We all have different kinds of stories(Kashmir files). Every person has some kind of story within himself. The stories of love, pain, and betrayal are the most common genres that we have read and seen in today’s world as the world is changing day by day.
In this era of revolution, Director Vijay Ranjan Agnihotri came up with the real-life incident that happened in the 90s with the Kashmiri pandits, resulting in the most awaited movie for two years, The Kashmir Files.
The Kashmir files have their own story which is unknown to the world; the story of separation, the story of war, the story of truth against crime, which is hidden because of the boundaries of different alliances which we call as parties in India.
I think no one wants this story to come out because these are the stories of folks who have survived and are still fighting for their existence. What has happened to the Kashmiri pandit is still a secret for India. Does anybody want to live in that place?
Nobody in this world wants to be thrown from their home and treated like shit at their place. This is what has happened with the Kashmiri pandits. Some provoked communal tribes started to revoke and burn their homes, claiming that they are not part of Kashmir city anymore.
Some Muslim community alliances said and posted pictures as a warning sign outside their home to leave this place or else they are going to suffer now being a part of that place where you have spent your whole life, where your heart belongs, where you first walk barefooted on.
snow. Imagine how you will feel when your own house has been captured by strangers and you have been thrown out from this place.
It’s hidden because of the boundaries of different alliances, which we call parties in India, because I think no one wants the story to come out about what has happened to the people of Kashmir.
Why should you watch this movie?
This movie will help you to learn about the evacuation of Kashmiri Pandit. This movie deserves a chance to tell you an untold story that you have never heard or seen.
You know, in this movie you will not want to take a break or remove your eye for even a few seconds from the white screen.
This is what it gives you after each minute of suspense, thriller, and human emotions at peek. I think after watching this movie you will have empathy in your heart and mind for the Kashmiri Pandits.
VIVEK AGNIHOTRI’S MAGIC
This movie will help you to learn about the evacuation of Kashmiri Pandit. This movie deserves a chance to tell you an untold story that you have never heard or seen.
You know, in this movie you will not want to take a break or remove your eye for even a few seconds from the white screen.
This is what it gives you after each minute of suspense, thriller, and human emotions at peek. I think after watching this movie you will have empathy in your heart and mind for the Kashmiri Pandits.
EXPEIRENCES COUNT’S
Anupam Kher, who is playing one of the most important characters in the films, gives us proof that experience matters and speaks in each field, whether it’s acting or education. In an interview, he said, “During the shoot, all I felt was like a part of that community.
He said at that time he was in Delhi, but he never thought that one day he would be a part of that incident that took place at that time.
We have all seen him do magic with his acting, whether it’s in Amitabh Bachan’s Suryavansham or in Anil Kapoor’s Nayak. We have seen this man playing different characters for years and still enjoying and living with them.
The power of the story and the performances of Mithun ChakraWarty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Bhasha Sumbhli, Chinmay Mandlekar Puneet Issar, Prakash Bela Wade, Mrinal Kulkarni, and Atul Srivastava. Anupam Kher stands out even in this list with his brilliant performance.
In his latest tweet, he said I am a Kashmiri pandit, “ha main Kashmiri pandit Hun”. “It is the truth about the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits which people had hidden somehow or the other.
“The judiciary, media, politicians, intelligentsia, writers…everybody just tried to put it under the carpet,” said Kher. It was not a simple thing. It was not 10–12 people who were killed. Countless people were killed, women raped, houses burnt. And then came January 19, 1990.
More than 4 lakh people were thrown out of their houses that particular night. My mother’s younger brother was also there. It is the biggest exodus and genocide in independent India.”
A Man of His Words
When Vivek came to me about this film, when I heard the script, and he offered me this role, I knew I had to be a part of this story being told to the world, he stated.
“In a movie, you cannot show four lakh people running away. You cannot show all that happened. So, I had to use my soul to portray that. In Saraansh, I had to use my craft.I was getting ready to be an old man. But The Kashmir Files needed both the actor and the person to be on the same page.
“There is a silent scene wherein the refugee camp, he eats a biscuit, he cries, he slaps himself. Or the scene in which he feels cold and starts singing that Kashmiri song.
