''Inshallah, Kashmir'' (also known as ''Inshallah, Kashmir: Living Terror'') is a 2012 documentary film directed, produced and written by
Ashvin Kumar
Ashvin Kumar is India's youngest Oscar-nominated and two-time national award-winning filmmaker, who has written, directed and produced a wide range of films, including India's only Oscar nominated short film ''Little Terrorist'' (2004), docume ...
. It is the story of contemporary
Kashmir. A series of counterpointed testimonies, the heartbreaking coming-of-age of ordinary people; warped and brutalised by two decades of militancy and its terrible response.
Tehelka
''Tehelka'' (Hindi: Sensation) is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and a ...
says, "Although the camera and narrator usually provide the impartial eye in a documentary, stitching the story together, in Inshallah, Kashmir it is the Kashmiris who weave their deadpan narrative into a cohesive picture. Their matter-of-fact monotone says more than an entire valley of screams could."
Plot
The film opens with ex-militants describing the torture they underwent when captured by the army. A
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
describes his sentiment on being a part of the minority in the region at the height of militancy, when his grandfather was shot dead by militants. A politician and her husband describe the horror of being kidnapped and in captivity for over a month – and despite that, forming a human bond with the militants, and helping them escape when the army closed in on them. One understands from this section that militancy was not binary in nature. It was a dynamic and complex, resulting from various socio-political, economic and religious issues.
Disappearances and fake encounters led to the creation of mass graves, hidden away in sensitive border areas that civilians and journalists are not permitted to access in the name of national security. Human rights lawyer and activist Parvez Imroz reveals to us the presence of almost a thousand such graves in the valley. Rape victims from
Kunan Poshpora describe the trauma they went through at the hands of the army and the stigma that they still face due to the incident.
The film also narrates how the minority Hindu Kashmiri Pandits were effectively cleansed from the valley as the majority of them fled the Islamic Terrorists. At several points in the movie, Kashmiri Muslims describe how the males are picked up and taken to Pakistan to be trained as terrorists. One former terrorist describes how his job will not be completed until Islam is spread through India and the World. He is prepared to die as he is firmly convinced he will go to heaven – though he cannot describe his concept of heaven. One Kashmiri woman openly admits that she sympathises with Pakistani Militants as they are Muslim. There are no interviews with the Indian Military in the movie.
The film then leads us to 'normalcy' or the social ramifications the last twenty years of devastation brought to the valley. Militancy in Kashmir resulted in the Government of India deploying tens of thousands of armed troops in the region. We hear the story of one boy who lost his leg because he was caught in crossfire. The film ends on a poignant note with a young artist saying 'I need my space.'
Cast
*
Omar Abdullah
Omar Abdullah (; born 10 March 1970) is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
He became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, after forming a governme ...
as himself
* Bashir Baba as himself
*
Wajahat Habibullah
Wajahat Habibullah (born 30 September 1945) was the chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities. Prior to this, he held the position of the first Chief Information Commissioner of India. He was an officer of the Indian Administrativ ...
as himself
Online release
On 18 January, Alipur Films uploaded the first seven minutes of the film Inshallah Kashmir : Living Terror online. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter picked it up and the link had over a ten thousand hits in a week and generated curiosity and contempt alike. Views had crossed over fifty thousand within a week.
The idea of releasing Inshallah Kashmir online and free of charge was to take the film to the masses, and to make it accessible to as many people as possible – in Kashmir, within India and around the world. The full film went online on 26 January 2012, on the Indian Republic day and had over almost fifteen thousand hits that day.
Kumar plans to apply for a censor certificate and let his audience decide the fairness of the judgment of the Indian Censor Board, by making public all the details of the application along the way.
Awards
*
National Film Award
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directora ...
–
Best Investigative Film
See also
*''
Haider''
References
External links
{{IMDb title, 2255851, Inshallah, Kashmir
Indian documentary films
Documentary films about India
2012 films
2010s Hindi-language films
2010s Indian films
Films shot in Jammu and Kashmir
Films set in Jammu and Kashmir
Politics of Jammu and Kashmir
Films shot in Srinagar
Films about social issues in India
Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir
Documentary films about terrorism
Indian avant-garde and experimental films
Kashmir conflict in films
2010s avant-garde and experimental films
Fictional portrayals of the Jammu Kashmir Police