Art and politics are intrinsically linked to each other. Both are significant contributors to society and history. Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri has successfully built a movie franchise by marrying art with politics. His ‘The Files’ franchise began with The Tashkent Files in 2019 and in 2025 we’ve got the third entry – The Bengal Files. This movie chronicles key historical moments from West Bengal from the time of the British Raj. It recreates crucial chapters from history like Direct Action Day, Noakhali Riots and more to highlight the suffering that Hindus were subjected to at the hands of communal rioters and radicalist leaders. The sensational approach of this franchise has found great interest from the movie-watching audience and The Bengal Files serves up more from the same formula. There’s lots of gore and political drama on offer from this dark-side of West Bengal’s dark history. The highlight are performances by Pallavi Joshi, Simratt Kaur and Saswata Chatterjee.

The story kick starts in the months before India’s partition as events lead up to Direct Action Day in 1946. Simultaneously, the narrative jumps forward to present times, when CBI officer Shiva (Darshan Kumar) is assigned to investigate the case of a missing dalit girl in Bengal. The prime suspects in this case are Sardar (Saswata Chatterjee) and Ma Bharati (Pallavi Joshi). The story keeps jumping back to 1946-47 as a young Bharati (Simratt Kaur) and Amar (Eklavya Sood) square off with Ghulam (Namashi Chakraborty) as events lead up to India’s partition. Both timelines highlight the Hindu-Muslim discord in Indian society across a span of 80-odd years. Ma Bharati references and old Bengali tale of a rakshas that transforms between God and monster depending on how it wants to fool people. She explains to Shiva that this is the true face of politics and society. They juggle between evil and pious depending on how they want to manipulate the public. As this thought plays through The Bengal Files, we see the two main antagonists; Ghulam in 1946 and Sardar in modern times, become mirrors of each other. Both courting chaos to create Hindu-Muslim discord in society.

These are the stronger aspects of Vivek Agnihotri’s film and screenplay. As Pallavi Joshi embodies her character’s multi-decade ordeal, she perfectly portrays the horrors a common person has to endure when they’re caught in the Hindu-Muslim conflicts fuelled by political leaders and radicals. Even though Joshi has limited screen time, her character, the backstory and moments of high-drama allow the actress to give a phenomenal performance. Scenes that feature Joshi are the veritable highlights of The Bengal Files. Simratt Kaur, plays the younger Bharati with great range too. She’s able to portray a wide range of emotions with great effect. Watching her suffer through the riots and hold her dignity through persecution is fantastic. Coupled with the two antagonists – played by Namashi Chakraborty in the past and Saswata Chatterjee in modern times – creates an ideal dramatic arc for the film.

But those moments are also accompanied by long-drawn, choreographed scenes of rioting and abject violence. These scenes are extremely difficult to watch because they’re graphic in nature. The technical finesse in cinematography (Attar Singh Saini) and production design (Rajat Poddar) is very good. But the fact that these scenes try to push the communal angle above authenticity just doesn’t work in favour of the film. Also, at 3 hours and 25 minutes long, The Bengal Files feels too long and too laborious. Perhaps editor Shashank Rajadhyaksha and director Agnihotri could have trimmed out some scenes in favour of retaining a more impactful cut.

Casting also seems to be a hit and miss aspect of The Bengal Files. While Joshi, Kaur and Saswata Chatterjee are the highlights, Eklavya Sood and Darshan Kumar don’t quite fit their characters all that well. Anupam Kher playing Gandhi delivers a very strong performance and so does Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Rajendralal Rowchowdhury. Sourav Das as the Hindu leader Patha has a phenomenal scene with Kher as Gandhi. Their stand off is a veritable high, but then Patha’s character just disappears.

Vivek Agnihotri opts for hightened drama by taking cinematic liberties and that doesn’t always pay off. While the rest of the film plays on authenticity, moments like splitting a character’s body into two by pulling him in two directions with motorcycles feels a little too outrageous to be true. The Bengal Files has its moments of true high drama but those are diluted as the screenplay leans into vilifying the minorities and amplifying the ‘anti-Pakistan’ sentiment a little too often.

Like the franchise’s previous two entries – The Tashkent Files and The Kashmir Files – this latest installment creates engaging moments based on lesser-known chapters from history. These are important and relevant conversations and the fact that Agnihotri and his team are highlighting these facts is great. But the storytelling choices and the oft-forced narrative elements end up hampering the authenticity and dramatic punch of the movie. Watch this if you’ve liked and enjoyed the previous movies from this franchise. But if you’re a stickler for historical accuracy, you might not agree with everything that The Bengal Files portrays.

This article first appeared on Filmfare

📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC

Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting