Identifying records in a file and reading them

/* The task: write a program, showfroot.c, that displays each record
 * in the froot.txt file. Use fread() to read in each file chunk. Have
 * each chunk displayed along with its record number using this
 * format: "14: Melon". */

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
     int i = 0;
     int prev;
     int curr = 0;
     int record_number = 0;
     int char_counter = 0;
     int record_length;

     /* Reading the file */
     FILE *the_file;
     the_file = fopen("froot.txt", "r");
     if(!the_file)
     {
          puts("Error reading file");
          return(1);
     }

     /* Figuring out the number of records by counting
      * "non-null -- null" combinations, printing
      * statistics */
     while(curr != EOF)
     {
          prev = curr;
          curr = fgetc(the_file);
          if(prev != 0 && curr == 0)
               record_number++;
          char_counter++;
     }
     record_length = char_counter / record_number;
     printf("There are %d records in the file, %d characters each: \n", record_number, record_length);
     rewind(the_file);

     char froot[record_number][record_length];

     /* reading the records */
     fread(froot, record_length, record_number, the_file);

     /* printing the records */
     for(i = 0; i < record_number; i++)
     {
          if(i > 0 && i % 5 == 0)
               putchar('\n');
          printf("%2d: %-*s", i + 1, record_length, froot[i]);
     }
     putchar('\n');
     return(0);
}

/* There are 25 records in the file, 14 characters each:
 *  1: Apple          2: Avocado        3: Banana         4: Blackberry     5: Boysenberry
 *  6: Cantaloupe     7: Cherry         8: Coconut        9: Cranberry     10: Cumquat
 * 11: Grape         12: Guava         13: Mango         14: Marionberry   15: Melon
 * 16: Orange        17: Papaya        18: Peach         19: Pear          20: Persimmon
 * 21: Pineapple     22: Plum          23: Raspberry     24: Strawberry    25: Watermelon */