A scene from the film.

After days of eager anticipation, film lovers here got to see promising young director Redoan Rony's debut feature film “Chorabali”. Released on December 21, the Screen House Entertainment production has already rocked the box office.
The action thriller begins abruptly with the kidnapping of Noboni (Joya Ahsan) by Sumon (Indraneil Sengupta) and then slowly goes back to unveil the mystery of this kidnapping and unmask the local godfather Osman (Shahiduzzaman Selim). Also featuring ATM Shamsuzzaman, Sohel Rana, Iresh Zaker, Hillol and Piya, “Chorabali” is a commercial film with a difference.
It recounts the story of the protagonist's forced entry into the world of crime; sucked into a quicksand (chorabali) of the underworld the conscience-driven thug struggles to get out of this vicious circle. Indraneil is, however, somewhat overshadowed by Shahiduzzaman Selim's incredibly powerful performance, crafty dialogues and gestures. It appears as if the Bangladeshi filmdom has found a worthy successor to Humayun Faridee in villainous roles.
Indian actor Indraneil impressed the audience with his strong portrayal of the male protagonist, while the gorgeous Joya Ahsan, playing a vociferous crime reporter seems slightly off at times, specially with the weakly and unnecessarily thrown out English lines. Among the supporting actors, ATM Shamsuzzaman plays an important role as smoothly as ever, while Sohel Rana, Iresh Zaker and Hillol have brief appearances. Piya, a model who plays a small but significant role, is feeble in her delivery, and remains unconvincing throughout her act.
“Chorabali's” music (directed by Hridoy Khan) is obviously a strong suit as well. Ayub Bachchu's “Carefully Careless”, Anupam Roy and Nancy's duet “Chorabali Ghirey Dhorey” are the songs that stand out of the seven featured in the soundtrack. Redoan Rony has done well to have the soundtracks in the background rather than the actors singing and dancing them out. Except for an item song that went rather wayward, the music, and the exceptionally well-composed background scores, fit in very well.
The best thing about “Chorabali” would probably be its surprisingly good cinematography. Khair Khandoker has excelled in camera work. Superb use of the depth of field, amazing takes of night scenes, brilliant lighting, perfect colour treatment and careful handling of small details make the film gripping. Add to that a robust script and impressive dialogues written by Redoan Rony himself, and you have a must-watch.
“Chorabali” is clearly a simple story, told precisely and boldly by a young director. A number of TV directors have recently made entry into the big screen, and ended up producing “weak” material, but Rony has came out of the typical tele-film straightjacket and presented to the audience an out and out commercial movie, with the right amount of entertainment and cleverly-plotted twists, while not sacrificing quality.
“Chorabali” is playing to full houses and promises to do so for a while -- proof enough that it has gone down exceedingly well across the strata of society.