The Kashmir Files : When a tale of genocide bites the ecosystem, writes Subrata Das

Dec.3: Very recently, the Kashmir Files sparked off controversy when it was termed as vulgar and propaganda film by the Israeli film maker Nadav Lapid during the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India at Goa. It needs to be mentioned that the controversy got tremendous hype when Mr. Lapid, being the Jury President of IFFI this year, made this unsolicited and controversial comment without provocation. Soon after his comment, Israeli government distanced itself from the film maker by criticizing him unequivocally. His comment was proved to be biased and politically motivated when he expressed his view on the Kashmir issue. Right from the release of this film, an ecosystem, supposedly the toolkit gang, has been relentlessly working against the success of this film across the world. Nadav Lapid felt disturbed and shocked by the Kashmir Files. He didn’t think twice to term the film as Propaganda and vulgar. He also expressed that the film is inappropriate for the artistic section and what he tacitly described is more heartbreaking and disappointing. However, he ultimately issued an apology for having said all his nonsense to control damage. Not only that, he almost turned around 180 degrees by applauding the Kashmir Files for its brilliance. But, the furore and pain tormented the hearts of innumerable Indians, specially Kashmiri Pundits and the production team of the Kashmir Files, can never be healed with such a cliché apology.

Doesn’t this film really deserve commendation from the aesthetic and film making point of view? Being an all time student of cinema film, I feel if the well documented Schindler’s List made by Stephen Spielberg was acclaimed worldwide as a stupendous art work, this film should also be applauded for many reasons. ‘This is not exodus, this is called genocide”, this short but piercing dialogue of Brahma Dutta, the character portrayed by Mithun Chakraborty, narrates the heart wrenching essence of the Kashmir Files in simple words. To be honest, after watching the film, the first question comes in our mind- is it mere a commercial movie made by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri; or, we should call it a very well documented feature film made on the forgotten plight of Kashmiri Hindu Pundits which is normally referred as exodus, not genocide by the urban intelligentsia and Lutyen media of our country? This is a tale of religious persecution that has been incessantly going on for the last three decades or more, which has uprooted around half a million Hindu Pundits from the soil of Kashmir so far.

The story revolves around an innocent Kashmiri Hindu Pundit family which is brutally killed, during a massacre in early nineties along with their neighbours in the name of Al-Jihad sparing the head of family Puskar Nath Pundit (Anupam Kher) so that their horrendous annihilation can make all the non-Muslims feel jittery to stay in the Kashmir valley. As would luck have it, the grandson of Puskar pundit infant Krishna remains unhurt in that mass killings. Ultimately, Puskar leaves the valley along with Krishna owing to the nightmare of Al-jihad, the war cry of which was created on the line of theocratic and Caliphate design by chanting death threat “Ralib, Galib, chalib” (convert, die or leave) against Kafirs (infidels). All the four friends of Puskar Pundit being IAS, IPS, journalist and doctor are helpless eyewitnesses of the massacre. With the pace of time, they got separated from one another. But, old Puskar, suffering from dementia and staying far away from Kashmir, lives with this hope that the article 370 will be abrogated one day and he will go back to his most loving place on earth Kashmir. In course of time, his grandson Krishna pundit (Darshan Kumar) got admitted to one of country’s top and reputed universities in Delhi where students are brainwashed and taught false narratives about Kashmir chanting anti-India slogan like ‘Hum ladke lenge azadi’, ‘Bharat tere tukre honge, insallah insallah’ and ‘Afzal hum sarminda hai, tere qatil zinda hai’ by hardcore leftist teachers like Radhika Menon (Pallavi Joshi) with a view to support disintegration of India and legitimise Islamist terrorism in the valley for their political interest. Krishna being misguided, joins this malicious racket unknowingly due to his honest emotion derived from iconoclasm of youth age and starts working with them for university election.

One day suddenly, Puskar passes away and Krishna goes back to Kashmir with the ashes of his departed grandpa in the aftermath of cremation with a view to leave his reminiscence in and around their abandoned house in Kashmir. Side by side, he tries to accomplish his mission, assigned by his leadership, by meeting the Head of Azadi group Bitta the terrorist (Chinmay Mandlekar), who once brutally killed his mother, father and brother including many others in disguise of the Indian army. Bitta makes him understand that it is the Indian army who raped women and killed all the people on behalf of the Indian government. But, Brahma Dutta, the friend of his grandpa, ultimately unveils the harsh truth before Krishna with proof. Krishna goes back to the university and delivers a hypnotic and heart melting lecture embarrassing Radhika and her group hugely with his factually very well articulated speech. The film ends with the most crucial and horrifying scene of mass killings by hitting our heart so hard that we can’t stop ourselves from shedding tears and questioning with a tormented soul – why!

