Kashmir files - Review thread

https://news.abplive.com/entertainment/vivek-agnihotri-s-the-kashmir-files-ranks-no-1-on-the-list-of-imdb-s-most-anticipated-new-indian-movies-and-shows-1517987

Film releases on - 11th march

Post all review here

• Member s review
• 1) arnavfluffly s review - page 7
• 2) moodyblue s review - page 11

Thanks for this one.. as the other one is locked.

As such M anticipating it's release and commented on all threads related to it..glad there r people who volunteer to make review threads as I never make one..don't even post reviews. But love participating in discussions.

This seems good👍🏼at least hope so

I don't know if this qualifies to be posted here but I thought it's worth sharing so...

https://twitter.com/vivekagnihotri/status/1501448615880839169?t=tiABXwY9fOdjQpGPS-bgOw&s=19

I saw many videos of the audience crying.

Not in a very long time has such a hard hitting truthful film hit the theaters

Hope the film does well.

So this will be emotional movie for me because as a child of a family who was born 15 days after we were kicked out of kashmir without any money , all our personal belongings left to rot along with our dreams, this one event changed a lot for my family.

I am not here to blame any religion, politics or indulge in mud slinging but i always longed for our story to be shown, since representation matters. History teaches us to not repeat any of the mistakes and be it against any religion or any community, thus i am happy that i got a chance to see the recreation of those events.

I usually try to change the channel if someone talks about kashmir, or have even left social occasions to avoid any discussions, but maybe it is time to let the healing begin.

Bookmark.

I cant wait to watch this

https://www.indiaforums.com/article/review-the-kashmir-files-offers-a-harrowing-yet-essential-look-into-the-plight-of-kashmiri-pandits_185007

The Kashmir Files movie review: Anupam Kher is the soul of this gut-wrenching film that's brazen and brutalThe Kashmir Files movie review: Vivek Agnihotri paints a horrifying picture in his film about the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits.

The Kashmir Files movie review: Anupam Kher in a still from the movie.Published on Mar 10, 2022 03:21 PM IST

ByMonika Rawal Kukreja

Subtle depiction of horrific events often fails to do justice to the actual tragedy that was once suffered. Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri makes is clear from the word go that his film, The Kashmir Files, will not be subtle. A gut-wrenching watch, it is based on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who faced a massacre and forced exodus from their own land by the Islamic militants. (Also read: ‘Kapil Sharma refused to call us on his show because The Kashmir Files doesn't have a big star': Vivek Agnihotri)

The film opens to a visual of kids playing cricket in the neighbourhood with commentary on Indo-Pak relations booming from a transistor. Shiva, one of the kids, cheers for Sachin Tendulkar, and it instantly leads to a breach in harmony. From this moment, you know that The Kashmir Files is going to revisit the wounds that are still fresh, even three decades later.

Showing the events in the most brutal and explosive manner, Agnihotri’s narrative triggers varied emotions coupled with some of the finest performances, emotionally moving scenes and a few barbaric sequences. Ralive, Tsalive ya Galive — convert to Islam, leave or die — these words echo in your mind for a long time after watching the film, one can only imagine what it must have done to those who lived their days and nights threatened by it.

While Kashmiri Pandits continue to hope for justice even after over 30 years, the film attempts to document the ordeal of these displaced families with authenticity and not just for a cinematic recreation.

There’s a scene where a telecom engineer gets brutally shot multiple times as he hides in a rice barrel. His wife is made to eat a handful of rice mixed with her husband’s blood in order to save the rest of her family from being killed. That is just one of the many disturbing visuals that is not for the weak-hearted. The film also recreates the Nadimarg massacre where 24 Hindu Kashmiri Pandits were cruelly killed by militants dressed in combat uniforms. Watching these only take you closer to the brutality that Kashmiri Pandits witnessed. Also, the brazen way with which women across age groups faced physical violence, rape, abuse and merciless humiliation make for a difficult watch as well.

