Bollywood's obsession with Kashmir

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Bollywood's obsession with Kashmir

��Militancy in Kashmir�� as a topic has appealed to our Indian filmmakers. It has been getting immense attention by Bollywood directors, but they are unable to break any stereotype and fail to capture the real picture.

CJ: Inam Ul Rehman

Fri, Mar 30, 2007 00:00:00 IST

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EVER SINCE THE rise of armed insurgency in Kashmir starting from 1989, Bollywood has tried to cash on the situation. It got fillip with Mani Ratnam’s Tamil film Roja in 1993. Roja was subsequently dubbed in Hindi a year later and was a runaway success. It portrayed Kashmir as a land infested with terrorists and virtually under curfew. The film also linked terrorism with Islam. It tried to show the crises of Kashmir without touching the political question - why. The film despite being supposedly set in Kashmir has the characters speaking in Punjabi and reading and writing in Hindi! If that was not enough there is an indigenous newspaper in the film which is also in Hindi. Despite the success of this film, filmmakers did not flirt with this idea, although Vishahas films tried to reap the benefits with their forgettable film Gunaghar. The film failed at the box office and the rest of the filmmakers maintained a distance from making such films.

After the Kargil war the splurge of patriotic films came as a surprise to many. LOC: Kargil, Pukar, Kohram, Lakshya, Fanaa are few such films which came out. The unique thing about these jingoistic films was there core centric theme of presenting Kashmir as atoot anag. These films were quite oblivious of the common people of Kashmir. They were relegated to unknown places. Also the Indian filmmakers mixed the dress and culture of Kashmir with Himachal Pradesh. Mission Kashmir, Roja, Jaal-the trap and other such generic films on Kashmir directly linked Islam with militancy in Kashmir. If that is not enough, then there are also films made by various Kashmiri filmmakers of India like Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Mission Kashmir, Ashoka Pandit’s Sheen.

In 2003, J.P.Dutta made the biggest star-studded film LOC: Kargil. The fact that there was a complete absence of Kashmiri masses on the screen didn’t bother any Indian. With the latest Yash Raj film Fanaa one again witnessed the same thing. Then there came Zameen which targeted SAR.Geelani unabashedly when the case against him was in court.

Most Indian (read Hindu) filmmakers are interested in showing Kashmir as the perennial land of militancy without going in the history of Kashmir. For them Kashmir is all about Dal Lake, the Mughal gardens, picturesque locales and mountains and springs, beautiful damsels and bearded men folk. Everyone distorts Kashmir’s history and culture. These films are guilty of stereotyping all Kashmiris irrespective of Hindu or Muslim. Clothes, beards and mannerism depicted are not Kashmiri. Also the Kashmiri Muslim must pray Namaaz and render Allah at every instance and have a namaazi cap. Roja, Yahan, Mission Kashmir, Jaal-the trap show the militants performing namaaz with guns next to them.

Popular cinema is unconcerned about either analysing or depicting the truth. Purely commercial, material, unadulterated nationalism makes the cash register ring. In the congregate of films that use insurgency or cross-border terrorism to sell tickets at the box office, there are a few which have a more serious intent. It is quite interesting to see how sensitive pictures like Pinjar find no takers.

These films blindly follow their State. They see no wrong in the tactics followed by their country. For them their State is the ultimate and every act of it has to be justified. Film producers have discovered that the unfolding real-life scenario in Kashmir can easily be integrated into one standard formula of the Hindi movie. The heroic Indian Hindu hero thus gets innumerable opportunities to foil the designs of mercenary foreign hands and take the Muslim bride in the end as a price.

The question is - can one expect fair dealing with the topic of geo- politico issue? Who is behind the camera? Who writes and directs? Where does the crew come from? And then, can any better proportion be expected from Hindu filmmakers in Bollywood?

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Posted comments (4)

	Mauka mila aur Inam bhai suru. Merinews ne to Inam bhai ko bhaukne ke liye ak microphone hi de diya. Neway, coming down to the article, a collective review of bollywood and some of its films doesnt make a good content. Seems like Inam is more concerned about how the Kashmiri people has been made to look in some films than the theme of the movies. Pukar was a love story, LOC dealt with war, Lakshya had elements of love and confused childhood etc etc.....but these are not important. What is important to this myopic write is how the director mixed up the dresses of Kashmiris with Himachal Pradesh. As if we are watching movies not for entertainment, but for regional education. Then comes "Indian(read Hindu)" tag. Ignorant writer that he is, poor Inam forgets about Javed Akhtar who composes songs for these movies, Farah Khan who choreographs, A.R.Rehman who composes music have all muslim connection[Pardon me for bringing religion but perhaps thats only thing the writer understands]. And what about stereotyping Kashmiris? Not all Bengalis speak Hindi as it is shown in Hindi movies; Not all Tamilians wear lungi and run with coconut as is shown in Hindi movies...so shud every state protest? The answer is NO...coz majority of Indians have grey matter in their heads.
	\| 30 March 2007 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

	Was a very thought provoking article and needs to come in a national newspaper so everyone can go thru it.
	\| 30 March 2007 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

	Slightly inaccurate article. Since 1989, 40,000 Hindus have been killed by Islamic Terrorists. 500,000 Hindus have kicked out of their ancesteral homeland of Jammu & Kashmir. They are living as refugees in their own country in camps with poor hygene and no water. But if you want to ignore these facts then you can keep on living in your fantasy world..
	\| 30 March 2007 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

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