''Mission Kashmir'' is a 2000 Indian
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
-language
action thriller film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed and produced by
Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Vidhu Vinod Chopra (born 5 September 1952) is an Indian film director, producer, editor, screenwriter, lyricist and actor. His well-known films as director are '' Parinda'' (1988), '' 1942: A Love Story'' (1994). He is also known for producing ...
. The film stars
Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 100 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though u ...
,
Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including six ...
,
Jackie Shroff
Jaikishan Kakubhai Shroff (born 1 February 1957), popularly known as Jackie Shroff, is an Indian actor and former model. He has been in the Bollywood industry for over four decades, and , has appeared in over 220 films in 13 languages namely Hi ...
,
Preity Zinta
Preity G Zinta (pronounced ; born 31 January 1975) is an Indian actress and entrepreneur primarily known for her work in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. After graduating with degrees in English literature, English honours and criminal psychology, Z ...
, and
Sonali Kulkarni
Sonali Kulkarni (born 3 November 1974) is an Indian actress, producer, and writer who primarily appears in Marathi and Hindi films. She has also appeared in Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati and English films. She has worked in over 70 films, both com ...
. It deals with
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
and the tragedy of children suffering from
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
.
''Mission Kashmir'' follows a young boy Altaaf Khan, who gets adopted by a police chief as his police team accidentally kills Altaaf's entire family. After finding out, he seeks revenge and becomes a terrorist. Rated R in the United States due to violence, the film was screened at the
Stockholm International Film Festival and released theatrically in India and worldwide on 27 October 2000 during the
Diwali
Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is ...
festival.
The film clashed with
Aditya Chopra
Aditya Chopra (; born 21 May 1971) is an Indian filmmaker, studio executive, producer and film distributor who mainly works in Indian cinema. Currently serving as the Chairman and Managing Director of Yash Raj Films, founded by his father Yash ...
's musical romance ''
Mohabbatein
''Mohabbatein'' () is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film that was written and directed by Aditya Chopra and produced by Yash Chopra of Yash Raj Films. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Aishwarya Rai, and newcom ...
'' which starred
Shah Rukh Khan
Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works in Hindi films. Referred to in the media as the " Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" ...
and
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succe ...
. Nevertheless, it was a critical and commercial success with global revenues of , emerging as the
3rd highest-grossing Hindi film of 2000.
It won the
Filmfare Award for Best Action
The Filmfare Best Action Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films.
Although the awards started in 1954, the category was not started until 1993.
Superlatives
;Most Awards
*Sham Kaushal ...
and had similarities with Roshan's another 2000 film ''
Fiza
''Fiza'', also known as ''Fiza: In Search Of Her Brother'', is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film written and directed by Khalid Mohammed. It stars Karisma Kapoor as the eponymous lead, along with Hrithik Roshan as her terrorist ...
'', in which he also played a terrorist.
Plot
Inayat Khan is the Senior
Superintendent
Superintendent may refer to:
*Superintendent (police), Superintendent of Police (SP), or Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), a police rank
*Prison warden or Superintendent, a prison administrator
*Superintendent (ecclesiastical), a church exec ...
of Police of Srinagar,
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
. When Inayat's young son Irfaan succumbs to his injuries he sustained from an accident following doctors' refusal to treat him in fear due to the
fatwa
A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...
instigated by wanted terrorist Malik Ul Khan forbidding doctors to treat policemen and their families, Inayat swears revenge against Malik. Inayat and his team manage to track down Malik and his men, but in the crossfire that ensues, a bystander couple is killed along with Malik and his men, leaving their son Altaaf as the sole survivor. Inayat's wife Neelima still grieving from the loss of her son and wrongly blaming herself for his death despite her husband's faith in her, convinces a reluctant Inayat to adopt the young Altaaf, who's traumatized from the loss of his family. Inayat fears Altaaf might seek vengeance if he learns the truth behind the event, and this fear comes true one day. After an unsuccessful attempt on Inayat's life, the young Altaaf runs away and is found and brought up by a terrorist group led by their Pathan leader Hilal Kohistani, who
brainwash
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...
es him into thinking that he and his men act according to Islamic principles and trains him to become a terrorist.
Ten years later, Hilal and an adult Altaaf are assigned the task of completing "Mission Kashmir," a plan of an unnamed terrorist sponsor that involves; or so Altaaf is told, killing the Indian Prime Minister. Hilal uses Altaaf's hatred as a means to achieve his own goals while encouraging the latter to target Inayat, who is now an Inspector General, for his family's death. Altaaf visits his childhood friend and television personality Sufiya Parvez and, though he falls in love with her, uses her to try and make Hilal's plan of blowing up the local TV tower of Srinagar on Khan's birthday successful. He makes another unsuccessful attempt on Inayat's life, which results in him being branded as a wanted criminal by the media and a fallout between Inayat and Neelima.
