21. No Fathers In Kashmir; movie review

NO FATHERS IN KASHMIR
Cert 15
108 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language

What must it be like to have lived in a war zone for an entire life?
Many more have been killed during the Kashmir conflict than that between Israel and Palestine and yet it is seldom reported in the west.
Thousands of men have disappeared during the past 72 years leaving wives and families distraught but there is no end in sight with India and Pakistan still at loggerheads over the territory.
No Fathers In Kashmir offers a much different slant than I have seen in previous movies which have tended more towards the rah-rah-rah of war.
Ashvin Kumar's movie is played out through the eyes of a 16-year-old who has been brought up in England but whose father has long been lost, presumed dead in Kashmir.
It stars Zara Webb as Noor, a social-media-obsessed young woman who is taken to visit the grandparents she has never met.
There she begins on the early steps of romance with a boy (Shivam Raina) whose father disappeared at the same time as hers.
However, more important is to discover what happened to their dads - and the more she digs, the more she heads towards answers which are unpalatable and dangerous.
Kumar directs and plays a religious zealot who knows more than he is letting on about the fate of the men who were both his friends.
He has captured a very different Kashmir to the one presented in many Bollywood movies which often focus on the heroism of the Indian army.
Here the focus is much more on the Muslim community who are trapped on the wrong side of the border between two warring nations.
It appears deliberate that it concentrates on Noor's naivety in trying to find out about her father's fate.
Put simply, she sees none of the dangers which are very evident to those who live with the war day in, day out.
Sometimes that is endearing and interesting and sometimes it is irritating. Indeed, I found myself wanting to shout at the screen: "Don't be so stupid."
No Fathers In Kashmir is such an important film that censors have been in a quandary over it but it does slip too easily into cliches.
It paints the conflict and the characters as very black and white and yet I suspect there are many shades of grey.
Nevertheless, the more people who watch it, the better.

Reasons to watch: Delves deeply into the longest and bloodiest conflict on earth
Reasons to avoid: A tad stilted

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7/10

Did you know? The Kashmir conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as a dispute over the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes. China has also been involved in the conflict.

The final word. Ashvin Kumar: "My film asks, isn’t it time we start telling the truth? Shouldn’t people be allowed free and unmediated interaction with each other? Shouldn’t narratives of compassion be allowed to replace those of hate?” Scroll.in

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