''Guerrilla'' () is a 2011 Bangladeshi

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

film based on the events of the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

. It is an adaptation of the novel ''Nishiddho Loban'' by

Syed Shamsul Huq Syed Shamsul Haq (27 December 1935 – 27 September 2016) was a Bangladeshi writer. He was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1966 (the youngest among all to receive it), Ekushey Padak in 1984 and Independence Day Award in 2000 by the Gover ...

and was released on 14 April 2011. It has been envisioned by the director of the film Nasiruddin Yousuf Bachchu. He has crafted the film ''Guerrilla'' with his own experience as a freedom fighter of 1971.

Plot

On the ominous night of 25 March 1971, a heinous military operation, the

Operation Searchlight Operation Searchlight was a military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the operation on the basis of ant ...

, designed to kill indiscriminately the innocent democracy loving millions, was initiated by the

Pakistan Army The Pakistan Army (, ), commonly known as the Pak Army (), is the Land warfare, land service branch and the largest component of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The president of Pakistan is the Commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the army. The ...

. The hated operation was just the beginning of the worst genocide to follow, a brutal crime against humanity after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. On that very night, Hasan Ahmed, a veteran journalist of the country, husband of Bilkis ( Joya Ahsan), simply vanished while on his way to his newspaper office to perform his journalistic duty. He is untraceable till date. Bilkis was in a banking profession. She started a desperate search for her husband and at the same time got herself engaged as a collaborator to the

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

operations which were gradually gaining momentum. She was not affected by her personal loss and pain, rather, undaunted; she chose the hazardous path to carry on the fight for our liberation. With the guerrilla fighters like Shahadat, Alam, Maya, Kazi Kamal, Fateh Ali and others operating in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, she started participating directly in many dangerous and successful operations. She was in constant touch with

Altaf Mahmud Altaf Mahmud (23 December 1933 – September 1971) was a musician, cultural activist, and martyred freedom fighter of the Bangladesh Liberation War. He was also a language activist of the Language Movement and composer of " Amar Bhaier Rokte Ra ...

, the legendary personality of Bengali Nation's musical arena and scorer of many revolutionary songs. She thus became the central character in the movie, also a target to the enemy. Bilkis, Shahin and many others got involved in the publication of a secret English News bulletin The GUERRILLA, obviously from the underground. Incidentally, at a particular point of time, Taslim Ali Sardar, a traditional Chieftain of the old Dhaka's subsector (Moholla), who courageously sheltered ill-fated Bilkis, got brutally killed by the Pakistani Army and their lackeys--- the hated rajakars. At one point, Altaf Mahmud,

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

, Bodi along with some other freedom fighters were captured. Altaf and few others like him did never return, could never be traced, a tragic fact well known to us today. Bilkis, a lonely character now, could evade the worse, and tactfully leave the labyrinth- like barriers and traps set by the occupational army around Dhaka. She could get into a train to her home, Joleswari, a remote village at

Rangpur Rangpur may refer to: Places In Bangladesh *Rangpur Division, one of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh. *Rangpur District, district of Bangladesh in Rangpur Division. *Rangpur, Bangladesh, metropolis and a major city in northern ...

. The metallic train transforms into a character, a symbolic one, a moving replica designed to depict a catastrophic journey. The parents of Bilkis were killed in the communal riots of January '71 earlier. She just was desperately longing to meet her own brother: Khokon at Joleswari. Khokon was then a commander of the local freedom fighters. Pakistan Army units were on the verge of collapse due to consistent fierce attacks initiated by those fighters. Khokon dynamited a vital railway bridge near Joleswari, interrupting all train movements. She had to reach her brother. Nothing could deter her. She opted to walk. On her way, she got a young vibrant male companion, Siraj, a member of Khokon's fighting group. At one point Khokon was captured by the

. The brutal Army and Rajakar predators slaughtered him along with other captured freedom fighters. Bilkis wanted to have a glimpse of her dead brother, wanted to touch his apparently cold, inert body to feel the warmth of a loving brother, the heat of the fire inside him which no killer could extinguish. Khokon was a living, pulsating symbol of our ongoing freedom fight. She, risking her life, could enter the 'killing fields' of the occupants but was captured immediately by them. Bilkis was captured but she did never surrender to the heinous forces. For her country, for the entire freedom loving humanity, she did set up an example, a glorious one. She does not allow her body, the body of the fledgling Bangladesh, to be molested by the vultures of Pakistan. She blew herself up with explosives, destroying the surrounding mocking dogs in the process.

Cast

Jaya Ahsan Jaya Maswood (born 1 July), popularly known as Jaya Ahsan, is a Bangladeshi film actress, model, producer and playback singer. Starting her career as a model and, later, as a film actress, she works mostly in Bangladeshi and Indian Bengali fil ...

as Bilkish Banu *

Ferdous Ahmed Ferdous Ahmed (born 7 June 1974) is a Bangladeshi film actor, producer, and politician. He served as an MP representing the Dhaka-10 constituency. His work includes '' Hothat Brishti'' (1998), '' Kokhono Megh Kokhono Brishti'' (2003), '' Chan ...

as Hasan Ahmed * Pijush Bandyopaddhay as Anwar Hossain *

Ahmed Rubel Ahmed Reza Rubel (5 October 1968–7 February 2024) was a Bangladeshi theatre, film and Actor, television actor. He started his career in Selim Al Deen's theatre group ''Dhaka Theatre''. Later he concentrated on mainstream commercial cinema, ...

