Raj Chakrabarty’s recently released film Hok Kolorob (Let the Clamour Begin) starkly reflects the troubling decline of Bengali cinema. The film adopts a mode of storytelling reminiscent of Vivek Agnihotri’s brand of ideologically, and overtly, reactionary cinema, by concocting the story of a crusading police officer pitted against “drug addicted”, “petrol-bomb hurling”, “anti-national” students of a premier university in the city. It is not as if Bengali cinema is currently experiencing a golden era, yet even by the abysmal standards of contemporary mainstream productions, Hok Kolorob’s conspicuously regressive politics marks a particularly dispiriting moment.Vandalism by student protesters: A still from Hok Kolorob. Photo: YouTube.Chakrabarty’s film has faced criticism in sections of the Bengali mainstream media and on social media platforms for its caricatured depiction of an elite university. But unlike Hok Kolorob, several recent popular Bengali films have largely escaped similar scrutiny despite their deeply problematic narratives, especially in their portrayal of religious minorities, marginalised castes, and the working class.There are several writings that have discussed the recent “crisis” in Bengali cinema – the declining number of theatrical releases, the shutting down of single-screen theatres, and most significantly, political interference in the industry through arbitrary regulations. Here, however, I wish to draw attention to a different sort of “crisis”: the increasingly overt anti-Muslim and casteist tropes circulating in Bengali popular films. Explosion in front of Hanuman temple: Opening sequence of The Eken. Photo: YouTube.Consider, for instance, two highly successful films from last year: The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika (The Eken: Mayhem in Banaras), directed by Joydeep Mukherjee, and Mrigaya: The Hunt, directed by Abhirup Ghosh. The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika recently has also received the Best Film Award of 2025 from Zee 24 Ghanta and the West Bengal Film Journalists’ Association. Meanwhile, Mrigaya: The Hunt has been widely described as a “slick” action thriller, an example of “technical innovation” within the Bengali film industry.The Eken – Muslim stereotypes in detective fictionThe Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika, one of the most commercially successful Bengali films of 2025, follows the Bengali bhadralok detective Ekendra Sen on an investigative adventure in Varanasi. This is the third instalment in the widely popular detective franchise, which began as a web series in 2018. Detective Eken with the trident, stopping the terrorist. Photo: YouTube.Police detective Eken is eccentric, comical, and perpetually accompanied by his two younger associates, Bappaditya and Promotho. The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika consciously evokes Satyajit Ray’s classic detective film Joi Baba Felunath (The Elephant God, 1979), also set in Varanasi. In Ray’s film, detective Feluda confronts a cruel smuggler-businessman, Maganlal Meghraj, who is assisted by the fraudulent godman Machhli Baba. In The Eken, by contrast, the primary antagonist is a Bengali Muslim terrorist Belal Malik.The film’s opening montage introduces Varanasi, foregrounding prominent Hindu religious structures alongside the figure of Belal Malik. He is shown alighting from a car and detonating explosives in front of a Hanuman temple at a busy intersection, resulting in multiple civilian deaths.Belal’s character is established as someone who was once a “highly educated” chemistry teacher in Lucknow and subsequently trained by Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). A master of disguises and an explosives expert, he is planning terrorist attacks in the city during the festival of Masan Holi.Film scholar Nadira Khatun has noted the recurring and formulaic representation of Muslims in contemporary Bengali cinema: “Bengali Muslims are no longer invisible in the cinematic space, but they are often represented in a negative light. Bengali films have increasingly portrayed Muslims as religious fanatics, underworld dons, or a loyal friend of the hero.” Another aspect worth noting is that the film also includes what appears to be a tokenistic representation of the “good Muslim” character: the Varanasi Superintendent of Police, Abdul Qadir, who is investigating the bomb blast in the city, assists detective Eken.In the film, Eken and his friends are staying at Promotho’s college friend Subimal’s home in Varanasi, where the domestic worker is a Bengali Muslim woman named Rubina. After Subimal’s uncle, Bireshwar, is murdered, Eken and his companions confront Rubina and subject her to suspicion and brute intimidation as a potential suspect. In a seemingly casual remark, Eken asks whether, given Bireshwar’s habit of forgetting things, she might