Film as a form of art has not really found a stable ground beneath its feet in Bangladesh. Since it is one of the more expensive of the art forms, there is always the target to reap returns, and in a market as small as ours, producers are often not brave enough to let a director run with an untried idea.
Unlike most visual storytellers here, Amit Ashraf has actually studied dramatic writing at a university famed for its creative arts programmes -- NYU. “Udhao” is his brainchild; Amit has written the story, screenplay and directed it.
The film -- in a nutshell -- is a story of two men: Babu, a school-van puller by day and some sort of vigilante by night, brings back absconding men to their families and Akbar is a gold trader-turned-budding politician. His shady (figuratively and literally, because he's almost always wearing shades), loyal sidekick, Raj, and a foxy streetwalker, Mita, complete the rest of the central cast.
Without giving any spoilers, (because the film opens in theatres tomorrow), there are quite a few big positives about “Udhao”, spread quite evenly across the story-board. The first is camerawork. Throughout the film, there are numerous impressions that this director has studied and been influenced by films and filmmakers of the West. The mise en scène is very technical; from the shaky handheld close-cut of a tense scene to the edge-distorted first-person flashback to the time-lapse of crossing boats on a river jetty to the top-shot of the chase sequences, the gorgeous ultra-wide drive-through of a single car on the beach-side or the darkened shadow-lines in the jungle, this film boasts an abundance of brilliant cinematography. The background scores are also spot-on; be it use of piano-backed suspense track or the melancholic dotara, the scores have been done with care. The two rap numbers, meanwhile, did not fit in at all.
The casting was solid. Shahed Ali was consistent in his role, while Shakil Monir Ahmed also picked up his game after being initially underwhelming. Animesh Aich did a splendid job to have left his mark with the screen-time he had, while Nawshaba's performance was credible too.
The negatives? There were a few. Place-setting and continuity were off in the film at a number of places; the story seemed incoherent at times. The dialogues were shockingly flat; this film could have flied through the roof in the hands of a good scriptwriter. The subtitles were seemingly done by a rookie, which is a shame.

The best -- and for the same reason, the worst -- thing about the film was how much the director tried to do with one film. Despite being a suspense thriller, it had a bucketful of surrealistic elements (some of them stunningly executed, while some struggled). Emotional ties and the intricacy of relationships were woven throughout, while looking back after the end, it could also have been a monomyth. It was like five common-plot shorts by a director were dropped in a (film)-cooking pot and brought to boil.
In essence, what Amit Ashraf did was brave; it was slightly alienated from the quintessential Bangladeshi narrative, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. The lack of finesse in places can also be forgiven on excuse of this being his directorial debut. While “Udhao” is a big mixed bag, this director is certainly one to be kept on the radar.

Verdict:
“Udhao” is definitely worth spending a few hundred bucks on. Do check it out on the big screen with friends (preferably not family or kids, though; the film shows consumption of cigarettes and alcohol, some graphic violence and use of obscene language).