Children of War 2014

In a quiet forest clearing, an old man known as Baba [Victor Banerjee] sits with an earthen pot, softly chanting Hindu mantras. A little girl asks what he’s doing, and he smiles, replying that this is his family and he is helping them sleep.

Kill 3 million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands.

Across the border, the film sketches a chilling prelude to catastrophe. The Pakistan President, Yahya Khan, is cited with a stark line that shadows the coming violence, while a broadcasted interview with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gauges the crisis and the refugee exodus, highlighting that reprisals and battlefield violence are already driving civilians from their homes. The story then shifts toward a present-day campus scene where a young speaker challenges a crowd, insisting on a layered identity: first we are Bangladeshi. Then, a Bengali. And lastly, a Muslim.

On 26 March 1971, the radio carries Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence, a defining moment that anchors the rising resistance. The oppressed mood crystallizes the next day when Amir [Indraneil Sengupta] and his wife Fida [Raima Sen] are asleep when Pakistan Army officers break in. The soldiers beat Amir, and Malik [Pavan Malhotra] shoots the maid who tries to intervene, before abducting Fida.

In the brutal days that follow, Fida is taken to a prison camp where women are beaten and stripped, then separated by age. The older women are killed, while younger ones are confined in a large shed that becomes their makeshift living space. Malik, speaking to his men, explains with a chilling resolve that these women are being brought to “serve the nation” (mulk ki khidmat), and that the children born from their wombs will belong to Pakistan—thereby erasing a people’s future. The atrocity is stark, and the moral rot behind it is laid bare.

Amir survives the initial raid and learns of the killings of journalists; determined to amplify the truth, he arranges a meeting with Archer Blood, the American Consul General, to press for international condemnation of the army’s actions. His mission is perilous: a bus bearing reporters is halted by the army, all the men are killed, and the women are abducted. Amir escapes, carrying the weight of what he has seen.

Meanwhile, Kausar [Rucha Inamdar] and her brother Rafiq [Riddhi Sen] wander near a village scarred by massacre, where refugees later seek shelter. Baba leads a convoy of these refugees toward the Indian border, hoping for safety. That night, a newborn brings a sense of fragile hope to the refugee camp, and the group continues toward India at dawn.

Amir’s efforts to expose the truth draw attention from within the resistance movement too. He joins Mujeed [Farooq Shaikh], a wealthy organizer who helps mobilize local fighters. The resistance faction captures a Razakar who had previously aided the Pakistanis, and the exchange becomes a bitter reminder of how loyalties and atrocities intertwine. When Mujeed demands a reckoning, he is confronted by a brutal reality: complicity and indoctrination are deeper than he realized, echoing the madrasa’s influence.

As the guerrilla campaign intensifies, the fighters intercept a Pakistan army vehicle and seize Malik as a prisoner. The rebel leaders inform him that Mukti Bahini and Indian forces have secured a victory, and they demand surrender. Malik mocks Amir and his wife’s suffering, and in a surge of anger, Amir shoots the officer dead.

Kausar and Rafiq eventually reach the Indian border, hoping for sanctuary, yet they are spotted by Pakistani soldiers and Rafiq is shot. That night, Amir’s group storms the camp where Fida and other women are held, freeing them from captivity. When Amir finds Fida, she is heavily pregnant, and rather than reject her, he takes her hand, offering a moment of human continuity amid the ruin.

Present day closes with the campus speaker urging unity to identify the Razakars who still live within their midst, insisting that they be brought to justice and that a community’s memory and resolve endure.

Throughout, the film traces a thread of resilience amid overwhelming violence, showing how ordinary people—journalists, refugees, resistance fighters, and families—navigate fear, loss, and a desperate bid to protect the future of a nation. The cast so vividly embodies these arcs: Amir [Indraneil Sengupta], Fida [Raima Sen], Rafiq [Riddhi Sen], Kausar [Rucha Inamdar], Mujeed [Farooq Shaikh], and Baba [Victor Banerjee], each stepping into moments of courage, sorrow, and moral-choice under an unrelenting historical shadow. The interplay of past and present underscores a memory that refuses to fade, insisting that history’s wounds can become the seeds of a new, collective vigilance.