Chittagong

Story: Jhunku Roy joins Surya Sen's youth-brigade against the British - will he be free?

Movie Review: Who is your master? Someone who teaches you? Someone who rules you? Or your own inner voice? Chittagong answers this in sensitive style, following Jhunku Roy, the 14-year-old boy-soldier in schoolteacher Surya Sen's historical 1930s uprising against the British. Born to privilege, Jhunku is torn between studying at Oxford and being tutored by District Magistrate Wilkinson (John) versus discovering his own inner self. When his friend is shot dead by vicious Inspector Johnson, Jhunku chooses to join Chittagong's freedom struggle.

Hiwale performs marvelously as Jhunku. Film aficionados will spot the subtle resonances between Hiwale's protagonist and Aparajito's young Apu. But Jhunku is not alone - with a super performance by Siddiqui as Nirmal and Tamotia competent as Priti, Chittagong showcases the courage of extraordinary ordinary folk, fighting against a cruel Raj. Bajpayee presents a tightly restrained performance as 'Master-da' while John captures Wilkinson, trapped between anger and admiration.

The camerawork is remarkable, framing locales like a Japanese painting, hills wreathed in mist, mangroves sunk in water, a Van Gogh-like patchwork of green and yellow fields. It even reflects why the Andaman imprisonment was called 'kala pani' through shots of hopelessly dark waters. The music hops nimbly between yearning and rousing and some sequences - child soldiers fighting machine gun-bearing British troops, Jhunku beaten savagely by British officers in jail - are memorable.

The editing is over-zealous though. Barely do scenes with eye-catching period details start developing - like a tense dinner party at the Wilkinsons' - do they get cut. It takes the second half for the film to show more swagger as Jhunku grows up (played by Vijay Varma, whose angular looks add interest) and returns to Chittagong.

This is a serious film - but far from somber, a tongue-tied Nirmal blushingly telling Priti, "Mujhe tumhare pyaar karne ki - matlab, larne ki shiddat bahut pasand hai," the brigade's youthful high spirits including stripping British guards and making them do utthak-baithak, and finally, the real 'Jhunku' or Subodh Roy talking about his life's most amazing experience. Like a Chittagong orchid, the movie takes time to blossom - but when it does, it's beautiful. And pleases a certain master.