Characters in The Kashmir Files are nothing short of ‘real people’. The way they emote on screen makes you feel their pain, leaving a lump in your throat. Anupam Kher as Pushkar Nath delivers by far his strongest and most convincing performance. Given that Kher himself is a Kashmiri Pandit, Agnihotri couldn’t have cast a better actor than him for the role.

Bhasha Sumbli plays Pushklar’s daughter-in-law, Sharda Pandit whose sons — Shiva and Krishna — meet different fates in the aftermaths of this tragedy. Farooq Malik Bitta (played by Chinmay Mandlekar) is menacing as the terrorist and the brains behind this exodus, and sends shivers down your spine with his inhuman acts of shooting innocent people without any remorse.

The scene with grown up Krishna Pandit (played by Darshan Kumar) are hard-hitting, especially the portions with Professor Radhika Menon (played by Pallavi Joshi) who succeeds in brainwashing him until he himself travels to Kashmir to find out the truth.

The supporting cast including IAS officer Brahma Dutt (Mithun Chakraborty), journalist Vishnu Ram (Atul Shrivastava), Dr. Mahesh Kumar (Prakash Belawadi) and police officer DGP Hari Narain (Puneet Issar) lend able support to the story as helpless witnesses to this massacre in Kashmir.

Agnihotri’s research about the tragedy shows in every scene in the film even though the nearly three-hour length of the film doesn't do it any favours. The non-linear screenplay doesn’t let you get immersed in any one character’s story. Just when you are feeling terrible for what happened to Pushkar and his family, Krishna’s quest to find the truth about his family’s massacre takes over and you immediately switch to present-day. Krishna’s journey and the story of finding the truth about what happened to his family needed more conviction and clarity.

Having said that, The Kashmir Files is not an easy watch. You would cry, sob, feel scared watching the tragedy of lakhs of men and women who were made refugees overnight. Thankfully, it is not your typical Bollywood masala film based on true events and told with the colours of a rainbow. Agnihotri tells the horrible tale as it should have been told.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/the-kashmir-files-movie-review-anupam-kher-is-the-soul-of-this-gut-wrenching-film-that-s-brazen-and-brutal-101646904407351.html

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Home Entertainment Movie Reviews The Kashmir Files Review: The Wounds Are Real, Raw & Deep

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The Kashmir Files Review: The Wounds Are Real, Raw & Deep

The Kashmir Files, based on a true event, is directed by Vivek Agnihotri. It features Anupam Kher and Mithun Chakraborty in the leading roles.

By

Bharathi Pradhan-

March 9, 2022

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There are two ways of watching The Kashmir Files.

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One, with pure passion. It’s imperative that the world hears the gut-wrenching story of the genocide of 1990 that history has so far refused to record.

The 1984 Sikh riots have had their primetime and cinematic moments (Hawayein by Amitoj Mann and Amu, the Konkona Sen starrer), although their perpetrators still roam free and justice has not been delivered to this day. Slanted narratives on the 2002 riots in Gujarat damning the majority community have also been sporadically filmed (Rahul Dholakia’s Parzania, Nandita Das’ Firaaq), picking up applause and awards over the years.

Wherever they occur and whoever the victim, all genocides must be condemned as they have been in the past.

But for reasons largely political, the murderous rant of ‘Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galiye’ (convert to Islam, flee or perish) that led to the mass massacre of Kashmiri Pandits and to their enforced exodus from their ancestral homes, has never been given centrestage by history or the arts. Except for Sheen, a film by Ashoke Pandit that unfortunately went unnoticed in 2004.

32 years after the genocide and ‘ethnic cleansing’ that changed the demographics of Kashmir, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri wades in with a mound of authentic research, lays bare the wounds, and films it all with the brutality it deserves.

In the 1990s, when Article 370 prevailed, Kashmir enjoyed special status, most political dynasties had pro-Pak sympathies and supped with terror, the valley resounded with lusty slogans of ‘Azadi’ and abounded with graffiti of ‘Indian dogs go home’.

Against this history, children play a cricket match with an Indo-Pak commentary blaring out of a transistor. Until Shiva, one of the cricket-playing kids, cheers Sachin Tendulkar and there’s a communal flare-up.

Also Read: The Kashmir Files Beats Radhe Shyam On IMDb

The tranquility of the village is pierced. The pressure-cooker of simmering communal hatred blasts off.

Vivek’s authentic documentation of events as they truly unfolded includes:

The gunning down of entire families and silencing wailing babies with a bullet. It’s been related without exaggeration, there are searing eye-witness accounts of it and the film uses it as a closing shot.

The rape and humiliation of women of all ages. It’s shown, in all its cruel rawness.

Kayar ya akalmand? Cowardice or survival smarts? A Kashmiri Pandit, prodded to pragmatism by his wife, hides in a barrel of rice until he’s ratted out by a neighbour. When terrorist Farooq Malik Bitta (Chinmay Mandlekar) shoots enough holes in the barrel for blood to mix with the rice, the dead man’s wife has an option: eat a handful of the bloodied rice if you want to save the rest of your family. It’s not cinematic drama, it was a reality. Watch it if you can.

After Bitta, the student-turned-terror leader force feeds Sharada (Bhasha Sumbli) with the rice and spares the family, watch patriarch Pushkar Nath (Anupam Kher) with his makeup on Mahashivratri, flee with her and grandchildren, Shiva and Krishna, still an infant. Watch the inhumanness of the refugee camps callously ignored, even humiliated by the netas of the day.

They are all unvarnished, chronicled facts.

Pooh-poohed for decades by a deep nexus between terror, politics and a complicit media.

Vivek Agnihotri relives and retells the horrors of the 90s through a grown up Krishna Pandit (Darshan Kumar) who’s been brainwashed by bindi-sporting Professor Radhika Menon (Pallavi Joshi). An activist with the ‘Azadi’ brigade on the politically infested Delhi campus, Krishna is unaware of the horrifying truth about his family.

Until he goes back to Kashmir with his grandfather, Pushkar’s arthi (ashes).

And he meets a bunch of retired Kashmiris. IAS officer Brahma Dutt (Mithun Chakraborty), a cop (Puneet Issar), a doctor (Prakash Belawadi) and a media man (Atul Shrivastava) who had all played their parts in being helpless onlookers to the genocide of 1990.

Krishna meets Farooq Malik Bitta too. The terrorist who remorselessly went on Indian TV, accepted that he’d killed Kashmiri Hindus and roamed free with impunity.

Given the stark horror that visited the Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, The Kashmir Files is a vital document that needed to be filed in the public space and therefore defies a conventional rating.

**

The second way of watching TKF is dispassionately cinematically where one feels wistful and wishes that the storytelling had been far more impactful.

The narration loses much of its intended sharpness with flashbacks and a structure that raises questions instead of packing a wallop.

Why Krishna was allowed to grow up and throw his all with the very people who massacred his family, is unclear.

Why the ageing foursome, led by Brahma Dutt, insist on an elaborate cover-up and hide the truth from Krishna, is self-defeating when their very frustration was that the genocide was never given its importance in the public domain. Nor was justice sought for its victims.

Unveiling the bitter reality through Krishna’s self-discovery was a great way to tell the story of what really happened in Kashmir and to Kashmir. Particularly moving was Krishna looking at a group photograph and wondering who out there were his parents.

Must Read: Vivek Agnihotri & Kunal Kamra Get In A Fight Before Release Of ‘The Kashmir Files’

But the overlong and non-linear screenplay doesn’t give the satisfaction of seeing Krishna’s complete arc, his journey from darkness to light needed to be told with more precision.

Heart-piercing music that lingers instead of poetry that only wails, would’ve also made it more poignant.

For sure, the last sequence of the family that was massacred is stark. But perhaps needed to be placed earlier.

Watch TKF for outstanding performances by Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Chinmay Mandlekar and Pallavi Joshi.

And watch it simply because this is a long overdue story that needed to be told.

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