The Kashmir Files

The Kashmir Files is based on true events as narrated by displaced Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990 exodus (genocide) - claims the disclaimer at the start of the film. The cinematography creates a hostile, snowy, bitter cold and melancholic mood throughout. The passionate, almost aggressive story, narrates the barbaric massacre of thousands of docile Kashmiri pandits in 1990. The film's ambition is to give a voice to the Kashmiri pandit women and children who were raped and butchered like animals. The satanic and demonic avatar of Pakistani militants celebrating the brutal bloodshed mania sends a chill through the viewer's spine. The narrative connects the freedom movement of Kashmir instigated by Pakistani source, to the anti-establishment, agenda-driven, woke communist propaganda brewing deep within the walls of JNU in Delhi. Under the rhetoric of repression and victimhood, the story claims that extremists have a vitriolic propaganda to capture Kashmir via religious superiority. The apathy and silence of the then ruling government is the final nail in the coffins of the thousands of pandits who lost their homes forever. It also is said to have under-reported the number of deaths.

The narrative is deeply moving and poignant.  The character build-up of Krishna, a young pandit is intense. He is trying to find the truth about his parents who are lost during the exodus during which his emotions are played about by ideologies; ideologies that are trying hard to cover up his parent's slaughter. In his final revelation of truth, his speech describing the barbarism of Islamic tyrants slaughtering Hindu clergy to gain communal dominance will boil any Indian's patriotic blood.   The last scene shook the audience in the cinema hall by its core and the stillness was as if a bomb had just exploded. I won't forget this experience. Anupam Kher is a class act as the pivot of the film at the center of events. He is the unrelenting voice of the filmmaker.

Rating :- 4 / 5