Shreyam Sen

Exodus or genocide? Director Vivek Agnihotri drops another unparalleled movie,proving his ability of being consistent with his direction.The outrageous experiences that the kashmiri people went through has been portrayed in the film,making us connect to it emotionally.Starring Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakravarti,Darshan Kumar and others,this movie is almost a three hours brutal depiction of the truth. As the title of the movie suggests, how the Kashmiri Hindus rather the Kashmiri Pandits were mercilessly killed and forced to leave the two Union Territories in the early 90s has been presented to us through the family of Pushkar(Anupam Kher).How would we feel if we aren't sure if we are going to die the next moment?The movie gives a perfect answer to that. The state of affright the movie would leave you in is inexplicable.The movie distributes that level of tension which cannot be explained by just writing a few words about it.Personally what I loved about the movie is that it does not draw a conclusion or show that things are completely fine.The audience do not get even an ounce of relief till the end.We come out of the theatres angry,sad and with a heavy heart. But seems like there were a few dark clouds amidst the clear sky.Performance of Anupam Kher in the movie is something bragged about too much.The runtime of the movie is stretched to almost three hours which was completely unnecessary.Some songs,patriotic dialogues,Krishna's(Darshan Kumar)running between the truth and the lies felt a bit needless.It wouldn't have made much difference if those scenes did not make to the final cut - typical Bollywoodish style.Talking about the screenplay,I felt it was a bit belated and slow compared to other Vivek Agnihotri projects.While watching you'll definitely have watery eyes,not because you'll be crying but probably you'll find yourself yawning.Discounting all that,I'll say ‘The Kashmir Files’ is a must watch. I know there are many people who wouldn't happen to watch this movie,but you'll be missing a good watch because these kind of motion pictures are a rare case from Bollywood nowadays.