Shikara Movie Review - Cashmere if you can

ShikaraUADrama RomanceDirector Vidhu Vinod ChopraCastAadil Khan SadiaRatingFirst things first And this is just to get a niggling feeling off my chest and something that persisted before entering the theatre Given this is a film focused on the mass forced exodus of 400000 Hindus primarily Pandits that took place in Kashmir in 1990 during the height of terrorismmilitancy in the ValleyIts a deeply disturbing eventincident that dominates current Indian politics Wherein anyone raising their voice against any other presentday atrocities is simply asked Where were you when the Kashmir Pandits lost their homes Well since half of Indias population is under 25 they were not bornFair portion of the remainder were kids That we ought to know about the humanitarian crisis goes without saying But how you say it to a public makes all the difference Putting all doubts to rest thenmdashShikara while honestly sticking to facts and sugarcoating none of the tragedy is not a propaganda filmAnd by which I mean it doesnt indulge in wholesale blind demonisingdehumanising of the other further deepening schisms or reducing an issue to simplistic binaries of good versus evil and fanning passions towards a political end As one of the characters rightly puts it in this film Aag toh laga logay bujha nahin paaoge Its easy to light the fire hard to extinguish itCheck out the trailer of Shikara hereClearly the credit for that goes entirely to this films measured writing which sparkles in its equanimity The credits are shared by director Vidhu Vinod Chopra along with Abhijat Joshi Lage Raho Munnabhai PK 3 Idiots and authorjournalist Rahul Pandita whose nonfiction on the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus Our Moon Has Blood Clots remains a critically acclaimed bestseller And surely this couldnt have been an easy subject for Chopra himself being a Kashmiri Hindu who lost his family property to the crisisSure terrorism even in the name of religion is a political issue But good art bears the tendency to heal and reflect What Chopra places at the centre of his film still is love It makes it easier to shed light on hatredShikara is firstly and in every way a romance between the two lead characters who along with grief of a lost home share bliss of togetherness and enduring hope Younglings Aadil Khan and Sadia who for some reason reminded me of Vidya Balan play these parts with such innocence and turns of such gentle expressions on cue that your heart instantly goes out to them The music is soothing As is the orphaned Valley although lost to hardened bigotry from all ends ever since the slide began in the late 80s where the film starts from rolling down to 2018 where the film endsmdashwith the lead characters ageing along with clouds of hopelessness over their original homelandChopra knows how to tie in all of this with dispassionate skills of a smart storytellerfilmmaker Folk of my vintage anyway have an eternal soft spot for him chiefly as the director of Parinda 1989 which was such a breath of fresh air at a time when the quality of output in Bollywood was abysmally lower than the current standards of Indian politicsBut his finest film in my books still remains the one that he also shot in Kashmirmdashthe stellar murder mystery Khamosh 1985 This is his return to direction after half a decade since the muddled Broken Horses that appeared marred by global overambition Its been well worth the wait Shorn of frills the minimalist Shikara is without doubt his most personal earnest piece yetCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates