THE BENGAL FILES 2025
by
Vivek Agnihotri
The Bengal Files suffers from inordinate ambition married to poor screenplay. The director had the most powerful story at his disposal but so stretched the narrative and confused everything in the process that the film becomes an unending drag. Umang Kumar playing an IPS as the main protagonist does not have star value. He is quite frozen to actually sway the audience. Saswata Chatterjee as the main antagonist is marvellous. His powerful presence just blows away everything else.
Vivek managed to cast a great Gopal Patha. Sourav Das has done justice to the role. Patha's essence is well-captured. His scene with Gandhi could have hit more if Anupam Kher had been a tad more sincere in his role. AK does not come across as Gandhi of late 40s- sick, tired, lonesome. He rather walks with verve and has too much glow on his face. It is a very bad casting. That said, Direct Action Day's objectives and how the balance turned during the riots could have been better portrayed. In his desperation to show the continuity between 1940s and the present, the director lost the plot. Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Priyanshu Chatterjee have done well. Mohan Kapur has set the done as Suhrawardy. If only the film had narrowed down its focus to Suhrawardy, Gopal Patha, Mujibur and INC including Gandhi, and linked DAD with Badr etc, this would have turned out to be a classic.
Weak performances from Anupam, Pallavi Joshi, Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumar, Eklavya Sood and Simrat Kaur do not help the cause. It is a tragedy that Vivek Agnihotri could not handle well this immensely important topic.
#thebengalfiles #vivekagnihotri #gopalpatha #anupamkher #saswatachatterjee #Z5
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