The Kashmir Files(pic)
Ravi Speaks:
Following article was written on 16.03.2022 after I had seen this movie in the theatre.This article gives my feelings and the observations of many regarding this movie at that point in time. The main idea of reproducing this article after reproducing yesterday’s New York Times article on the same movie is simply to prove how much each person confirmed the reflection of true happenings towards the Kashmiri Hindus.The chief of IFFI has just given the statement which is nowhere near the reality depicted in the movie. Just read it and the get the real feel of people.
Last Sunday I saw the movie ‘Kashmir Files’ along with my whole family. So many of our relations with whom we have grown up had suffered the worst during their stay in Kashmir around this unfortunate period of the late eighties. Whatever has been shown in the movie is absolutely true with the proper authenticity being provided by the Director or even from the etchings of the history as papers and magazines of that period. I am really very emotional while scribbling down these lines since I am a Kashmiri Hindu and above all since I feel it is after almost three decades now that this movie has shaken up the whole humanity and given each one a lesson that brutalities as adverse atrocities and what even the director wants to convey as the genocide-cannot be hidden or carpeted. The punishment for all the acts is given here only but at the proper time and proper situations which are created as a matter of fact and logic.
My Review of ‘The Kashmir Files” & Sharp feelings.
A new movie on the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir in the Nineties has kicked up a storm in India, with even the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) weighing in on its behalf.
The Kashmir Files launched on Friday, tells the fictional story of a college student who discovers his Kashmiri Hindu dad and mom have been killed by using Islamist militants – and now not in an accident as his grandfather instructed him.
It gained middling opinions from mainstream critics – greater than what one even expected. The movie quickly set off a heated debate on social media and in no time became an explosive topic for discussions on almost all the channels-which I saw yesterday,.Supporters stated it was kept hidden from the common folk as far as the brutalities of Kashmiri Pandits were concerned. It was a bloody section of Kashmir’s records. However, critics say it is careless with information and Islamophobic as well.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and key ministers in his BJP authorities have praised the film, various BJP-ruled states have waived tax on it, and police in Madhya Pradesh state have been allowed one day off to go away to watch it. Mr. Modi additionally disregarded the criticism as a “conspiracy to discredit” the film.
Why has a small-budget movie with no massive stars polarised opinions this much?
Kashmir has been a controversial subject made even more complex by the power centers of that times-where the truth which the movie exposes now should have been immediately highlighted there and then.
The film delves into the records of Kashmir, and the restive area alongside India’s border with Pakistan has long been a touchy subject.
It’s a Muslim-majority valley where the population of minority Hindus was just around 5-6% left. All atrocities from the select sections have been prevalent during even earlier eighties as well. Islamist militants started focusing on Kashmiri Hindus – upper-caste Pandits – who have been a minority group in the 1990s. Many had been killed and, via some estimates, lots of lots of them fled their homes. Most in no way returned.
India’s federal authorities deployed the forces and gave it sweeping powers to arrest and interrogate – and over the years, protection forces have been accused of excesses in opposition to locals. They deny the allegations, however; the area has considered commonly viewed large and frequently livid protests towards Delhi that have ended with civilian casualties. The demanding relationship solely grew worse after Mr. Modi’s authorities revoked Kashmir’s constitutionally assured autonomy in 2019.
The nationalist celebration has additionally used the conflicted vicinity as a ballot plank – it has, in particular, centered on the problem of the Hindu exodus, alleging that the Congress party, which was once in strength earlier than and after the events, had omitted the Pandits’ plight. The community, however, has stated that no steps were rehabilitated them.
While Kashmir’s tortured past has stimulated several books and films, few have fully centered on the exodus and what led to it, according to journalist and writer Rahul Pandita.Kashmiri Pandits fled in 1990 after Islamist militants began killing and targeting Hindus in the state.
He (Mr. Pandita) says ‘The Kashmir Files’ has elicited such a robust response because the Pandits have constantly felt that their story had been stifled. “They’re experiencing, if I may also name it that, an emotional catharsis,” he adds.
Mr. Pandita, whose book ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots’: A Memoir of a Lost Home, is primarily based on his ride of fleeing Srinagar as a teenager.
“My book is into the tenth edition of its publication, and I receive at least three-four emails every single day from people from all corners of India, or some from out of India, pronouncing we did not know about the quantum of this tragedy,” he says.
What exactly happened in Kashmir?
But others say that it is now not shocking in view that there are many chapters in current India’s records – such as violence towards decrease castes, or allegations in opposition to India’s safety forces in the north-east or states that have considered Maoist insurgencies – that have been rarely instructed through mainstream cinema.
“I’m a little baffled through this steady chorus that this is a story that has now not been told. It’s now not been advised by Bollywood but Bollywood would not inform these stories,” says Sanjay Kak, a Kashmiri Pandit himself and a documentary filmmaker who has included the vicinity extensively.
But the controversy is stemming now not so plenty from the records of the exodus – as no-one is refuting that it befell – however from the manner in which the story has been told, and who instructed it.
Polarisation and politics
The film has definitely touched a chord amongst Kashmiri Pandits, however, reviewers have panned the movie for missing nuance, given the complicated history. Some have praised the performances, whilst others have stated that does not make up for its vilification of Muslims.
Viewers have been divided too – some have been touched and hoped this would assist heal the wounds, whilst others had been stricken through the stereotyped portrayal of Kashmiri Muslims, and the message the film sends.
Some have additionally warned against brushing aside the film altogether: “You cannot unravel any variations when you might not even well know the ache of those who suffered.”
But the loudest endorsements show up to be from BJP ministers – Women and Child Development minister Smriti Irani tweeted, urging humans to watch the film, “so that this records soaked in the blood of innocents may additionally not repeat itself”.
The filmmakers also met Mr. Modi over the weekend, and some of the Bollywood stars who have tweeted in its favor – Akshay Kumar and Kangana Ranaut – are viewed as being supportive of the government.
Asked whether the movie may want to solely be made below a BJP government, its lead actor Anupam Kher reportedly said: “That’s true… Every movie has its time.”
The film’s director, Vivek Agnihotri, who is additionally viewed as a BJP supporter, has been accused of inaccuracies in his work. Last week, a court docket restrained him from which includes scenes depicting an Air Force Squadron lieutenant and his demise after the man’s spouse filed a go well with pronouncing the small print has been actually unsuitable and demeaned him.
Mr. Agnihotri’s preceding movie – The Tashkent Files – which alleged a conspiracy in the loss of life of former Prime-minister Lal Bahadur Shastri – used to be additionally criticized for offering rumors as facts. Shastri’s grandson despatched Mr. Agnihotri a criminal notice, announcing the movie used to be attempting to “create unwarranted and needless controversy”.
Mr. Agnihotri has defended ‘The Kashmir Files’, saying: “It’s now not about Hindu or Muslim like humans would prefer to believe.”
But by Monday night, Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking platform Alt News, had shared many videos from screenings of the movie that confirmed audiences chanting anti- Muslims slogans.Kashmir has seen big protests towards Indian rule over the years.
Its reception is additionally in stark distinction to a 2020 film, Shikara, co-written by using Mr. Pandita, which delves into the equal history. The Hindu right-wing had lashed out at the makers then, calling them “traitors” for allegedly whitewashing history.
“I assume human beings desired to see it in a greater stark form, shorn of all sensitivity. We did now not do that,” Mr. Pandita said.
“What this movie does is to inform the story precisely as the right-wing wants,” Mr. Kak says. “Shikara did no longer meet that qualification, so it got here below attack. This one looks to have the whole right-wing ecosystem coming out to push it into the world.”
Mr. Pandita says given the complexity of the issue, there is the house “for many films,” however Mr. Kak is no longer so sure. “There is an insistence that this is “the truth”. But you cannot inform the story of Kashmiri Pandits barring additionally telling the story of Kashmir in these 30 years. And perhaps it is why human beings have no longer instructed the story in Bollywood before. Because there may be no house to inform the story with the complexity that it deserves.”
The movie has abruptly gone up to slot No-1 with 323% growth in the subsequent week. This clearly shows that there is some very sharp grip in the movie which is making a viral wave amongst the entire world and that grip is the reality check or the truth displayed in a very touching and befitting manner by the director and his team of actors. Such a movie is surely going to inspire a lot more people to handle humanity with a high level of delicacy and emotional bondage, giving weightage to each human being, whether he belonged to a minority or a majority community.
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