Vivek Agnihotri’s latest film, The Kashmir Files, depicts the neglected wounds of Kashmiri Pandits in a gut-wrenching way. It’s impossible to separate Kashmir from politics. It’s similarly difficult to condense centuries of complicated Kashmiri history into a feature film. Agnihotri’s current film centres on the plight of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and the events leading to make them outcasts overnight.
Kashmir Files Release Date: March 11, 2022
The Kashmir Files- Movie Plot
The film is based on true events and accounts from first-generation victims and those who survived. They convey the horrifying story of torture and heinous violence perpetrated against their loved ones.
Krishna (Darshan Kumaar) is a Delhi-based college student. Krishna is persuaded—’brainwashed.’ It is the implied term—by a professor (Pallavi Joshi) to stand for election on the ‘Kashmir cause,. It is oblivious to his own family’s history. There was murder of his parents and older brother during the exodus—”genocide,” as the film corrects us several times.
When Krishna’s grandfather Pushkar Nath (Anupam Kher) dies, he returns to Kashmir with his ashes. He encounters four of his grandfather’s friends, who tell Krishna and the audience the “true” story of Kashmir. Again, he comes across uncomfortable truths, all in flashbacks. According to their story, Kashmir was at the crossroads of civilisations. Also, the state and federal government allowed the Pandits to die in order to please one community. Bitta, the film’s villain, appears to be a mix of real-life Ghulam Mohammad Dar alias Bitta Karate and Yasin Malik, the faces of the terror group Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front.
The film’s first-half picks up the events that happened in the 1990s. Powerful oral narratives portray the Kashmiri Pandit exodus and the subsequent genocide. On the other hand, the second half focuses on Krishna, whose mind becomes a symbolic conflict zone. His grandfather and friends gave him a different perspective on Kashmir than his university professor wanted him to believe.
The Kashmir Files- Movie Cast
Mithun Chakraborty plays Brahma Dutt IAS, Puneet Issar plays DGP Hari Narain, Atul Shrivasta plays journalist Vishnu Ram, and Prakash Belawadi plays Dr Mahesh Kumar. Pushkarnath’s friends, serve as sad reminders of how the local administration, police, and even the media became helpless and mute spectators as there was nothing to save the Pandits. Pallavi Joshi plays Professor Menon and stands as the “left-liberal” separatist sympathiser lobby. As the binaries sketched attempt to oversimplify a pretty difficult problem, more nuance in writing would have provided depth.
Check out The Kashmir Files Movie Trailer here!
Overview of the Movie
The Kashmir Files by Vivek Agnihotri features some outstanding performances, an evocative background score, and a sympathetic depiction of the torture and cruelty of the Kashmiri Pandits. As Pushkar Nath Pandit, Anupam Kher gives it his all as a guy who has spent his entire life dreaming of returning to his beloved home.
Scenes of a shikara drifting calmly across the Dal Lake serve as a heartbreaking reminder of how political manoeuvring has orphaned its own people. We’ve witnessed various sides of Kashmir over the years, from pristine beauty and love to innocent people being killed, human rights violations, missing men, and unclaimed bodies. Kashmiri Pandits deserve a better understanding of their sorrow and betrayal. Regardless of how polarised the world has become, when everything is seen through the perspective of one ideology or another, the Kashmiri Pandit community deserves justice, closure, and healing. The Kashmir Files movie provides a strong case in favour of it.
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