The characters taken from real life have been convincingly portrayed by all the artistes on screen. The subtle, restrained and refined performance of actors like Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Bharat darshan, Chinmay Mandlekar, Bhasha Sambhli, Mrinal Kulkarni and others are exceptionally good. And, it’s probably one of Anupam Kher’s best, if not the best, performance. Pallavi Joshi will surely come in the limelight again for her superb underacting skill. The performance of Darshan Kumar will certainly give him a new feat in the Bollywood film industry. The character of Farooq Malik Bitta the terrorist, conceived with the mixture of two real well known negative characters of the Kashmir valley, portrayed by Chinmay Mandlekar stops our breath with his minor detailing of work with eyelids so incredibly that whenever he appears on screen, viewers either get apprehensive in jittery or feel angry with him. The underacting of all the actors including superstar like Mithun Chakraborty may give the Indian film industry a new dimension to film acting. Whenever Puskar Pundit says to his grandson Krishna in frustration, “What do you know about our Kashmir?”, it seems it is being asked to all the average forgetful masses of India.

The most remarkable aspect of this film is its script and editing, which presents the entire flashbacks in non-linear fashion. Instead of going back to the past at one go, the sequences of the present and the past are quite adroitly mixed with an amazing sense of balance and precision. Normally, average Indian cinema viewers are not acquainted with this type of frequent travel to and from the past. However, it doesn’t stop viewers from being engrossed in it. Rather, it makes them feel more concentrated and attracted. Dialogues of the characters seem to be quite informal and spoken by the people living in our surroundings of daily life. Even, the film doesn’t create an iota of boredom without any spicy sequence of dance, fight, sex, comedy, song (except one so called propaganda song used in university campus by leftists) etc which are believed to be essentially needed for commercial movies in India. It will surely grow Indian mainstream film viewers more matured to understand and enjoy the film language. Hardly any director or producer will dare to invest in such a risky project. Probably, this is the first film of its kind, based on the most harsh, painful and undeniable fact of ethnic cleansing in Indian film industry which is proved to be commercially huge successful. Right from the script to presentation, it needs not only strong determination but also huge research and efforts. Even, the upcoming filmmakers may get inspiration to make a commercial cinema on harsh reality like this with limited resources based only on content and treatment. In some places, use of only folk tunes as BG music is so justified that our heart is touched quite deeply.

The most worth mentioning aspect of this film is Vivek Agnihotri’s unmasking the Left brigade of our country in a very brilliant but artistic way. Their selective support for separate Kashmir in the name of human rights as well as encouraging religious fundamentalism is nothing but travesty of secularism and atheism. This film really acts as an eye opener for us, specially for college and university students of our country. Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri has done exceedingly and outstandingly well in exposing their blatant lies, selectivism and politics of convenience in a simply unique and hypnotic way! It’s quite factually and convincingly rebutted in the film that their intention of freeing Kashmir is nothing but a ploy of nasty narratives crafted with malicious intent and false propaganda which is also supported by the brigade of our pseudo secularists; who are ‘Nationalist in Delhi, Communist in Jammu and Communalist in Kashmir’.

Stephen Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’ on the Holocaust was made in Hollywood with huge budget, support and convenience; but Vivek has done exemplary work without adequate budget and support. It is almost an absurd challenge he dares to accept and fulfill by going against so many odds including non-cooperation and anti propaganda from the film and media fraternity. In my opinion, the film deserves 4.75 points out of 5. And it’s a must watch film for all true Indians irrespective of caste, creed, religion and specially, cine lovers across the country! Because, unless and until, we don’t know the history of Kashmir, the ancient wisdom hub of India which is named after Rishi Kashyap, our education as well as knowledge remains incomplete.

Mr. Nadav Lapid may be a very good filmmaker, but his intention of underplaying the Kashmir Files raises doubts in our mind whether he is being used as a trojan virus by the ecosystem or not. If his first comment on this film is taken as his personal view, his comment on Kashmir issue and India’s stand on the same makes us sure of his attachment with the toolkit gang which is working in favour of the anti India brigade. His fearless Anti India propaganda by accusing the Kashmir Files of propaganda film also proved that our selection system is not fool proof. Otherwise, how can a person like Mr. Nadav Lapid would have become the Jury President of this esteemed film festival? The people involved in the selection of juries owe it to the people of India to explain.