The Kashmir Files (5/5)

 

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The Kashmir Files - Ignored and Forgotton

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The Kashmir Files is a drama movie written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. The movie is based on incidences that depict the genocidal exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in 1990 during Kashmir's Insurgency. It stars Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, and Pallavi Joshi. 

The story of the movie is based on video interviews of the first generation victims of the Genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. The central character of the movie is Krishna Pandit, a Student Leader based in Delhi played by Darshan Kumar who travels to Kashmir to fulfill the last wish of his grandfather Pushkar Nath Pandit played by Anupam Kher. Darshan is brainwashed by Prof. Radhika Menon (played by Pallavi Joshi). The movie shows the horror of Genocide and Killing by going back and forth in time through narration by Pushkar Nath's four friends played by Mithun Chakraborty, Prakash Balewadi, Puneet Issar, and Atul Srivastava to Krishna Pandit. It also covers the left-liberal student politics and how it is intertwined with non-state actors. 

The movie is very graphic, shows the gruesome genocide unapologetically which was kept hidden from our history for many years. You can sense the honesty in movie making where Vivek Agnihotri portrayed stories as told by the victims with amazing direction. The movie is gut-wrenching, makes you cringe, sad and angry at the same time on the thousands of Pandits are still waiting for justice. 

Many will compare this movie with The Tashkent File, a previous movie of its maker however Rashkent File was a great story but technically was not a great movie. This one is high-quality moviemaking with great direction by Vivek Agnihotri, superb cinematography, and background score. Vivek has handled the complex storytelling of this saga beautifully by choosing key characters who are well played by each actor. Anupam Kher stands out tall by probably his best-ever performance as a victim, Pallavi Joshi, and Mithun Chakravarty are perfect and Darshan Kumar stands out boldly.

It is certainly a high-quality movie and each Indian must watch it to know what happened as recently as in 1990 and forgotten.

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