have taken valuables from his room while cleaning. The profiling of Rubina by the detective is not only communally inflected but also reflects a deeply class-based prejudice.The presence of women characters in the film is minimal, and the narrative relies on a barrage of sexist spousal jokes. When Subimal tells Eken that he could have brought his wife along, he replies: “Benaras is already full of terrorists. No point inviting more trouble.” In the climactic sequence of the film, as Eken chases Belal Malik through the narrow alleys of the city, the soundtrack in the background features the rousing Shiva Tandava Stotra. When Belal reaches the ghat and attempts to flee by boat, Eken miraculously re-emerges from the river holding a trident. The Pakistan-trained Muslim terrorist is ultimately apprehended by the police, with decisive assistance from the near-mythic bhadralok detective Eken Babu. While formulaic imagination of Muslims is not new to Bengali cinema, The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika embeds such communal stereotypes within the highly popular detective fiction genre, a strategy that arguably renders them more palatable.Mrigaya – cops and caste prejudiceMrigaya: The Hunt, a crime thriller directed by Abhirup Ghosh, follows four police officers investigating the brutal murder of a sex worker in Kolkata while chasing an organised criminal group. In an interview with The Telegraph, the director described his intention to create a stylised potboiler with “a lot of Bengali swagger.” From slow-motion action sequences (including an early scene in which one of the protagonists slams goons with a fish), to punchy one-liners and an item number, Mrigaya positions itself as an unabashedly commercial entertainer.Tribal gang leader Sardaar brutally killing a six year old child: A still from Mrigaya. Photo: YouTube.However, the film depicts a tribal community as inherently violent criminals. The four bhadralok police officers are shown “hunting” a gang identified as belonging to the so-called Bhediya tribe. The group, said to operate from Uttar Pradesh, is portrayed as being involved in a range of criminal activities – robbery, abduction, murder and sexual violence.This portrayal of the members of the criminalised tribe is at moments reminiscent of S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali. The leader of the group, Sardaar, is depicted with a darkened face, swollen eyes and frizzy dreadlocks. In the opening sequence, a six-year-old child, whom Sardaar later kills mercilessly, refers to him as a “demon.” The tribe members are repeatedly shown howling like animals as a mode of communication with each other.In a PowerPoint presentation within the film, one of the police officers justifies the British Government’s draconian enactment of the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, arguing that the Bhediya tribe is among such groups. He further goes on to describe them as “viruses” within a system who move like “a pack of wolves.” Sardaar as Mahishasur: Promotion of Mrigaya on Zee 5 during Durga Puja: Photo: Facebook.Mrigaya does not merely foreground caste prejudice; it also reproduces a range of troubling stereotypes. A red-light district is likened by a police officer to a garbage dump, while “jholawala” NGO activists are portrayed as siphoning foreign funds.The representation of Dalits, Adivasis, and Muslims in Bengali cinema remains agonisingly insufficient, with notable exceptions such as the works of Ritwik Ghatak and recent web series like Chhotolok, directed by Indranil Roychowdhury. However, the intensified villainisation of marginalised characters appears to be a more recent and disquieting development. The politics of films like The Eken: Benaras e Bibhishika and Mrigaya: The Hunt raises concerns that extend beyond those associated with formulaic commercial cinema or inert upper-middle class “parallel” cinema.In recent years, several filmmakers and actors in the Bombay film industry have been seen aligning their work with the rise of Hindutva politics in the country. A section of Bengali cinema, grappling with industrial uncertainty and seeking box-office viability, appears to be adapting certain narrative formulas and templates from Bombay cinema, albeit reframed through a touch of Bengali nostalgia and cultural pride. This results in a curious cocktail: homage to Satyajit Ray alongside narratives of “Islamic terrorism,” or bhadralok police officers chasing a tribal gang from Uttar Pradesh in a production that gestures toward the successful formula of Rohit Shetty’s “cop universe” films. Given the commercial success of these films and the enthusiastic reception they have received in the mainstream media, such worrying trends may well shape future productions.Agnitra Ghosh teaches Journalism and Mass communication at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.