The Tashkent Files

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The Tashkent Files
The Tashkent Files poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Vivek Agnihotri
Written byVivek Agnihotri
Screenplay byVivek Agnihotri
Produced by
  • Haresh Patel
  • Pranay Chokshi
  • Anuya Chauhan Kudecha
  • Vivek Agnihotri
  • Ritesh Kudecha
  • Sharad Patel
Starring
CinematographyUdaysingh Mohite
Edited bySattyajit Gazmer
Music by
Production
companies
  • SP CineCorp
  • Vivek Agnihotri Creates
Distributed by Zee Studios
Release date
  • 12 April 2019 (2019-04-12) [1]
Running time
144 minutes [2]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹7.5 crore [3]
Box officeest.₹20.84 crore [4]

The Tashkent Files is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language political conspiracy thriller film about the mysterious death of former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri. It was written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri and stars Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, Shweta Basu Prasad, Pankaj Tripathi, Pallavi Joshi, Prakash Belawadi, and Mandira Bedi. Released on 12 April 2019, the film became a box-office sleeper hit and later won two National Film Awards.

Contents

Plot

Raagini Phule, a struggling journalist, receives a tip from an anonymous caller about investigating the suspicious circumstances surrounding Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's death in Tashkent in 1966. Under government pressure, a panel of experts is formed—including Raagini herself—to examine the evidence.

The panel members, including politicians, historians, scientists, and journalists, fiercely debate the available material, drawing upon conspiracy theories, Cold War politics, and allegations of assassination. Ultimately, the film leaves the central mystery unresolved, raising questions about transparency and accountability in independent India.

Cast

Production

The film was announced in January 2018 as India's first "crowd-sourced" thriller, with director Vivek Agnihotri inviting the public to share material related to Shastri’s death. [5] [7] Books referenced include Political Mysteries by K. R. Malkani, Conversations with the Crow by Gregory Douglas, and the Mitrokhin Archive by Vasili Mitrokhin. [8]

Marketing and release

The first poster was released on 19 March 2019, announcing a 12 April 2019 theatrical release. [1] The film was also made available on ZEE5. [9] Agnihotri described it as the first installment of his trilogy of "untold stories of independent India," followed by The Kashmir Files (2022) and the upcoming The Bengal Files (2025). [10]

Reception

Critical response

The Tashkent Files received overwhelmingly negative reviews. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 0% approval rating based on 8 reviews. [11]

Devesh Sharma of Filmfare gave two and half stars out of five; it was a 'melodramatic' episode with loud and over the top acting coupled with bombastic dialogues. Sharma found the film to be biased against a certain political party and wondered about its release during the national elections, which were running concurrently. [12]

Writing for Scroll.in, Nandini Ramnath found it to be a politically motivated work that did not have any rigor and failed to be an effective conspiracy thriller. [13] Saibal Chatterjee, writing for NDTV rated the film with half star out of five — the research that went into the production was equivalent of a Google search film-making and overall, it was "junk." [14] Jyoti Sharma Bawa, reviewing for the Hindustan Times rated it one out of five stars and reiterated Chatterjee. [15] Mid-Day gave one and a half stars out of five — all the research that went into the work was derived from internet, esp. social media. [16]

A review over India Today rated it one out of five stars and noted it to be a politically motivated film that did not have any logic and might be easily dispensed with. [17] A review over The Hindu noted it to be an ideological slideshow that exploited Shastri's death to attack left, secular and socialist ideologies and institutions and though based on an engaging topic, was a 'hotch-potch of hearsay, juvenile arguments' that ultimately lend to utter confusion rather than any conviction. [18] Another review over News18 India rated it one out of five stars and noted it to be a politically motivated film with unconvincing arguments, that made for a dull watch. [19]

A review in The First Post asserted it to be a politically motivated film and rated it two out of five stars. Noting Agnihotri to neither have the finesse nor the potency to sketch a conspiracy thriller, the reviewer deemed it to be a cheap trick, that was high on hysteria but lacked logic amidst a focus-less frenzied storytelling that did not venture beyond the realms of Google. [20] A review in The Indian Express deemed it to be the ideal politically-motivated fiction for the 'post-truth, fake news era' — a series of eye-roll moments with unintentionally hilarious dialogues. [21] ThePrint found it to be a shoddy jab at film-making that harnessed a mish-mash of unformed characters and incomplete plots devoid of logic. [22] Bollywood Hungama gave one and a half stars out of five. [23]

Anusha Iyengar, reviewing for Times Now , gave two out of five stars, praising the story but taking issues with over-the-top dramatization that reeked of amateurish storytelling. [23] Manavi Kapur, reviewing the film at Business Standard , found it unworthy for even a daytime opera slot. [24] Shilajit Mitra, reviewing for The New Indian Express remarked it to be an exhausting head-spin of a political propaganda, that became weirder with time. [25] Stutee Ghosh of The Quint found it to be a prejudiced, amateurish and cringe-worthy film with an uninspiring storytelling that banked on crowd-sourced research; she rated one star out of five. [26]

Box office

Despite critical reception, the film performed strongly at the box office, completing 100 days in theatres. [27]

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
2021 National Film Awards Best Supporting Actress Pallavi Joshi Won [28]
Best Dialogues Vivek Agnihotri Won [29]

Soundtrack

The Tashkent Files
Soundtrack album by
Released30 April 2019 [30]
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Length19:03
Label Zee Music Company
External audio
Nuvola apps arts.svg Audio jukebox on YouTube

The soundtrack was composed by Rohit Sharma, with lyrics by Aazad, Sharma, and Vivek Agnihotri.

