Haider - Truth Untold It was in September last year, when I was in Kashmir, getting down from Chakreshwar ( Hari Parbat) to visit my home of the first time in 24 years, I saw 2 Innovas stopping and tiny man coming out in rush. The face seemed similar , and when inquired , we were told that he is Vishal Bharadwaj. We went towards him and greeted him and offered him Prasad and asked him about his visit, he remarked that he was there hunting for locations for the possible movie shoot. Excited, we narrated him incidents of Kashmiri Pandit exodus and requested him to incorporate the truth in his movie, and he assured us that we would find a space in the same. A year passed by and his movie “Haider” released. Personally being a great fan of Vishal Bhardwaj movies, I thought that this movie would be a balanced one, where only truth would be shown and world would be introduced to actual conflict in our Kashmir and that’s exactly what the movie does not show, it just does not show a balanced narrative, its highly biased and shows Indian State in the poorest of light. The movie starts with a doctor curing a Terrorist of appendicitis and when doctor is confronted by his wife as to why is he doing so he says, he is doing for “Zindagi”!! Now, poignant as it look like, the director as well as doctor in the movie, knowingly choose to ignore that the person is a dreaded terrorist who must have killed many people, and most of them Kashmiri Hindus (as the movie is set in period of 1990-1995). But here is where the movie delivers its first blow to the truth, the terrorist is shown performing Namaaz and Army is shown blowing up whole house in order to prevent any casualties on their side. In a conflict zone, where death is imminent and your enemy will brook no discussion or even thought of peace, what wrong does Army do in taking this step especially when taken in order to prevent casualties when the other person is trained to kill?!?!? Slowly catching pace, the Army is again shown of creating a parallel force to annihliate the “Exteremist and Enemies of Indian State”, it is shown in the movie that Indian Army used brother to kill brother, while purposefully missing out on fact that it was one Brother who was lusting for his Sister-in-law that made him kill his brother. Movie misses out on the fact that Indian Army did not insert lust or libido in the sinning brother. Again, to some extent it may be true that Indian army pitted terrorists against terrorists, but isn’t that a norm in any war zone, Enemy of an Enemy is your friend. The only mention of the beleaguered and helpless Kashmiri Pandit is a sarcastic mention of Pandit who lived in tents has now moved to Mumbai and his house, used by Police as extermination cell, where terrorists are shown as being killed. This follows with a montage of pro-Ahjaade rallies in Kashmir, the victims of Disappearances, plight of half widows. To be honest, the heart aches seeing those scenes, a solitary tear too flows down to your cheek, but eyes keep on looking on the screen to see a mere mention of 1000 killings of KPs and dissapperance of 7 Lakh Kashmiri Hindus from their homeland. The eyes keep looking for one scene of Kashmiri Hindus living in dilapidated tents in scorching heat of Jammu. It doesn’t show Kashmiri Pandits dying of snake bites or heat strokes, there is no mention of A Kashmiri Pandit lady being cut on saw mill into two pieces by the same terrorists who are being portrayed as victims of misfortune. But then this movie was not about Kashmir – the truth , this movie was about half-baked lies and grossly misplaced convictions of its writer and misconceptions of a marauding majority which are being projected via this medium on to the rest of the world. So far I only had issues of betyral and dejection with Vishal Bhardwaj on going down on his promise outside the Praduymn Peeth, but what followed not just striked my conscience but also hurt my religious belief. The Bismil song picturized on the lawns of the Great Martand Temple of Kashmir. For the people who don’t know, Martand is 1000 year old temple and only Sun Temple facing West, the Director puts up a statue of a Devil, presumably (AFSPA or Indian State) inside the compound where there must have been a Shiv linga or Idol of Hindu God,A devil in temple premises ? Vishal Bharadwaj you may have creative freedom, you may have created a different set all together for your Opera, but using a Temple to showcase devil and your protagonist singing Bismil , invoking Allah, Just think what would have happened if you would have potaryed Devil inside Jama Masjid and your protagonist sang praises of Lord Rama and invoking him to destroy devil, you would have been lynched and your movie banned in India. A Fatwa Issued against you ! Mr Director, you may not have shown the truth atleast you could have respected my religious sentiments. Haider is a movie, which clearly showcases Indian Army as devil, where there is no mention of Casualites of Indian Army in counter insurgency, its shows the conflict without showing the other side of it, it shows a biased narrative , where the persecutors have played the persecuted and where the actual persecuted have been ignored. There have been calls to ban this movie, there have been calls to not see this movie, I wont comment on it, I leave that to conscience of peace loving, people of greatest democracy in world, the People of India to decide, whether they accept this propagandist movie, which shows half baked truth or give it a perfect ignore and put the narrative in recycle bins of history. and as of for me The truth, my truth remains untold ……………….. The article is written by Vithal Chowdhary, Coordinator, Youth 4 Panun Kashmir and was only 7 years old when his whole community were forced out of their homeland.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 10:23:42 +0000
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