Sufiya also learns of Altaaf's true occupation and breaks off her relationship with him. On the same date that Atlaaf's family was murdered, Altaaf makes another attempt on Inayat by having three of Hilal's men plant a bomb in Khan's briefcase. Unfortunately, Neelima falls victim to it by accident, much to the complete devastation of both Inayat and Altaaf, with the former having lost his chance to apologize for his argument with her and the latter being wracked with extreme remorse for killing her.
Following Neelima's funeral, Inayat manages to invade one of the terrorists' hideouts and discovers evidence and information about Mission Kashmir after capturing the men who planted the bomb. After going through some cassette tapes with the help of Sufiya, Inayat learns that the true goal of Mission Kashmir is to launch missiles on local places of Hindu and Muslim worship to escalate Hindu-Muslim conflict across the subcontinent, thereby dividing Kashmir and turning it into a war zone. It also turns out that the attack on the TV tower was planned by Hilal to spread the rumor of assassinating the Prime Minister to cover up the true plot. Inayat also learns that Hilal deliberately kept the true plot of Mission Kashmir a secret from Altaaf for he fears that Altaaf would not support it. This is made evident when Atlaaf leaves to the swampy hideouts to prepare for the launches, Hilal secretly tells one of his men to keep an eye on Atlaaf and kill him if he doesn't consent over the true targets.
By staging a fire in the jail that allows one of the bomb-briefcase men to escape, Inayat and his men manage to track down and capture Hilal. Inayat offers to make a deal with Hilal: going under the false pretense of allowing Hilal and his men to continue forward with Mission Kashmir in exchange for killing Altaaf to avenge Neelima's death. Seeing that Inayat's 'hatred' of Altaaf is worthy of a Pathan's duty, Hilal accepts the deal, and to ensure no other mistake will be made, Inayat goes alone with Hilal to the hideouts.
As Hilal and Inayat reach the hideouts, Hilal tells Altaaf of Inayat's whereabouts. An enraged Altaaf starts beating up a weary Inayat, but the latter reveals to him the true goals of Mission Kashmir, stating that Kashmir will be turned into hell if he lets Hilal destroy the holy shrines. Hilal orders Altaaf to shoot Inayat, who is willing to accept his fate after expressing his dear love for Altaaf and remorse for killing his family.
As Altaaf struggles to do it, he remembers that Neelima took him to the shrines and the comment Neelima said about choosing sides during her visit earlier. Unwilling to betray his mother, Atlaaf decides to put his plan of revenge aside and aids Inayat in stopping Hilal and his men from targeting the holy shrines. However, Hilal throws a bomb to distract them before getting shot to death by Altaaf, giving Hilal's men a chance to prepare to blow up the shrines.
While Inayat shoots down several terrorists, Altaaf redeems himself by taking possession of a missile launcher and using it to destroy the other launchers and kill the remaining terrorists, thus saving the shrines. However, Altaaf gets shot in the torso and falls into the swamps. Inayat jumps in and rescues the unconscious Altaaf by bringing him to shore, evading the explosion of the hideouts caused by Altaaf's act of redemption.
The plans of Mission Kashmir are revealed to the public by the media, and the terrorist sponsor's hideout is found by Kashmiri police, who shoot the sponsor as he tries to get away after killing two of his associates. Altaaf wakes up from a pleasant dream, where he reconciles with Sufiya and forgives Inayat, accepting the latter as his father again after 10 years.
Cast
*
Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Balraj Dutt (born 29 July 1959) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, Dutt has won several accolades and acted in over 100 films, ranging from romance to comedy genres, though u ...
as Inayat Khan
*
Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including six ...
as Altaaf Khan
*
Preity Zinta
Preity G Zinta (pronounced ; born 31 January 1975) is an Indian actress and entrepreneur primarily known for her work in Hindi cinema, Hindi films. After graduating with degrees in English literature, English honours and criminal psychology, Z ...
as Sufiya Parvez
*
Sonali Kulkarni
Sonali Kulkarni (born 3 November 1974) is an Indian actress, producer, and writer who primarily appears in Marathi and Hindi films. She has also appeared in Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati and English films. She has worked in over 70 films, both com ...
as Neelima Khan
*
Jackie Shroff
Jaikishan Kakubhai Shroff (born 1 February 1957), popularly known as Jackie Shroff, is an Indian actor and former model. He has been in the Bollywood industry for over four decades, and , has appeared in over 220 films in 13 languages namely Hi ...
as Hilal Kohistani
*
Puru Raaj Kumar
Puru Raaj Kumar (born 30 March 1970) is an Indian actor who works in Bollywood films. He is the son of actor Raaj Kumar and is married to Croatian model Koraljika Grdak.
