During the pandemic, a vaccine booster became a common term. The goal was to boost the immune system’s response to the virus. This week, Vivek Agnihotri injects a booster dose of the cinematic virus he unleashed in The Kashmir Files so people don’t develop immunity to communal politics. Once again, blending a discriminatory version of the past with a myopic view of the present, The Bengal Files not only scratches the wounds of Partition but also punctures them to manipulate emotions.
Steeped in bloodshed and hatred against a community and religion, the film uses cinema as a tool of division. Juxtaposing the current state of affairs in West Bengal with the Calcutta riots of August 1946 following the Muslim League’s call for direct action, followed by the Noakhali riots, the film argues that partition is an unavoidable proposition, stoking widespread fears about demographic change and illegal migration.
Asking whether Bengal is the new Kashmir, the film not only links the two in terms of storytelling, but also seems designed to keep the political pot boiling ahead of state elections, and is not dismissive of whose interests its art seeks to serve.
The Bengal Archives (Hindi)
Director: Vivek Agnihotri
Cast: Darshan Kumar, Saswata Chatterjee, Simrat Kaur, Pallavi Joshi, Mithun Chakravarthy, Anupam Kher
Running time: 205 minutes
Plot: When IPS Shiva Pandit is sent to uncover the mysterious absence of a tribal girl, he hits the wall of Muslim appeasement, which has its roots in the politics of partition.
Emboldened by the box office success of *Kashmir Files* for Vivek, there’s no half-heartedness. It’s like jumping from level 1 to level 3 in a video game. In the riot scenes, he leaves little to the imagination. Heads are decapitated and bodies are ripped apart. His relentless rhetoric against a section of society and the graphic violence seem to fall short of the Central Film Certification’s criteria for a film inciting communal disharmony. The film received an adult certificate, but who can stop the reels from reaching its target audience? Interestingly, the film doesn’t come with a warning that those who record the film during screenings will be fined or prosecuted.
In terms of narrative and cinematic syntax, the film speaks to the audience that embraced The Kashmir Files , and it must be said that Vivek has honed his craft. At three hours, despite the biased perspective and willful distortions, it’s a gripping account of a tumultuous period rarely portrayed in cinema, when the self-interest of the Muslim League leadership plunged the region into chaos and pain.
Shiva Pandit (Darshan Kumar), o protagonista de Os arquivos da Caxemira, Agora é um oficial da IPS que é enviado para encontrar uma garota tribal desaparecida em Murshidabad, onde o mandado do MLA Sardar Hussaini local (Saswata Chatterjee) é grande. Quando Shiva confronta Sardar, seu superior (Puneet Issar) pede que ele se desculpe, pois pode instigar tumultos.
Vivek usa o simbolismo da Mãe Índia para conectar o passado ao presente. Quando Bharti Banerjee (Simrat Kaur/Pallavi Joshi), que carregava o peso dos tumultos da partição, narra sua história, Shiva percebe que Sardar está desfrutando dos frutos da apaziguamento minoritária que foram semeados no momento da partição, atribuindo a migração ilegal na fronteira, criando bancos. É um galope de longa data de uma seção da sociedade, algo que contribuiu para trazer a presente dispensação ao poder. Vivek deu a ele uma forma cinematográfica nítida com a ajuda de performances dramáticas de Darshan, Saswata e Pallavi. Para não esquecer Dibyendu Bhattacharya e Namashi Chakrabarty. O pai de Namashi, Mithun, que também é uma figura política proeminente agora, faz uma aparição atraente para colocar o ponto de vista em contexto.
Se você quer ver além da forte manipulação emocional, Vivek absolve os oficiais britânicos, retrata o Congresso como manso e egoísta e lança membros do Mahasabha Hindu como os salvadores. Está além do plano de estudos que, após os tumultos, o Hindu Mahasabha não pôde garantir o espaço político em Bengala Ocidental. Obviamente, Suhrawardy precisa ser furacada, e Gopal Patha e Rajendralal Roychowdhury merecem um lugar em nossa consciência pública, mas os tempos e personalidades voláteis devem ser colocados em contexto. Eles não podem ser vistos a partir do prisma da política de hoje.
A câmera de Vivek nunca aumenta a família de um muçulmano comum afetado pela violência e coloca uma comunidade inteira na doca para as falhas dos políticos auto-procurados e seus capangas. Falando em autenticidade cultural, Suharwardy aborda o jovem Mujibur Rehman como Mujibur em vez de Mujib. Quando Sardar diz que seu filho Taimur aspira a ser a primeira minoria do país, os escritores esquecem deliberadamente sobre Manmohan Singh.
Using right-wing sources, the film misrepresents Gandhi. In perhaps the most disrespectful portrayal of the Mahatma on screen, Anupam Kher artistically transforms Gandhi into a helpless caricature. Using the cover of ‘Based on true events,’ the filmmakers create their own story around the recorded events. The dialogue between Gandhi and Jinnah sounds like a conversation between Mohan Bhagwat and Asim Munir, where the former talks about how every Indian’s DNA is the same, and the latter explains how Hindus and Muslims are culturally and religiously different. Ma Bharti speaks of a two-faced demon. We are dealing with rulers with forked tongues. She also says what Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow. Past and present intertwine, depending on the perspective. Vivek’s detractors can draw hope from his prediction!
The Bengal Files is currently running in theaters
Published – September 5, 2025 5:39 PM IST
