Chittagong
- Director
- Bedabrata PainDaily Pioneer
- Studio
- Feature film soundtrack| genre =
- Release Date
- 11 October 2012
- Running Time
- 105 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹4.50 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹0.31 Cr
Review
Rituparno Ghosh's "Chittagong" swings wildly between ambitious historical drama and mawkish coming-of-age melodrama, never quite finding solid ground on either front. The period detail is commendable, and there's genuine pathos in the central conflict—a fourteen-year-old boy caught between his father's pragmatism, British civility, and revolutionary fervor. But the narrative meanders desperately, jumping between timelines without urgency or clarity, and the performances feel theatrical in all the wrong ways. Devjani Chatterjee and the supporting cast mouth their lines with earnestness that borders on parody, while the direction lacks the visual or emotional rigor needed to make this material sing. A film about young idealists rebelling against empire should crackle with tension; instead, it feels stuffy and unfocused.
The real tragedy here is wasted potential. The Chittagong Armoury Raid is genuinely compelling history—Masterda Surya Sen was a fascinating figure—yet the screenplay reduces him to a peripheral figure in what becomes Jhunku's therapy session. Every beat feels overstated, every emotional moment undercooked. The film asks profound questions about complicity, loyalty, and conscience but answers them with heavy-handed dialogue and predictable plot beats. You leave the theatre having learned nothing new about either the historical moment or the human condition, which is damning for a period drama.
Rating: 4/10
Storyline
So basically, this movie takes you back to 1930s Bengal during British rule, when this inspiring teacher named Masterda Surya Sen decided to lead a bunch of young students and girls in this crazy rebellion against the British Empire. It's set in Chittagong, and the whole thing follows this shy fourteen-year-old kid named Jhunku who gets pulled into this dangerous mission even though he's super uncertain about everything.
The story jumps around a bit — we first see older Jhunku running from police and hiding out with his childhood friend Aparna, and then it flashes back ten years to show you how he got caught up in all this revolutionary business. Back then, Jhunku was dealing with a lot of internal conflict because his father, who's a lawyer, wanted him studying abroad in England instead of getting involved in protests. Plus, he really looked up to a British magistrate named Wilkinson and his wife, which made him believe maybe the British system could actually be fair if he just educated himself properly.
The core of the story is really about Jhunku being torn between two worlds — his friends and peers who were inspired by Masterda's fearless leadership, and the adults he respected who represented the British establishment. He had to figure out where he actually stood while battling his own doubts and insecurities. It's basically a coming-of-age tale set against this incredible historical moment when ordinary young people decided to stand up against a massive empire.
