I saw The Bengal Files (TBF) in Hyderabad, where star actress Pallavi Joshi said it would be available with English subtitles. This 200-minute film is aimed to be epic, a clarion call for a tipping point in Indian history, a goal largely achieved by the previous film in this trilogy, the Kashmir Files (TKF). I interviewed Pallavi when TKF came out, and I was curious to see how this film compares to the previous sensation.

To my best recollection, this film is even more gut-wrenching and disturbing than the previous.

The violence is equally graphic but far greater in scale: TBF portrays a flashflood of murderous rampage unleashed on Kolkata on Aug. 16, 1946, when M.A. Jinnah and The Muslim League declared Direct Action Day with the senior local assistance of Prime Minister of Bengal H.S.

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