury Raid (1930 AD) n Pahartali European Club Attack(1932 AD).but,this Patriotic drama film mainly focused on the life of Subodh Roy,the youngest rebel to send Andaman for imprisonment n later he lead the Tebhaga Uprising (1945 AD) against the British in Bengal.I convey immense respect to all of them.Hats Off to the director Mr.Bedabrata Pain,Producer Anurag Kashyap n all the cast n crew specially including Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkumar Rao n that young boy who played young Subodh Roy n all others for making such an Inspiring,Strong n Remarkable film in every aspects! What a film! Splendid! Loved it to the core.

bobbysing 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".

kaustavthegodfather Yes, the film is about the independence movement in the last stage. A stage where civil disobedience movement and "bharat choro andolan" has hit the high note. In it's backdrop Bedabarat Pain articulates together the lives of a few revolutionaries from eastern Bengal struggling for independence against a ruthless British empire.Like all Indian independence related movies this one is also a 'biographic' way of showing the film.It is a genre cliché of all independence movies that heroism should prevail in order to ring bells of protest among the audience.It's the main story of Jhunku alias Subhendu Roy a 14 year old teenager who influenced by the Master Surya Sen and troupe to join and fight for the cause of independence. Surya Sen, acts as his mentor for uprising preparing him mentally and keeping up the challenge of becoming a rebel by training him in akhadas (body building gyms of yonder days) and by giving proper training in armaments regiment in the dense jungles where police patrols are not prominent.In this process the story becomes a two-fold. The early part detailing the struggles of Master da Surya Sen, Nirmal Chandra Sen (both now consider great martyrs of the Indian Independence movement) Lokenath Baal, Anant Singh, Gonesh Ghosh, Sukhendu Chakraborty, Ahasanullah, Binob Behari and several others trying to capture the Chittagong regiment by by making a coup-de-tat on the Chittagong Arms cantonment and striking the European club so as to strike terror in the hearts of the colonialists. The later part of the cinema shows the gruesome struggle of the leaders of members of the partisan group. The struggle is intermittently present through out, the second half shows that one required nerves of steel to stand up in those times. While attacking the arms forgery and police quarters to seize arms Surya Sen instructs his younger comrades to do only the needful and not make a bloodbath out of the enemy, but the same rule won't apply for them when are caught. The real issue of the cinema was to highlight the point that one doesn't require a lot expertise militancy to overthrow a government following a coup-de-tat. Surya Sen and his fellow comrades had done that just a by a mere bunch of inexperienced locally trained under-aged guerrillas. Vietnam war was famous for using the guerrilla warfare techniques but I think our Vietnamese counterparts may have taken cue from our Indian Independence warfare struggles where the britishers were ambushed in the dense jungles and beaten despite having more artillery and man-power. Speaking of execution I would praise it in a thematic level. The story line was well adept and it didn't go overboard to entail it. Overtly romanticism was avoided in order to make it less focused on individual lives and more on the nucleus of the struggle. Manoj Bajpai's portrayal of Surya sen was calm and cool leader was good. It was pro-physical archetype of depiction. Though there is a bit laughable sequence where Jhunku is shown reading a letter in Bengali but the pronunciation is in Hindi. It's hard to guess on whether it was a deliberate attempt or had the director forgot to edit that portion. Speaking of the camera-work it was very good and impressive. The color tone was rightly adjusted in this cinema. If one looks closely the camera focuses on from top and slowly coming down to reveal on the earthly matters going down. This could be seen as making a visualized suggestion of the endeavor being a noble effort above this mortal world. The sound mixing is very poor and left me disappointed at moments. At times the speaker would crackle so loudly that it was having an electrical problem. Sounds from the background felt unreal and was a dubious dubbing effort. All said but the real star of this film shall be Bedabrata Pain. Being an eminent scientist himself, he decided to make a film on shoe-string budget detailing the painful tasks taken by our freedom fighters against an empire. In a way the film reflects pain own painful task of directing,producing and marketing the film against a heartless and plastic bollywood cheap selling empire. In a way it deserves praise. In a way I hope he sticks around and makes another independent film which can amaze us. I think every Indian irrespective of class and society should see this movie and also show it their children. Children often complain that history is boring, I am sure that after seeing Chittagong most children would gleefully go through their history books in order to know more about their leaders and the sacrifices they made for the motherland. Strangely this film was also dedicated to Pain's own child who died of an accident 2 years early. I wish that independent films like these find more success and more audience so that the filmmakers would get rewarded for their honest efforts in good films to cater to the masses.

arupmandal1983 Almost nothing outrageous happens throughout the film.Even the armoury raid takes only about 10 minutes in the 105 minutes long film that too pre-interval.And thats the beauty of Chittagong, which depicts this forgotten tale (outside Bengal) so efficiently through silences,emotions and expressions.The honesty involved in making the film, touches you deep down and makes you forget the few flaws here and there.Manoj Bajpayee,Nawazuddin Siddiqui,Jaydeep Ahlawat,Raj Kumar Yadav all shine again after GOW and are aptly supported by Dibyendu Bhattacharya,Shaheb Bhattacharya,Anubrata and others.But its Delzad Hiwale as young Jhunku (loved him in Bubble Gum) and Vega Tamotia as Preetilata who stand out and make the deepest marks.Eric Zimmerman's camera is beautiful to say the least.Bedabrata Pain has really surprised with the maturity in execution,treatment and tight cholesterol free screenplay.Leaving apart the personal tragic story behind or his identity as a NASA scientist,Chittagong judged only in its own merit scores higher than most films on Indian freedom revolution.This definitely requires more screenings,viewings and word of the mouth publicity.