लाज़िम है कि हम भी देखेंगे

 लाज़िम है कि हम भी देखेंगे |

The movie that has stirred quite an air amidst big budget conventional Bollywood films- The Kashmir Files...this is my take on this movie - एक प्रेक्षक ,एक भारतीय, एक हिंदू आणि एक स्त्री अशा point of view ने....

First of all- as quoted by Ram Gopal Verma- this movie has broken the records and age old bolly-tradition of showing the skin, the perfect bodied actresses starving themselves to get into the shape only to play a sidekick to the "hero" ; the unsaid requirement of heroes to be from established "clubs" and "houses" of Bollywood ; the item numbers...No ; Indian audience today has made a very conscious choice of going beyond its reputation as an audience...

A movie without a tinge of humor ; the truth that gets under your skin to the very bone and flesh and a dead silence of acute guilt that follows it for why you didn't know what all you know now ..how much oblivious to the truth we were....the movie that was not meant to attract masses but simply for the recognition of this Genocide. So kudos to my fellow Indians for their efforts on mouth to mouth publicity...In the history of Indian cinema- a film denied of any mainstream marketing has been blessed with the best and biggest marketing team- the public itself...

Now a take as Indian - As I went through the youtube clips and snippets of interviews of the director, the team, the real life incidents and atrocities faced by Kashmiri minorities , I came across the clip of Bitta Karate himself admitting his pivotal role in this genocide on national television at that time..And he has not been put behind bars long enough for it to be accountable for his acts...you can youtube this particular clip. And the same terrorists being referred to as "sahab" by news media- again youtube clips of yasin malik with high profile news anchors are available, their wives interviewed on how they dealt with the heartbreaking situations where a case was filed against their spouses that now have coronated themselves as the propellers of "non-violent" movement of kashmir.....Indian media painting them as some देवदूत ; creating backstories for them to reach out to tear ducts of spectator and toning down real life stories to camera fit reel life stories for them.....considering all of this -why wouldn't the youth of India gather courage to loudmouth anti-national slogans if this is what they have witnessed while growing up ?! आजही आम्हाला भारत तेरे तुकडे होंगे, अफझल गुरु हम शरमिंदा है के तेरे कातिल जिंदा है म्हणावंसं वाटतं कारण आमच्या पर्यंत आमचाच इतिहास पोहोचला नाहीये. Kashmir has always been that land of dispute to us which makes a cut in textbooks only for its beauty ...काश्मीरचा इतिहास हासुद्धा भारताचाच इतिहास आहे आणि इतिहास हा लोकांच्या sentiments नुसार बदलत नाही. भावना दुखावल्या जातील म्हणून केवळ तो झाकून ठेवायचा to the extent की एक अख्खी पिढीच स्वतःच्या देशाचा गौरवशाली इतिहास विसरते किंवा rather पारखी रहाते. आपल्याला परकीय आक्रमण आणि धार्मिक, सांस्कृतिक, बौद्धिक शोषण याची माहिती फक्त British Ruled Era पुरती मार्यादित वाटते याहून ते दुर्दैव काय.... अन मग अशा confused between the narratives पिढीला देशाबद्दल अभिमान, आत्मीयता आणि स्वातंत्र्य पणाला लागणं याचा अर्थ, यातलं काहीही काय समजावं?! म्हणजे इथे बसून I stand with Ukraine चे status अन storya टाकायच्या पण स्ततःच्या देशाबद्दल आपलं ज्ञान इतकं तोकडं असावं की अज्ञानी रहाण्यात आम्हाला धन्यता वाटावी ...आपल्या भावना याहून अजून किती बोथट होणे बाकी आहे?!

माझ्या कित्येक batchmates ना ही film येण्यापूर्वी काश्मिरी हिंदूंवर झालेले अत्याचार माहीत नव्हते. केवळ घरातून वातावरण असं होतं की ह्या imaginary गोष्टी नाहीयेत पण हे सत्य आहे इतपत माहिती मला निश्चित होती पण वास्तव हे इतकं हृदय पिळवटून टाकणारं आहे याची आज पहिल्यांदा जाणीव झाली....

The one bloody amazing feet this film has achieved is that it is setting up a new narrative to the whole kashmir issue....The narrative that is making it possible for us to digest terms like Genocide, Islamic Terrorism, brainwashing.....because this Exists period. Acceptance of the fact that religion has been used as a weapon by fanatics for -Raliv,Galiv,Chaliv policy over many eras not just some couple of hundred years shouldn't hurt the sentiments of any community in particular for the simple reason that here a community is not being blamed for atrocities but it's that segment of compulsive killers with distorted psychy which exactly knows how to weaponize human emotions with religious supremacy.....

Why not has ever Steven Spielberg been asked the kind of questions (for Schindler's list )that arise around Kashmir issues ? A significant chunk of Hollywood movies , documentaries exist that speak of Holocaust but has ever any such attempt been called communal ?  Is there any criticism for not exploring or not depicting the gray area of Holocaust??  No...because they dare to face the truth  

And even today when we watch such movies, we do not hate the Germans for that because the agenda always remains- to put forth the naked truth of persecuted ones without having to put up an alternative standpoint to find a midlle ground ..

How many movies that you know of depict Nazis with a soft corner the way Indian Cinema gives the "heart-touching" backstories to the terrorists and how "they were made" terrorists by "the system " ....Do we see such explanations for distortion from basic humanities in cinematography outside India ? No....So I think it's a high time that we rewire our brains to stop the need to search for "the other side " and Justifications for heinous acts of ethnic cleansing...because by extrapolating the same logic -the persecuted minorities of Kashmir , the oppressed dalits should've wielded weapons....but they didn't....So there shouldn't be a Justification for terrorism.....and even after going through such traumatic experiences of life- kashmiri minorities are very well educated, literate community ...even after watching their women folk raped, watching them burnt alive , public incidents of misbehavior ...even after all that- they haven't ever discriminated between a Boy and a Girl....they didn't make their women sit at home & hide behind thick clothes in the name of protection and they starved themselves for the education of their younger generation.....They didn't have time to sit with their PTSD, mental traumas of losing at least one kin to Genocide because what all they could "save" was their children.....for their sake they kept the hope alive and high , for them they thrived......their wounds do not demand compensation with blood for blood ; but only a mere accountability.....

It shouldn't be a privilege to have knowledge of these events, it's more of our responsibility to let our generation-the most ill-informed generation know its own history....its own atrocities....and more so to the next generation to avoid facing the same pitfalls over centuries once again...and definitely not so in a democratic, secular state of India...

And this story is not even our history- It's recent past...that still bleeds fresh..

लाज़िम है कि हम भी देखेंगे 

वो दिन कि जिस का वादा है 

जो लौह-ए-अज़ल में लिख्खा है 

जब ज़ुल्म-ओ-सितम के कोह-ए-गिराँ 

रूई की तरह उड़ जाएँगे 

Jai Hind.                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                     - Shruti .