Even the death scene, ” he said. When we were doing the truck scene, there were actually Kashmiri Pandits in the truck. In the movie, they are told that two people are hanging out. The lady next to me started howling. I said, “What happened?” She said one of the people who were hanged was her cousin.
Even in the ’70s and ’80s, whenever Kher went home to Kashmir, people would say, “Amp India se aaye ho (you’ve come from India)?”
The address that he quotes in the film, 84, Karan Nagar, Srinagar, was his own maternal house. By the mid-’80s, sporadic killings had started. “Otherwise, I have beautiful memories of Kashmir. I have memories of Handwara, and I have memories of Sopore.
My uncles were professors in a medical college and a girls’ college. In Baramulla, cherries would come into my house through the window. My memories of Kheer Bhawani, Nishad Garden, and Dal Lake. I think it is the most beautiful place in the world, and I have travelled the whole world.”
He says the PILs, vilification campaign against the movie, motivated reviews and attempts to ban it make Kashmiri Pandits feel the pain and go through the trauma again. “No government should be able to stop the film now.” Because who are they pleasing. It is not that the terrorists have only killed Pandits.
They killed young Muslim officers, Sardars. And why should good infrastructure, hospitals, and education not reach Kashmiris? “He says.
He talks about how Jews have kept the memory of the Holocaust alive. “Films like Schindler’s List were made. Why not films on Kashmiri Pandits, anti-genocide museums? ” He asked.
Kher and the larger Kashmiri Pandit community are disappointed in the Supreme Court of India, which has twice dismissed appeals to reinvestigate the Kashmir genocide of the ’90s. It cited a lapse of time as a reason for not reopening the cases.
Now, coinciding with the film’s launch, citizens are planning a candlelight vigil before the court to make the judges reconsider.
Stating that he recently placated a senior police officer who had called about the movie’s law and order implications, he says there is no need for a particular community to be defensive about terrorism. Terrorism kills people worldwide, a majority of them in the Islamic world.
So, why didn’t Bollywood make movies like The Kashmir Files earlier? And what makes Anupam Kher so bold and outspoken?
“Because everybody wants to be liked. The problem begins when you want to be liked by everybody. But I will tell you why I am the way I am. I’m eight years younger than my country’s Independence. We grew up with those feelings.
The ’62 war, the ’71 war. We were still talking about how we got independence. We were still talking about Bhagat Singh, Gandhi, Nehru, and Lala Lajpat Rai. It’s in my bones, my blood.
I can’t change that. I need to respect myself. That can only happen if you stick to your convictions, “he says. Who can stop me? I have come from the gutter. I had come to Mumbai on June 3, 1981, with just Rs. 37. Today, I am a crore Pati and am doing so well.
I’ve been trending for the last six hours on Twitter because of my birthday. I have 522 films in my kitty. Who can threaten me?”
Kher lives in a rented apartment. It may seem jarring for a multi-millionaire Bollywood star, but such decisions set him apart from the rest of the industry, giving us a glimpse into the man’s mind.
“The day I decided I would not buy a house and stay on rent; I became the richest man on earth. I have a car. I have AC. What else do you need? Our needs make us feel small,” he says.
Kher is shooting for Sooraj Barjatya’s Uunchai, a movie completely different from The Kashmir Files. It is a grand multi-starrer with Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani, and Danny Denzongpa, a happy bonanza. But the film about his ravaged homeland will remain special.
“When you leave home, you don’t leave concrete. You leave behind memories of corners, of smells, of aab-o-hawa. The film is not going to change that.
But sometimes, catharsis happens when people cry — in Jammu, in Delhi, in Mumbai, all over America— because they did not even have the chance to have catharsis about it.”
For them, a movie may not be able to drown out the Islamist cries of “raleev” (convert), “galeev” (be killed), “ya chaleev” (or flee)” from mosque speakers and neighbourhood walls. But tears do heal, and the Kashmiri Pandits at least deserve to shed them.
Published By : Ankit Singh
Edited By : Khushi Thakur
