A MOVIE is something that moves you and I won’t be wrong if I say the Kashmir files is a MOVIE in that regard. YES THE MOVIE  that initially got 500 screens but goes on to recover its making cost within three days of screening. YES THE MOVIE by an independent filmmaker with an overall budget lesser than marketing budget of commercial films .

Yes  the masterpiece that made IMDB to change its rating system . Vivek Agnihotri’s  The Kashmir files sparked the debate around the exodus of Kashmiri pandits, the issue ignored by politicians and so called liberal media . There is a lot of debate around this masterpiece , some politicians have called it propaganda others are making it tax free . But in the show business there is nothing called negative publicity , publicity is publicity and people are going to watch it because of the hype around it  created by politicians.

When the official Twitter account of Congress tweets about a film,  it is the best promotion a film on a serious topic can ever get .Not to say this film is loved because of that . People are loving the truth with which this story is told  . Yes The blame game is indeed on but that is what politicians do right ??  At least this time for a change it is helping to grab attention towards an important untold story.

THE TOXIC WAVE OF WHAT ABOUTISM ??

There is a certain group of people in our  country who are saying the film shows Muslims in bad light and does the work of projecting hatred towards the minority in this country?? The film is just portraying extremist followers of Islam  not all Indian Muslims. It is as if to say that movies made on the horrors of holocaust is all about channelising hatred towards the German population. If this is true then I don’t think so Schindler list a masterpiece made on Jewish holocaust would have received an Oscar .

These people need to understand that talking about World war 2 does not in any form instigate hated towards German or Japanese. Talking about atrocities faced by blacks does not instigate hatred towards white. Be it the right wing or librandu lefts , it is  painful when you see people playing whataboutism . You cannot cover up a  genocide  it is a bitter truth that people need to know  . It is disheartening and sad that it took 30 years to make a film portraying realism rather than sugar coating things.

IMDB RATING GLITCH ???

” Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title to preserve the reliability of operating system an alternative voting calculation has been applied ” . This is what IMDB has to say when Kashmir files went on remaining 10/10 position . IMDB changed its rating mechanism because , for them it was unusual for a film to get all positive review. But in my opinion it is outrageously unethical IMDb ain’t  preserving the reliability of the rating system but instead making its authenticity more vulnerable for upcoming titles similar to the Kashmir files coming from independent film makers.

To be honest with the the latest changes in the rating system I am unapologetically disgusted and utterly disappointed and feel like questioning how ethical the rating stands anymore. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that IMDb won’t see an unusual activity when other films stand rating of 9.5 with 172k voting.

CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE ??

 Without giving any spoilers I would say that this film does justice to the story of Kashmiri pandits. While watching the film,  for 3 hours you will feel your feets on Kashmir . After the release of the Tashkent files Vivek Agnihotri decided that he is all set to make its sequel on the life of Kashmiri pandits.  He wanted to make the film with all its authenticity so around 2 years he went on to research visited Kashmir  and talk to a lot of people . 

He listened to more than 750 stories of Kashmiri pandits after which he started scripting . Early on he wanted to make a documentary  but during the intense process of researching he changed his mind and thought that it needs to be a film based on their stories that unapologetically portrays truth  so that he does justice to the people . To bring more authenticity on the screen he watched interviews of the era and tried bringing those elements in the story.  Most crucial thing about the film is a wonderful star cast that does justice to their role and surrender themselves truly to their roles . 

A SHIFT OF AUDIENCE

It is such an ott thing  that irrespective of the  cast  , content works on quality of the content . But when it comes to  the big screen people want to see famous faces ,  commercialised masala stories with musicals every now and then . There is nothing wrong with that but the biggest criticism around the  Indian audience is that films with good content eg masan , mard ko dard nahi hota …with lesser known faces are not that successful ,  it  isn’t accepted by masses  or get screened by distributors . Can we say that with the success of this film the mainstream cinema will also get content driven just like ott ?? 

Will  The Kashmir files  mark the shift of Indian audience towards content driven cinema rather than star driven  cinema??

Also Read – Some Bollywood movies that are criminally underrated.