Capturing Chittagong | Under Lens

Talking about Period Cinema, how many good films we have? Well a couple of docudramas woven around Gandhi, Bhagat Singh and Sardar might inspire a few eyebrows, it fails to hide out inability of making good period cinema. Our fetish of charm waste great opportunities in hand. Be it a story of Akbar with six packs or epic facepalm Rudraksh. The closest we had was a story of a villager taking on Brits in their game and beat them black and blue. It was a good period film if can keep aside some elements. Anyways, an Oscar nomination can negate any reservations I have.

Last year, the same man Ashutosh Gowarikar made a movie ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey’  with Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone in lead role. To be fair to Ashutosh, it was a good effort. Nobody can doubt his sincerity. But it takes more than just sincerity to bake a cake. KHJJS turned out to be a movie that had enough to offer but in all wrong way. It had an amazing story that was stretched beyond the acceptable limit. The bunch of actors chosen turned out to be of paper-thin quality given the intensity required. Music failed to click. Perhaps art direction and cinematography were only take away.

Last time this story was captured on celluloid, it was in 1949 in a Bengali movie Chattagram Astragar Lunthan. This year, the story will be revisited. Bedabrata Pain’s Chittagong is ready to make an impact. A star cast that boasts of Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vega Tamotia (lead actress in Pasanga – Tamil), Jaideep Ahlawat and Barry John can inspire a few smiles. From what I have heard, movie has received favorable reviews from different film festivals. The difficult thing will be to convert it into box office appreciation.  

On a side note: Nawaz is on roll... Kahaani, Paan Singh Tomar, GOW and GoW2, Miss Lovely, Chittagong, Shoebite and Talaash. 2012 is his year, for sure.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh