The film ‘The Kashmir Files’ is now in theatres. In this part, we will look at the most recent Bollywood blockbuster.
Krishna Pandit (Darshan Kumar) is a Kashmiri Pandit studying at Delhi University. Radhika Menon (Pallavi Joshi), his Marxist lecturer, encourages him to run for student office by bringing up the topic of the Kashmir separatist movement, which she claims is a genuine liberation struggle.
Krishna is going through a mini-crisis in his personal life. Pushkar Nath (Anupam Kher), his grandpa, has dementia, and his days are numbered. Pushkar is a Kashmiri refugee who fled his motherland in the early 1990s after being evicted by Jihadis.
The film tells Krishna’s coming-of-age story by shifting timeframes from the present to the bloody past in this background.
Analysis:
Since its premiere in theatres on March 11, the picture under consideration has elicited conflicting views. Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the writer-director, tells the narrative of the departure of five lakh Kashmiri Hindus in the early 1990s, when the JKLF and other terror organizations bared their teeth, slaughtering hundreds of Hindu minority in cold blood in a genocidal mission.
The drama belongs to the actors as much as it does to the authors and directors. Anupam Kher is fantastic, making us care about his role. We can sense his character. There’s anguish. Darshan Kumar’s performance is average at first, but he shines in the second half. As Pushkar’s longtime friend, Mithun Chakraborty is fantastic. Prakash Belawadi, Puneet Issar, and Atul Shrivastava are all excellent in their parts.
The contrast between history and the current work well. The Marxist professor is allowed to express her point of view (if it can be called that). She is a sweet-talking adversary of humanity with covert ties to terrorists. She and Krishna’s chats maybe a slice of life. The 2016 event at JNU, in which students chastised India for executing convicted terrorist Afzal Guru, is dramatized.
The talks around the dinner table seem a little academic, but they get the idea across. The discussions, at times, sound like Facebook posts/counters. A generation that is faintly aware of what is going on in Kashmir will not struggle to understand the film’s fundamental message.
The scenery of Kashmir has first introduced to us in Mani Ratnam’s film ‘Roja.’ The landscape in the present movie is not romantic. It’s plagued with religious extremists who will go to any length to see their neighbors murdered just because they are unbelievers. Vested interests will always be unhappy with what this video depicts, and some are even angry that terrorists have been labeled as such! According to what has been documented about migration, the portrayals in this film are accurate.
The visuals are unsettling, letting us sympathize with the suffering of Pandits who are subjected to existential anguish and famine. The open digs at people like Sheik Abdullah are justified. (As an aside, individuals who criticize only the present governing party’s leaders argue that ‘Kashmir Files’ targets Abdullah types but not other politicians. I’m not sure why confident political leaders have such an emotional relationship to them as if they were perfect statesmen!).
The picture does not use unnecessary BGM swells. Krishna’s indoctrination by her Jihad-friendly professor is dramatized. She says it’s all about power games, which is a piercing insight into the thinking of power-hungry Communists, whose philosophy openly supports the establishment of a dictatorship.
If you’re familiar with Leftist activism, you’ll recognize the cunning nature of the words her character employs.
When it comes to depicting horror, the hospital scenario may make you experience the fear of the moment. Jihadis employ the cry, “Kashmir will become Pakistan without Hindu men and Hindu women.” Survivors have testified in research-based publications to the same effect.
The video discusses the interrelationship of the separatist network, the information war, the deceptive victimization narrative, and worldwide media. In the midst of this, the picture becomes a grandfather-grandson narrative, which is why the second half is so effective. The photography by Udaysingh Mohite is superb, and the music by Rohit Sharma is adequate.
The authored article is written by Sejal Wakkar and shared with Prittle Prattle News exclusively.