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Saare Jahan Se Acchha"Rohit Sharma, Vivek AgnihotriJayaraman Mohan, Arya Acharya, RJ Archana, RJ Anuraag Pandey, RJ Rohini, Ekdant Kalakshetra, Swara Sharma, Nyonishi Cousins3:42
2."Radha Tori Batiyaan Thumri"AazadRitesh Rajnish Mishra3:42
3."Thumri Jugalbandi Rock"AazadRitesh Rajnish Mishra, Geet Sagar3:14
4."Sab Chalta Hai Rock"Rohit Sharma, AazadGeet Sagar3:50
5."Sab Chalta Hai Electronica"AazadRohit Sharma2:18
6."Sach Chalta Hai"Aazad, Rohit SharmaGeet Sagar2:17
Total length:19:03

Adaptation

Who Killed Shastri?: The Tashkent Files is a non-fiction book by Vivek Agnihotri based on his research for the film. It was published in August 2020 by Bloomsbury India. [8]

References

  1. 1 2 Taran Adarsh [@taran_adarsh] (19 March 2019). "Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, Shweta Basu, Pankaj Tripathi, Vinay Pathak, Mandira Bedi, Pallavi Joshi, Ankur Rathee and Prakash Belawadi... #TheTashkentFiles to release on 12 April 2019... Directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri... Zee Studios release... First look poster: https://t.co/huxc6BQ10s" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  2. "The Tashkent Files". Golden Village. 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  3. "The Tashkent Files- Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  4. "The Tashkent Files - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  5. 1 2 "The Tashkent Files: Naseeruddin Shah and Mithun Chakraborty to star in film on Lal Bahadur Shashtri". Indian Express. Archived from the original on 11 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  6. Adarsh, Taran [@taran_adarsh] (22 March 2019). "Shweta Basu Prasad is #RaaginiPhule..." (Tweet) via Twitter.
  7. "The Tashkent Files: Vivek Agnihotri urges fans to help solve Lal Bahadur Shastri's mysterious death". Times Now. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Who killed Lal Bahadur Shastri?". Dailyo. Archived from the original on 15 June 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  9. "The Tashkent Files". ZEE5. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  10. "Vivek Agnihotri to complete trilogy, announces The Delhi Files". Cinema Express. 13 September 2021. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  11. "The Tashkent Files". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
  12. Sharma, Devesh. "Movie Review: The Tashkent Files". Filmfare. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  13. Ramnath, Nandini (12 April 2019). "'The Tashkent Files' movie review: Vivek Agnihotri puts the hysterics into history". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  14. Chatterjee, Saibal. "The Tashkent Files Movie Review: In A Word, Junk". NDTV. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  15. "The Tashkent Files movie review: Disgusting propaganda where truth is a luxury". Hindustantimes.com/. 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 16 January 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  16. "The Tashkent Files Movie Review: Juhu-Versova ka JFK". mid-day. 13 April 2019. Archived from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  17. Samrudhi Ghosh (12 April 2019). "The Tashkent Files Movie Review: Vivek Agnihotri murders logic in Lal Bahadur Shastri death mystery". India Today. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  18. Rosario, Kennith (12 April 2019). "'The Tashkent Files' movie review: History in the time of conspiracies". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  19. "The Tashkent Files Movie Review: A Dull and Drab Conspiracy Theory Film". News18. 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 25 May 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  20. "The Tashkent Files movie review: High on hysteria and hamming, Vivek Agnihotri's film comes off as a cheap trick". Firstpost. 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 20 September 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  21. "The Tashkent Files movie review: This Vivek Agnihotri film is a series of eye-roll moments". The Indian Express. 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  22. Pothukuchi, Madhavi (12 April 2019). "Vivek Agnihotri's Tashkent Files adds confusion to many conspiracies over Shastri's death". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  23. 1 2 Hungama, Bollywood (12 April 2019). "The Tashkent Files Review 1.5/5 | The Tashkent Files Movie Review | The Tashkent Files 2019 Public Review". Bollywood Hungama . Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  24. Kapur, Manavi (12 April 2019). "The Tashkent Files review: Bit of truth mixed with lies, presented as fact". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  25. "The Tashkent Files review: A tacky thriller that feels longer than the Cold War". Cinema Express . 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  26. "'The Tashkent Files' – Prejudiced, Amateurish and Cringe-Worthy". The Quint. 12 April 2019. Archived from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  27. "The Tashkent Files: Small-budget film's dream run at box office, completes 100 days". The Financial Express. 19 July 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  28. "Pallavi Joshi on National Film Award win for The Tashkent Files". News18. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  29. "Vivek Agnihotri dedicates National Award for Tashkent Files to Shastri". The Times of India. 22 March 2021.
  30. "The Tashkent Files – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". JioSaavn. 6 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.