Abhishek Srivastava from The Times of India gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5, noting that it reveled in shock value, and with scenes of grotesque violence succeeding in evoking anger, despair and reflection, the film also managed to connect at an emotional level, "offering glimpses into suffering that transcended politics".Read at source
The Bengal Files 2025 
Synopsis
The Bengal Files
The Bengal Files is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language political drama propaganda film written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. It presents a storyline focused on the Direct Action Day and the Noakhali riots, depicting the violence and its aftermath as a genocide. The film stars Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Anupam Kher and Simrat Kaur.
- Director
- Vivek Agnihotri
- Release
- 5 Sept 2025
- Studio
- Abhishek Agarwal Arts, I Am Buddha
- Run time
- 204 min
- Language
- Hindi
Reviews
10 Indian-media reviews, grouped by reception.
Critics' consensus
Unfavorable
Critics' aggregate for The Bengal Files is 49/100 from 7 scored critic/publication reviews.
Synthesized by AI (gpt-5-codex-omdb-enricher) from 10 source-backed reviews — verify against the linked sources.Common praise
- emotional impact
Watch points
- performances
- writing
- pacing
Positive 6
Rachit Gupta from Filmfare gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, labelling it "a violent and over-dramatised look at partition horrors".Read at source
Rishabh Suri from Hindustan Times gave the film 3 stars out of 5, feeling that while the film did get over-indulgent at times in its treatment of history, it was salvaged by "fine performances".Read at source
Anurag Singh Bohra from India Today gave the film 3 stars out of 5, praising the performances and visuals, while also feeling the execution was marred by slow pacing, nonlinear storytelling, and a stretched runtime.Read at source
Radhika Sharma of NDTV found the film unending, disturbingly graphic, gory, and gruesome, while also finding the imagery "in your face" and the performances screechy and over the top.Read at source
Anuj Kumar from The Hindu reviewed the film negatively as well, accusing it of using cinema as a tool to divide, and also added that "the makers create their own history around the recorded events".Read at source
Critical 4
Lachmi Deb Roy from Firstpost gave the film 2 stars out of 5, praising the performances except that of Darshan Kumar, and finding the story gripping while also feeling the characters were not comprehensively written and that the execution could have been better.Read at source
Kartik Bhardwaj of Cinema Express gave the film 1 star out of 5, claiming that it reeked of propaganda and made for an excruciating experience akin to a bland history lesson, where even the performances could not leave a mark and felt perfunctory.Read at source
Mukund Setlur, writing for Deccan Herald, called the film a "double-edged disaster" and a "dilemma emerging from incoherent writing and poor editing".Read at source
Titas Chowdhury from CNN-News18 also gave the film 2 stars out of 5, finding the lengthy runtime to be its biggest weakness, the violence nauseating, and the film as a whole underwhelming even as a piece of art.Read at source
Media & trailers
Verified video records attached to this title.
Details
Soundtrack
- Dhono Dhannye Pushpe Bhora Vintage Sagnik Sen
- Kichudin Mone Mone Parvathy Baul
- Kaala Parvathy Baul
- Dhono Dhannye Pushpe Bhora Chorus Keka Ghoshal, Indrani Bhattacharjee, Swagata Nag, Aabhik Ghosh, Budhaditya Mukherjee, Sanjay Acharjee
- Dhono Dhannye Pushpe Bhora Sagnik Sen
- Kichudin Mone Mone Adlib Parvathy Baul
- The Bengal Files Theme Instrumental
- The Glorious Past –
- The Glorious Past Reprise –
- The Glorious Past Slow –
- The Royalty Theme –
- The Demon Theme –
- The Demon Theme Reprise –
- Nostalgia Theme –
- Nostalgia Theme Reprise –
- Midnight Massacre 14th August –
- The Investigation –
- Opening Theme –
- Pre-Climax –
- Shiva's Past –
- Violin-Viola Theme –
- The Great Bengal –
Technical specs
- Release date
- 5 Sept 2025
- Run time
- 204 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- IN
- Director
- Vivek Agnihotri
- Studio
- Abhishek Agarwal Arts, I Am Buddha
- Budget
- ₹50+ crore
- Distributor
- Zee Studios
Trivia
- Principal photography for the film began in November 2024 and was wrapped by the end of January 2025.
Tags
Hindi Cinema2025Hindi FilmReleasedHindi