*Russell Farazi as Ebadat Akram Dunia *

Shatabdi Wadud Shatabdi Wadud is a Bangladeshi film and television actor. He won Bangladesh National Film Award in Best Actor in a Negative Role for his role in the film Guerrilla (2011). Career In 1985 Wadud joined a drama club ''Artonad''. He joined theatre ...

as Captain Shamsad / Major Sarfaraj * Shampa Reza as Mrs. Khan *Apurbo Mozumdar as Colonel Taj Khan * Azad Abul Kalam as Tyeb *Shajjad Ahmed as Siraj * Mirana Zaman as Jahanara Begum *Bidushi Bornita as Shawon *

ATM Shamsuzzaman Abu Taher Mohammad Shamsuzzaman (; 10 September 1941 – 20 February 2021), was a Bangladeshi film and television actor, director and screen-playwright. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2015 by the Government of Bangladesh. He won Bangladesh Natio ...

as Taslim Sardar

Production

Development

The production process of the film started from January 2010. State grants play a special role in this regard. Later, Impress Telefilms joined with Ariel Creative Space and made the production more dynamic. Director Nasir Uddin Yusuf finalized the screenplay by revising it with Ebadur Rahman. With the help of character selector and producer Esha Yusuf, he decided the actors and actresses, talked to them about character-time, background-acting etc. Under his guidance, the costume department under the leadership of Shimul Yusuf and the art department under the leadership of Animesh Aich began to be prepared. As per the advice of the director, Military Training Adviser Lt Col (retd) Qazi Sajjad Ali Zaheer, Virpratik continued the training of Pak military. Action-explosion scenes were planned with Atiqur Rahman Chunnu. Finally, after many calculations like shooting schedule, FDC camera booking, Kodak film stock supply with Spark Limited, stay-eat, come-go, make-up, rain machine, crane, trolley, the actual construction work started in May with local and foreign talent.

Filming

Starting from 27th May 2010 sometimes Iskaton of Dhaka, Gulshan, Dhaka University, sometimes Tejgaon industrial area, Dhaka Medical College Morgue, Rajarbagh Police Line, again Panam Nagari of Sonargaon, Dhamrai, Rangpur here and there, Parvatipur of Dinajpur and again Dhamrai, Pubail, Manikganj The shooting ended on the morning of October 26 after exposing 180 cans of film for about 5 months at various locations. However, editing began in the meantime, with Sameer in charge, at Gaon Productions Studios, with all negatives processed at Prasad Labs, Chennai, India. Telecine started coming from there in several stages, editing started here. Meanwhile, Syed Hasan Tipu's recording studio Dream-Desk was prepared for dubbing with various technical additions in consultation with Mumbai-based sound engineer Vinod Subramanian and dubbing started on 9 November 2010. In the meantime, talks are underway with Mumbai's Pixion for digital intermediates and Indranil Roy for visual special effects work. Along with this, Shimul Yusuf's atmospheric music work continues. Then as usual DI, special sound effects and visual effects etc. are completed and the celluloid print comes out from AdLab in Mumbai and the dream is created.

Awards

National Film Awards

''Guerrilla'', won the 2011

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

highest award of the 10 categories.''ইন্ডিপেন্ডেন্ট টেলিভিশন, প্রকাশীত হয়েছেঃ ৮ মার্চ, ২০১৩'
জাতীয় চলচ্চিত্র পুরস্কার প্রদান কাল
''প্রচ্ছদ › বিনোদন, সংগৃহীত হয়েছেঃ ১৩ মার্চ, ২০১৩'' * Best Film – Faridur Reza Sagar, Ibne Hasan and Esha Yusuf (producer) * Best Director –

Nasiruddin Yousuff Nasiruddin Yousuff is a Bangladeshi stage and film director. He won Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Director for the film ''Guerrilla (2011 film), Guerrilla'' (2011). He was awarded Ekushey Padak by the Government of Bangladesh in 2010 fo ...

* Best Screenwriter – Ebadur Rahman, Nasiruddin Yousuff * Best Dialogue – Ebadur Rahman, Nasiruddin Yousuff * Best Actress – Joya Ahsan * Best Villain –

(jointly with Misha Sawdagar for '' Boss Number One'') * Best Editor – Sami Ahmed * Best Art Director –

Animesh Aich Animesh Aich (born 8 February ) is a Bangladeshi filmmaker, director, actor and writer. He is a recipient of one Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Art Direction for his work in the war film ''Guerrilla'' (2011), and has also won a record f ...

* Best makeup man – Md. Ali Babul * Best Clothing and decor –

Shimul Yousuf Shimul Yousuf (born 24 March 1957) is a Bangladeshi actress, director, and singer. In 2023, she was awarded the Ekushey Padak, the second highest award for civilians in Bangladesh. Early life Yousuf was born in Dhaka on 24 March 1957 and is the ...

Meril Prothom Alo Awards

Guerilla received Awards in 4 categories for the Best Bangladeshi Film in the 2011

Meril Prothom Alo Awards The ''Meril-Prothom Alo Awards'', or simply ''Prothom Alo Awards'', is an annual Bangladeshi awards ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in Bangladeshi Film Industry. The awards are divided into two components, Viewers' Choice and Critics ...

. * Best Film (Critics branch) * Best Film Director Award (Nasir Uddin Yusuf) * Best film artist (women) (Jaya Ahsan) * Special Prize ATM Shamsuzzaman * Best Child Actor Bidushi Bornita

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerrilla (2011 Film) 2011 films 2011 war drama films Bengali-language Bangladeshi films Bangladeshi war drama films 2010s Urdu-language films Films based on Bangladeshi novels Films scored by Shimul Yousuf Films based on the Bangladesh Liberation War Films set in 1971 2010s Bengali-language films 2011 drama films Best Film Bachsas Award winners Best Film National Film Award (Bangladesh) winners Films whose writer won the Best Screenplay National Film Award (Bangladesh) Guerrilla warfare in film Impress Telefilm films Jaya Ahsan