Kashmir Files - Hum Dekhenge

 

Kashmir Files

Hindi, 2022

Director - Vivek Agnihotri

Stars - Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborti, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Chinmay Mandlekar

Mohan's Measure ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mr. Agnihotri has certainly done something no other person has dared to do, bring to light the incidents surrounding the mass exodus of tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits on January 19, 1990.  While often questioned and sketchy, there is little doubt, facts point the cause of the exodus was an attempted genocide of this community by fundamentalist terrorist organizations.

 

Hidden from the world by politics and leftist propaganda, the utter brutality and inhumanity is unfolded before us in all its goriness and wickedness.  After all, war is the product of men, and male primal instinct is nothing but anger and violence.  

Brought to the screen, the story is compelling and undeniably horrifying. But, at times, the brutality is so overwhelming, we feel as if we are watching a video game, an experience which over time numbs us to the harsh truths.

Then there is the acting.  Mr. Kumar is clearly way out of his league in playing a bewildered young man who must suddenly face truths that heretofore were never revealed to him.  He is at times plastic, at times overdramatic, and at times his eyes wander as though he were looking for a teleprompter.  The others, particularly Mr. Kher and Mr. Chakraborti, however, save the scenes with acting that brings tears to one's eyes. This contrast gives the film an almost made for TV feeling.

The sadness of directly observing human beings at their worst, both as the suffering and ones who create it, leaves us disturbed, questioning others as wells as ourselves.   Kashmir Files is a film to watch, if one can handle the gory details.  And, it is a film not to be forgotten.