We are blinded by lies that have been repeated incessantly to our children, and then their children. This is the truth.
Walk out of a screening of The Kashmir Files, and you are likely to encounter these three individuals:
The Critic:
Be ready to be bombarded with serious assessments on how the editing could have been tighter, on how the narrative should not have overpowered the story, on how the dialogues felt like they were straight out of a Twitter thread.
You get the drift. Don’t be mistaken, these aren’t stooges of some left ecosystem planted in the theatre. They could be your colleagues and friends.
They are not liable to gain anything by trashing the movie. Chances are, they are doing this privately.
The Wide Eyed Viewer:
“Oh God, how could they show that?”, “Did that really happen?”, “So sad.”
They would watch the movie, forget about it sooner than later. It would be like any other gore fest. India’s version of Wrong Turn, perhaps?
The Silent Watcher:
It would be difficult to identify this lot. For they would have been jolted to the core. The visuals would have disturbed their psyche beyond repair.
They would admit privately that no cinematic experience, no matter how poignant, could ever capture the horrors shown on screen. Their horror would not stem from the fact that Vivek Agnihotri chose to show a portion of the undiluted truth, but the fact that the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits was not the beginning, nor is it likely to be the end.
Propaganda, you say? What does not qualify as propaganda? A white-washed version of the reality, dipped in oodles of secular thought? The love that was not lost between two communities in spite of the brutalities meted out to the Hindus of Kashmir?
Songs celebrating the unity of thought? A window into why the Kashmiri Muslims are misunderstood?
A tightly edited script, focusing on how things are better now compared to the dark days of the past?
Propaganda is a myth. There is just truth and lies. The trick lies in believing what makes you sleep peacefully at night.
Kashmiri Hindus have been brutalized, and forced to leave their land that contributed to the greatness of Bharatvarsha. This is the truth.
Their plight has never left an imprint on the psyche of Indians. This is the truth.
Hindus have been brutalized across the lands of Bharat. This is the truth.
Our collective conscience is in a deep slumber. This is the truth.
We are blinded by lies that have been repeated incessantly to our children, and then their children. This is the truth.
Delay the awakening of the Hindu mind, and you would have ensured that this brutality doesn’t stop with Kashmiri Pandits. You will be next. This is the truth.
Watch The Kashmir Files. Not because it is an impressive, bold, and necessary step toward telling the stories of Kashmiri Pandits. Not because the director made a fine, and courageous film.
Watch it because it is unlikely that you will see Kashmiri Pandits become a part of mainstream discourse ever again.
This, sadly, is the truth.
