No Fathers in Kashmir: Review, Cast, Director

No Fathers in Kashmir: Review, Cast, Director

Johnson ThomasUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 12:12 AM IST
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Film: No Fathers in Kashmir

Cast: Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Soni Razdan, Zara La Peta Webb, Ashvin Kumar, Natasha Mago, Shivam Raina, Anshuman Jha, Sushil Dahiya, Maya Sarao, Shahnawaz Bhatt

Director: Ashvin Kumar

Rating: * * *

This Indian Hindi-English-Urdu-Kashmiri Language Drama directed by Oscar Nominated Ashvin Kumar tackles the issue of disappearing husbands/fathers in Kashmir – from the viewpoint of two near-teen youngsters. Noor (Zara Webb) returns to Kashmir with her mother Zainab (Natasha Mago) and going-to-be-stepfather, Wahid (Sushil Dahiya) a career diplomat in the Indian consulate. Zainab needs her in-laws – Abdul (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and Halima (Soni Razdan) to sign an affidavit accepting the death of their son after years of waiting in vain for his return. While in Kashmir, Noor learns that there’s more to her father’s leaving than mere abandonment and sets out to find out the real truth for herself.

That’s when the film falters and becomes conspicuously contrived. She gets Majid (Shivam Raina), son of her father’s best friend (who also disappeared) to pose as a terrorist, and subsequently helps him upload the pic as his Facebook profile – this all but reveals where the narrative is going. Noor is also allowed to run loose in the danger zone and her wilfulness puts Majid’s life at risk – an inexplicable laxity because we are talking about a high security zone where such behaviour is looked upon with suspicion and punished without mercy. Kumar’s attempt to palm off this brazen carelessness as a budding romantic development doesn’t cut any ice. Both Noor and Majid should ideally have been taken to task for such a transgression but their guardians/parents all-too-conveniently overlook it. When they take off into the forest and spend the night searching for remains of their dead fathers, the scenario becomes completely unpalatable.

Thankfully the film shifts its focus back to the politics of disappearing fathers, implying a complicity by factions within the population who make barter deals with the army for information and cover-ups. The brutality that Majid has to face, and the half-widows’ march for his release, brings to light the alienation and despair of the majority who are caught in the middle of the face-off between the militants and the army.

While this film lacks the power and entreaty of the recently released ‘Hamid,’ it still manages to gain some currency with sincere heartfelt performances by the lead cast and a stirring third act that highlights the opportunism and callousness of those who take the war cry of ‘Azadi’ to a violent extreme. Ashvin Kumar not only shores up the production with all-round support in a variety of positions, he also acts as Arshid- one of the principal characters in the film, lending the required duality to an emasculated persona who is surviving the brutal after-effects of losing his friends and turning informer. Despite its contrivances and cinematic compulsions, this film manages to be fairly compelling viewing.

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