The latest movie in the genre of realistic Bollywood movies 2025 is here. It’s The Bengal Files, which shows the riots that broke out between the Hindus and Muslims in 1946 before the partition of India. It is a hard-hitting movie just like the previous movies of director Vivek Agnihotri. The movie has Anupam Kher portraying Gandhi, who is happy that the British have declared independence for India. But Muhammad Ali Jinnah(Rajesh Hera) wants Bengal to be partitioned. As a result of his instigation, riots broke out in Bengal in 1946.
This movie shows all the atrocities heaped on Hindus. The movie also has Pallavi Joshi in a critical role.
Out of all the Bollywood movies 2025, this one seems to be a particularly controversial movie.
The movie shows one day in particular, 16th August 1946(Direct Action Day), when there were communal riots in Bengal. Many regions of Bengal had been affected by these riots. On this day, the All India Muslim League decided to escalate its demand to declare East Bengal as a separate province. They used strikes to show their anger. They also began massacring Hindus living in West Bengal to force their eviction. ‘
The film also shows the bravery of Gopal Patha(Sourav Das), who led the Hindus against the Muslims after they had been attacking Hindus since 16th August 1946. He made sure Hindus defended themselves against such attacks since 18th August 1946. If he had not been successful, Muslims under the guidance of the then Prime Minister of Bengal, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, played by Mohan Kapur in the movie, would have forced all Hindus to leave West Bengal. In that case, the entire Bengal would have consisted of Muslims and converted into the erstwhile East Pakistan or now Bangladesh.
The exact number of people who died in this week-long violence is not available.
Around 4000-10000 people died in these riots. The movie is gruesome with its background of riots and requires some patriotic feelings to watch it. Anupam Kher has given a great performance as Mahatma Gandhi. The movie shows that the Britishers had sent a 1946 Cabinet Mission to India to decide about the transfer of power. It had been proposed that some states be divided into a group of provinces. But Nehru had rejected this plan in his speech on 10 July 1946, which angered Jinnah and led to the riots on 16th August. These riots were held as a consequence of Jinnah demanding a separate country for Muslims in the eastern and northwestern parts of India. Today, the northeastern part of India is known as Pakistan, and the eastern part of Bengal is Bangladesh. This movie also has Darshan Kumar playing a CBI cop investigating these riots.
