The Bengal Files: This Movie Is Actually A Yagya

 Vivek Agnihotri

Captivated audience in AMC Theatre, Detroit on 7th August

Whenever the history of Bollywood will be written, of course not by the likes of Romila Thapar or Irfan Habib, but by someone like Dr. Vikram Sampath or Dr. Minaxi Jain, it will be in two parts.

Bollywood in Pre-Vivek Agnihotri times and Bollywood in Post-Vivek Agnihotri times.

By the way, Agnihotri is a Samskrit word, meaning someone who initiates the Yagna & who maintains it.

Using his Viveka-buddhi, he has truly lived up to his family name. 

Embedded with absolute raw shaurya and dhairya that he has demonstrated all these years in making such thought-provoking powerful movies, against thousands of odds and even at the threat to his life,  he chose to swim against the strong anti-Hindu currents of the Bollywood streams. 

This also shows he is like a lotus flower, which is born in the water or mud but does not get ever affected by it. Because technically, even though he may be a part of the toxic Bollywood but has always stayed out of it.

He worked hard to debunk the fake history forced down into our minds by the distorians with a very deep research from primary sources coupled with an amazing skill of story-telling while captivating the audience throughout, and that makes him an extremely brilliant and a very brave Intellectual Kshatriya. 

When he made The Tashkant Files, sleeping Bharatiya giants were awakened; when he made The Kashmir Files, they were shaken up and now after watching this film, these giants are, hopefully, ready to take up the task of gaining back their glory.

My sincere request to Vivekji is not to let this yagya that you initiated, the fire that you ignited, get extinguished. With my folded hands, may I make a very humble request or suggestion that you kindly take some kind of initiative to either encourage, start or support an ‘Entertainment Academy’ rooted in Sanatana way of life and teach this beautiful art of movie-making as well as the lessons that you have learnt which you have always practiced to the young generation?

Bharat and we Bharaitya-s will forever be indebted to you.

Review

Vivek Agnihotri and Pallavi Joshi addressing the audience in AMC, Detroit on 7th August

If the Oscar Awards Committee is non-biased, this movie would get all the awards of all the categories hands down.

I am not a professional film critic, so I can say this.

Ultimately, it is the common man who is the deciding factor for the success or otherwise for the movies.

However, if you ask all the thousands of the members of the audience who watched the screening of this movie across the USA in ten cities so far, the appreciation for the movie is simply incredible.

We heard and watched so many young people appreciating and feeling vindicated for making decisions to watch this movie. 

In India,a movie of this genre perhaps has not been made (except The Kashmir Files) of such exceedingly high standards in all the departments of movie-making.

According to Vivek Agnihotri, the research of preparing the groundwork for this movie involved reading 18000 pages and applying the findings into creating this movie. Started in March 2020, the movie took about five years to come to fruition and what an output, man!

Astounding, breathtaking, astonishing, mindblowing etc. words also fail to describe all the dimensions of this movie.

This movie is technically brilliant with superb script, excellent photography, and extraordinary acting by all the actors. In fact, every actor deserves awards. The music director, the lyricist deserve awards. All the beautiful songs that you experience belong to the cultural heritage of Bengal. 

Vivek Agnihotri deserves awards as The Best Director as well as The Best Story-Teller. 

Since, the West Bengal State Government did not allow shooting in the state, they created the sets in Mumbai.

One can never figure out these streets and the buildings were created as parts of the sets. 

In fact, this is NOT a movie that can be placed in the normal category of a movie the way one would do so.

It is not for entertainment.

It is actually a Yagya. 

Not only Yagya, but it is a wake-up call.

And, not only a wake-up call, it is truly speaking a big jolt to the sleeping Bharatiya-s who have been suffering since long from what Veer savarkar used to deplore, sadguna vikruti.

Sadguna vikruti is a tendency where one keeps believing in Vasudhaive Kutumbakam and that all religions are the same. Such people simply do not understand that for saving dharma, one is dutybound to go to any extent. Mahabharat is full of such examples. 

This is a historical movie for two reasons, in fact all his movies are historical for these two reasons:

One, he debunks the false history pushed into our minds during our formative years in the schools by undertaking deep research from primary sources, and bringing to life the true history.

And

Secondly, he has demonstrated incredible courage to make this film against so many odds, at the risk to his career and also a grave threat to his own life.

So, my take is:

If this movie does not shake us up, we deserve no sympathy.

If this truthful history teaches us no lesson, we deserve no sympathy.

And

If Gopal Patha does not inspire us to protect our families in the time of such a crisis, then we do not deserve ANY sympathy.

Lastly, may I share a few lines in Hindi that describe in very brief about the film-maker?

अग्निहोत्री करे ये यज्ञ ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू ;

विवेकबुद्धि से जगा रहा वो, ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू !

शास्त्रीजीका मृत्यु, काश्मीरका नरसंहार; 

भूलके क्यों बैठा है तू, ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू !

अग्निहोत्री शौर्यसे इतिहासको पुन:स्थापित करे;

ये आह्वान सुन ले मेरे भाई, ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू !

हिन्दू धर्म, सनातन संस्कार, वैदिक सभ्यताके लिए;

करे महान त्याग ये जान तू, ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू !

अग्निहोत्री करे ये यज्ञ ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू ;

विवेकबुद्धि से जगा रहा वो, ओ सोया हिन्दू जाग तू !

Udit Shah

udit56@gmail.com