Friday, February 7, 2020

Movies: Shikara Review


I read the review of movie 'Shikara' on Rediff. It mentions that the movie "questions" the "politics" around Kashmiri Pandit's exile in 1990. It questions the genuineness of other Hindus who support KPs and are sad and angry with (Cong party) govt for why it did not protect KPs.

It kind of mentions that most people who support Kashmiri Pandits cause on "social media" are plain trolls who have "never met a KP" and never seen a "refugee camp". This is such a negative and skeptical view of the reality.

Quote: 'Sir, he has never seen a Kashmiri Pandit'. That's the note on which Shikara concludes.

Well, I have known many KPs from my college days. And I know about KP's refugee camp in Pune; our office colleagues used to go there to donate food items.

It seems this movie is a kind of "propaganda" film; which will do more harm to the KP community than benefit. I read that Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a Kashmiri himself. Perhaps he wanted to make a movie on Kashmir to satisfy his inner demons. But he did not have the guts to show truth.

To some extent Shikara is then like the movie Aarakshan (2011) which was supposed to be a movie on anti-reservation movement but became a rant against coaching centers. It was made by Prakash Jha who comes from the community which suffered due to caste quota. And hence Aarakshan became such a disappointment; despite having big stars like AB, Manoj Bajpayee, etc (and it flopped on Box Office too). Therefore, due to the dishonest work by movie makers, Shikara too seems to be going to be a flop.

It was better if movie-makers did not make such movies on sensitive topics which mock the subjects and ridicule people who genuinely believe in a cause.

I will of course not watch it.

- Rahul

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