It is been more than 30 years since the infamous “exodus” of Kashmiri Pandits happened from Kashmir. That exodus is certainly the most painful chapter of Kashmir’s history, it’s a saga of utterly complex circumstances that lead to the departure of almost half a million Hindus from Kashmir valley.
Since then the issue of their return is an aspect of every discussion about Kashmir. This has fuelled the Hindu-Muslim polarisation in India over the years, in turn fuelling the terrorism and Hindu-Muslim chasm in the Kashmir Valley.
[Mashshare]
In order to show the ordeal of Kashmiri Pandits and unveil some uncomfortable truths of the Kashmir genocide, the acclaimed Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri is bringing a thought-provoking movie ‘The Kashmir Files’. It features renowned actors such as Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumaar, Pallavi Joshi, and Chinmay Mandlekar.
The Kashmir Files is produced by Zee Studios and Tej Narayan Agarwal, Abhishek Agarwal, Pallavi Joshi, and Vivek Agnihotri. It is written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, is scheduled to release in theatres on January 26.
Fortunately, both have done a wonderful job to expose this monumental tragedy and tried to show the real face of Kashmiri Pandit’s plight. This film has been crafted to wipe out the false narratives propagated by people with vested interests all these years. It also shows how a prosecuted society experience plethora of plights within their own land.
Kashmiri Pandits experienced persecution by Muslims and fall in the same league of other persecuted societies in the world, such as Jews by Christian Germany, native people of Americas and Africa by Christian West, Christians in Turkey by the Islamic Ottoman empire, or even Yazidi by Islamic State.
Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) and Indian American Community with many other partner organizations arranged a sneak preview of ‘The Kashmir File’ film screening before the formal release of this film on January 26, 2022.
The movie is quite intense and it touches your raw nerves and wakes you up from your deep ignorance and slumber. It shows how systematically our civilization has been destroyed and our own people have been killed mercilessly. It makes you ask a question to yourself, ‘whether Bharat is going to survive and revive itself or perish soon like any other civilizations.’
“Persecution In the Modern Age” organized in Houston
On 20th December, a screening of ‘The Kashmir Files’ was hosted in Houston, Texas. The event was organized by Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora in association with ‘I AM BUDDHA FOUNDATION’ along with the Indo American Society of Greater Houston.
The event is named ‘Persecution In the Modern Age”, and the film screening was followed by a panel discussion on global genocides and systemic annihilation on a religious basis. The panel had some eminent personalities such as Aadit Kapadia, Dr. Surinder Kaul, Parag Tope, Asinja Badeel, along with Vivek Agnihotri and Pallavi Joshi.
Asinja Badeel is a Yazidi refugee, who was forced to leave Iraq with her family due to religious persecution. She spent a year in Istambul before coming to Houston in 2008. She is a renowned influencer, teacher, and successful businesswoman. She shared her ordeal and draws a parallel between the exodus of Kashmir Pandits and Yazidis from their own land.
Overwhelmingly emotional response by Viewers
As expected, the movie got an overwhelming response from the viewers. They appreciated Vivek Agnihotri for his brilliant direction and all actors for their brave and excellent acting.
Most of the viewers were moved and in a state of shock while watching this saga of unprecedented pain and religious persecution. People were crying while providing their feedback about The Kashmir Files.
The message the audience took with them is that from now on, we need to stay united unconditionally, raise voices against minority appeasement and pandering by the political leadership, and stop sacrificing the lives of our soldiers in the process of eliminating terrorists.
The movie also gave a stern message that we all need to encourage our executive, legislative, judiciary, administrative, and government to get to the root cause of terrorism and eliminate it from the country, to prevent such persecution again in the future.
Before that, Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri gave a steering speech on Kashmir And Intellectual Terrorism at the State University of Denver, which gives you a better insight into the movie and the kind of explosive and moving content it may offer.
We are pretty much sure that this film will reveal some hard facts while encouraging us to evoke the spirit of bringing back that inner human spirit of love and brotherhood among ourselves.
Event Organizers and Supporters
Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora, Indo-American Association, HAF, IASGH, Deep, and Divyendu Singh
The Kashmir Files – Media Partners
Trunicle, Kreately, MyIndMakers, REACH, Sudarshan News, India Herald
