No Fathers In Kashmir Review: Ashvin Kumar’s No Fathers In Kashmir Is A Detailed Study Of The Kashmir Issue Through Teenaged Eyes

Film: No Fathers In Kashmir

Actors: Shivam Raina, Zara Webb, Soni Razdan, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Ashvin Kumar, Natasha Mago

Director: Ashvin Kumar

My Verdict -  Superb Cinema, Majid And Noor’s Circumstances, Will Stir Your Soul With Questions That Don’t Have Any Answers

Rated: 4 out of 5 Stars

Films based on the militancy in Kashmir have been made time and again and almost all of those movies have stirred the soul. People who do not belong to that part of the country do not understand the gravity of the situation in there. Ashvin Kumar has brought this facet out in a manner no one ever did.

His protagonists are a teenaged boy and girl. The girl is called Noor, she has flown down to Kashmir with her mother from the U.K. Needless to say she doesn’t have the slightest idea of the tensions that prevail in there. So much so that she doesn’t even know the difference between militants and terrorists. (I am sure many in our country wouldn’t know the difference in the meaning either).

When Noor meets Majid, she eventually gets to know about the sinister happenings in the valley. She is absolutely oblivious to the grave repercussions her innocent pranks might have and neither does Majid pay attention to that. Majid on the contrary is a product of that milieu. He has seen it all, in fact he is the son of a father who had been “picked up” by the army. He knows it well; his father was a militant which is why he is aware that militants take up arms because they want freedom!

Having said that, one thing that can’t be overlooked is his age. He is all of a teenager. It is evident he won’t be taking life as seriously as a grown perhaps would. That’s why in a bid to impress a girl his age, he clicks a photo in the garb of a militant and posts it on Facebook, paying no heed to the aftermaths of the action!

 The girl is unaware of the whereabouts of her father and in the course of time, she discovers that like Majid’s father, her father too was “picked up” by the army. From here begins her teenage quest to locate her father and at least fathom whether is dead or is still alive. And she takes Majid along with her. However, as fate would have it, they are stranded in the dense forested mountains, lost. They spend the night lighting a bon fire and that is when they perhaps have the first kiss of their lives, only to be caught by the army the next day. Noor somehow manages to escape but is so frightened that she leaves Majid with the army only to be tortured brutally.

The film puts up a lot many questions on the psychological level. Who is right? Who is wrong? Are the locals right when they take up arms and become militants for freedom, for an Azaad Kashmir? Or is the army right when they try to curb these militants and torture them to death and bury them somewhere in the valley, while their widows are forever in the dark about the grim reality? Is it wrong when these young boys who have seen their families suffer in the hands of the army, pelt stones at them as a mark of protest? Is it right when these army men heave their weight on these people? This is an invisible war that is being fought in this country since the independence. When will it all end?

The performances by the lead cast Shivam Raina who played Majid and Zara Webb who played Noor were excellent. Shivam especially stole the show. He was so good and believable. There was something about his glances and his body language for the matter. Zara too was very good with her expressions and the psychological turmoil she goes through as a teenager whose head is filled with so many unanswered questions. A girl who kind of betrays her friend out of sheer fear (through which she understands, at times human beings don’t know what they do, why they do and that, it is not right to point fingers at anyone because no one knows for sure what might have had happened to him or her to take a particular action the way they did…

Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Soni Razdan are great actors and they fit their respective roles like hands in gloves, even they don’t have much screen time because most of the screenplay is centred around the teenagers I spoke of earlier. Anshuman Jha as Major Pandey extracted hatred from me for his performance. That shows he is a terrific performer. One scene needs must be mentioned - he crushes Noor’s mobile phone by stamping on it multiple times, the sheer intensity with which he does it, the straight yet spiteful expression on his countenance coupled with the sound effect along with the appearance of the montage of the memories that phone accumulated over the years , made me feel angry! Very angry!

The editing of the film was also very hard-hittingly done. So much so, that I could feel, some of the shots were written with the edit in mind. The cinematography is beautiful. This film showcased that part of Kashmir which wasn’t explored earlier, especially the mist covered woods, It looked very overbearing and scary especially when we picture two teenagers in the midst of the humongous mountains densely packed with trees and no civilisation to be seen as far as the sight goes… The jerky camera movements though when Arshid (Ashvin Kumar) talks is a bit too much!

Ashvin is the director of the film and he has done a swell job. He is a prolific filmmaker; his work has earlier been nominated for the Oscars as well and this film too is sheer greatness!