Bhubaneswar: After Kashmir Files and the blunt projection of Hindu-Muslim propaganda, mass killings of the Kashmiri pandits and the doctored narratives followed by it, Vivek Agnihotri is going to bring us another blatant piece of story named the Bengal Files.
The previous one had hurt the sentiments of many muslims, political leaders and leftist but this one might just haunt us for times to come. This movie is going to be disturbing as well as destructive as per the maker himself.
There are many subjects in our country which are tabooed and refrained to be discussed openly. These are considered taboos because everyone is frightened to talk about it. So the purpose of making such films or choosing such subjects is to eradicate that fear from the minds of people to speak up openly about the subjects that needed to be discussed and talked about.
This is a trilogy film. Our national emblem is of three lions which indicates the three lions are the protectors of democracy in India. The three lions are the three pillars of democracy, right to truth, right to justice and right to life. Film maker Vivek Agnihotri says, the trilogy of truth, justice and life includes three films made by him. The is The Tashkent Files, which projects right to truth. Second is The Kashmir Files that is on right to justice and the third is the upcoming film The Bengal Files based on right to life. But there is the fourth lion on the national Emblem which is the people of India which is always hidden and silent. Most of the time the fourth pillar is overlooked, taken for granted and ignored.
Cinema is for expressing and impressing the people, so it becomes a sole responsibility of the artists to convey the message with responsibility not spread any doubt, wrong information and propaganda regarding any matter. Coming to the ideology part, there are different political ideologies cross path each passing moment with every single issue. Movies also depict those ideologies widely with different
subjects it is based on. But often it is seen people tend to change their ideology in the basis of power play, business, self- interest etc. Most of the times it is seen that the ideologies and narratives are built then propagated only inside the conference halls, media studios, debates amongst the elite sections. Without realizing that maximum number of population who consist the real heart of the country are the
middle class, poor, working class sections. How is it certain that the ideologies stressed within the elite forums are the true mind-set of the whole India. There is a deep seated hypocrisy in people. Everything operates according to the business and politics, be it a film personality, journalists, sports, industrialists.
The Bengal Files movie is based on the Noakhali genocide in Bengal in 1946. When we talk about partition, the image of riots, train burning, mass killings in Punjab comes in front of our eyes. We should think why there no image of Bengal? Where as the roots of partition was in Bengal. Bengal is the only state in India where partition occurred for three times, 1905, 1947, 1971. The fourth partition will occur if we won’t get a grip of the situation now. The film is thrusting upon this aspect.
Bengal has had an unimaginable contribution in the making of India and the history states the Direct Action Day happened because the Muslim League wanted Bengal as part of Pakistan not Punjab. But all the focus of history related to partition has gone to Punjab instead of Bengal. Bengal was the most advanced state in terms of technology, industry, trade and commerce, culture, prosperity and so on the then.
Noakhali, is a Hindi name that means a new village. Now it is situated in an Islamic country. How the demography was changed over time and what led to include it with Bangladesh. Started with the history of partition, Mohammad Ali Jinha, the Direct Action Day, the film focuses on the communal violence, riots and mass killings of Hindus in Bengal. In trailer of the film, it says ‘Bengal is becoming Kashmir day by day’. This statement refers to the structured demographic shift of a particular community only for political gains or creating a vote bank.
-OdishaAge