Early life and education
He was a student of Gettysburg College where h ...
as Malik Ul Khan
* Abhay Chopra as Avinash Mattoo
*
Vineet Sharma
Vineet Kumar Sharma (born 6 January 1959) is an Indian field hockey player. He competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest cit ...
as Gurdeep Singh
*
Rajendra Gupta
Rajendra Gupta (born 17 October 1947) is an Indian film, television and theatre actor and director who is known for his television roles of Adina Beg Khan Sahib e Azam in 2010 series of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Pandit Jagannath in the 1990s Doorda ...
as Chief Secretary
*
Ashok Banthia
Ashok Banthia, sometimes referred as Ashok Bathia or Ashok Bhatia, is an Indian actor and director associated with Hindi film, television and theatre actor. He is a NSD (National School of Drama) alumnus known for his roles in Australian TV ...
as Sharafat
* Mohsin Memon as Young Altaaf
* Heenaa Biswas as Young Sufi
* Yogin Soni as Irfaan
* Rohit Dua as Guru
*
Suchita Trivedi as Dr Akhtar's wife
*
Ram Awana
Ram Awana (born 1 March 1971) is an India, Indian film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Raja Paundrak in ''Dwarkadheesh – Bhagwaan Shree Krishn'', Chanur in ''Jai Shri Krishna (TV series), Jai Shri Krishna'', Farooq in D ...
as Zuber Bhai
* Papa Pencho as Himself
Production
Due to the tight security in Kashmir, in late 1999, when the lead actor
Hrithik Roshan
Hrithik Roshan (; born 10 January 1974) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. He has portrayed a variety of characters and is known for his dancing skills. One of the highest-paid actors in India, he has won many awards, including six ...
arrived on location to start shooting ''Mission Kashmir'', his debut film ''
Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai'' (2000) had not yet released, so no one recognized his face. Arriving for the first day of the shoot in
Srinagar
Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...
dressed as a Kashmiri militant, which he portrays in the film, the security guards on location thought Hrithik really was Kashmiri – because of his fair skin and light coloring, and refused to allow him on set. Shortly thereafter, on 14 January 2000, ''Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai'' turned him a superstar overnight, and his face was instantly recognized everywhere.
Critical reception
Saisuresh Sivaswamy from ''Rediff'' wrote, "This is a story from the director's heart, not his head, and the sincerity comes across in frame after frame." Giving the film 4 out of 5 stars, N. K. Deoshi of ''apunkachoice.com'' wrote, "Beneath all the drama that goes on in the movie there lurks the aspiration to get across to people the message of what actually people of Kashmir are going through." Savitha Padmanabhan of ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' stated, "''Mission Kashmir'' might have its faults but it is definitely a cut above the rest of the commercial Hindi films that have been made on terrorism." She also praised the cast's performances and the film's production value. Film journal ''
Screen
Screen or Screens may refer to:
Arts
* Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing
* Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry
* Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...
'' praised the performances, but further wrote, "Chopra makes a sincere effort in his latest film ''Mission Kashmir'' to bring to the fore, the turmoil in the valley. But one feels disappointed, all the same, that there is very little of Kashmiriyat in the story, which is more of a personal conflict between the victim of a police shoot-out and a police officer." Suman Tarafdar of ''Filmfare'' panned the film for its lack of "serious look at the issue".
Vinayak Chakravorty of ''
Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...
'', however, rated the film 3.5 stars, calling it "a good show" and praising Dutt's performance as "perfect". Jitendra Kothari of ''
India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...
'' praised the film as "a gripping film on a trenchantly topical issue, avoiding apportioning blame by intermingling strains of loss and guilt."
Awards and nominations
Music
The soundtrack of the film contains seven songs. The music is conducted by the trio
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and English. Amongst t ...
, performing separately.
Ehsaan Noorani
Ehsaan Noorani is an Indian composer and guitarist.
Music career
Noorani is the part of the '' Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy'' trio, which consist of Shankar Mahadevan, Loy Mendonsa and himself. He was the guitarist for many music directors before h ...
composed three songs, while
Shankar Mahadevan
Shankar Mahadevan (born 3 March 1967) is an Indian singer and composer who is part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio that writes music for Indian films.
Personal life and early career
Shankar Mahadevan was born in Chembur, Mumbai into a Tami ...
and
Loy Mendonsa
Loy Mendonsa is an Indian music director and part of the Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy trio which consist of himself, Shankar Mahadevan and Ehsaan Noorani. Before becoming a music composer, he played piano and keyboards for famous Indian music compose ...
composed two songs each.
According to the Indian trade website ''
Box Office India
Box Office India is an Indian film website. Its traffic ranking in India is 83,665 . A new Box Office India website went live on 20 January 2014.
About
Box Office India was launched on 10 June 2003. Its uses Whois privacy to anonymize its owne ...
'', with around 1.5million units sold, the film's soundtrack album was the year's third highest-selling.
The song "Bumbro" was recreated as "Bumbro" for the film
''Notebook'' (2019).
References
External links
*
{{Vinod Chopra Films
2000 films
2000s Hindi-language films
Films about terrorism in India
2000s action war films
Films shot in Jammu and Kashmir
Films directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Films set in Jammu and Kashmir
Indian films about revenge
Indian Army in films
Kashmir conflict in films
Indian action war films