Vivek Agnihotri's ‘The Bengal Files’ Movie Review: Pallavi Joshi, Saswata Chatterjee shine in an overtly lengthy film

Language: Hindi and Bengali

Director: Vivek Agnihotri

Cast: Pallavi Joshi, Mithun Chakraborty, Simratt Kaur Randhawa, Anupam Kher, Saswata Chatterjee, Namashi Chakraborty, Puneet Issar, Darshan Kumar, Mohan Kapor and more

The stories shown in The Bengal Files are unheard of for many of our generation.  Agnihotri’s The Files trilogy shows the turbulent events of 1946 Bengal — from the Great Calcutta Killings and Direct Action Day to the Noakhali riots. Some of us must have read in history books or heard about these explosive and unsettling stories from our grandparents.

Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s directorial, _The Bengal Files_ will make your stomach turn because of the way the random killing of Hindus has been shown. Agnihotri is known to be thorough with his research. The film highlights the massacre of Hindus in Bengal. What the film lacked was proper execution, though the idea was good. The film is well-meaning, but not well-executed.

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Set against the blood-soaked backdrop of West Bengal’s violent political past, one needs to be really strong to watch the mass massacre of lives of the Hindus in Bengal. In the words of Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the film  shows the ‘brutal Hindu genocide’. The research of the film is brilliant, but some how Agnihotri needs to understand that the narrative needed to be immersive and most importantly aesthetically done.

The idea was good, but could have been done in an aesthetic way. The cinematography, the storytelling, the dialogues, the graphics and even the way the story was stitched together could have been done in a better way. The continuous going back to the past and then coming to the present -time Kolkata was a bit confusing.

The film stars National Award-winning actress Pallavi Joshi, veteran legend Mithun Chakraborty. But the stand-out performance, though short, was of  Saswata Chatterjee. He has shown how a Muslim politician maintains a dual image. At home he is modern, but when he is outside of the four walls of his house, he is seen wearing a white cap and dresses up conservatively. He is a so-called bhodrolok who is well-read and he is a family man too, but on the other side he molests, rapes and then kills Hindu women from any age group who has a voice. We all know what a brilliant craftsman Saswata is and how he is skilled at playing dual characters. Here, his performance is absolutely top-notch.

Anupam Kher as Gandhiji, we get to know the other side of his character. Pallavi Joshi has nailed the role of Ma Bharti, an old woman who has experienced the atrocities of the Muslims of Bengal and has lost her entire family in the Great Calcutta Killing. She now suffers from short-term memory loss, but her memories of her younger days are fresh in her mind. She has done full justice to the role.

But one who failed us again is Darshan Kumar – starting from his dialogue delivery, to his expressions are absolutely atrocious. It looks like he is trying too hard, but is unable to perform. He literally doesn’t feel the character or has got into the skin of the character.  The Bengal Files is indeed a gripping story, but the execution could have been better and I wish the film was stitched better and edited properly so that we didn’t have to sit through three and half hours and come out with a heavy heart. In brief the film could have been crisp and the message could have been easily delivered in not more than just two hours or even less. The major drawback of the film is that the characters are not comprehensively written and the only two memorable members of the cast are Saswata Chatterjee and Pallavi Joshi.

Rating: 2 out of 5

WATCH the trailer of The Bengal Files here: