I was really excited when the film was announced to be released. For being my native land, Chittagong is the city where I always belong to. Since our childhood, we worship great sons of our soil where Masterda Surya Sen is the greatest of all. The man and his disciples were legend of our history as well as the history of India Independence Movements. Masterda took the way to fight against British colony not only for Chittagong but he dreamt the freedom of the whole motherland, the undivided India. So, he is the hero of all India. I respect the Director Ashutosh Gowariker for his previous films, mostly the historical. So, my expectations were a little bit high for this film, which is the actual tale of our landscape. But I felt disappointing after watching it. I'll not comment on the location and landscapes where the shooting was done. Although Goa and Chittagong - both cities are with mountains and sea, but were not similarly toned in term of geographical and natural approaches. I don't know whether there were any research or documentation of the real place, structures or not but what we saw in the film, not familiar to me. The story of romance , love, passion within Surya Sen, Kalpana Dutt, Pritilata , Nirmal Sen were not heard by us in the historical books and documentations available in our country, some were also published from Calcutta, India. We read a very authentic book (published in Chitttagong ) on the Chittagong Armory Raid, named "Chittagong on Independence Movement", by Purnendu Dastidar. He was the partisan of Surya Sen, rebel and witness of the all significant events of Chittagong Uprising in 1930s. I met the person who is still alive Mr. Binod Bihary Chowdhury ( this year he is 103 years old) who was recruited by Masterda himself as rebel and he was wounded at the 'war of Jalalabad Hill'. Their slogan to free the motherland was 'Do and Die'. Masterda had chosen the word for desperately dedicating the life instead of 'do or die'. I know, the film is based on the book named with same title 'Do and Die' by Manini Chetarjee but I don't know where the events were found. I was hoping Mr. Binod would be invited at the premiere of the Cinema, because he is the last man standing who witnessed the actual event. Usually,no director will want to miss the chance at the moment of presenting the Story with its true participant. But Mr. Binod Bihari was ignored. May be, they have their reason.
The spirit and the patriotism were very present in the movie along with the glamour. But the history failed to enter in the visual contexts. And for the cast: whoever sees the Abhishek as Masterda, will understand the greater distance between the truth and the fiction. My views are not intended to hurt anybody,but my cries are for seeing our legend tale has been wasted at professional industrial hands.
The spirit and the patriotism were very present in the movie along with the glamour. But the history failed to enter in the visual contexts. And for the cast: whoever sees the Abhishek as Masterda, will understand the greater distance between the truth and the fiction. My views are not intended to hurt anybody,but my cries are for seeing our legend tale has been wasted at professional industrial hands.