The Kashmir Files, a film directed by Vivek Agnihotri with a star cast of Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, has taken the nation by storm. The film showcases the mass killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s.
With the endorsement of the film from PM Modi and many BJP-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Haryana, Uttarakhand making the film tax-free apart, it's expected that more moviegoers will be thronging cinema halls to watch The Kashmir Files.
The Free Press Journal talked to Kashmiri Pandit students from across the country, who watched The Kashmir Files and shared their thoughts on what the film meant to them.
Vimarishi Koul, an Engineering student at Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology in Patiala who watched the film in the cinema theatre, said that the film led her to feel sad and happy at the same time. "What I witnessed in The Kashmir Files is a reality my family made me aware of years ago. To see the struggles we went through being portrayed on the big screen, after decades, gave me a sense of joy and hope but at the same time it pained me to see the violence that our community faced," stated Vimarishi who added that the film will also clear questions people have about Kashmiri Pandits as not much is known about the community among the ordinary populace.
"I think it's important that school and college education focus on incidents that are dark spots in Indian history so that students are more aware of the severity of such incidents," added Vimarishi whose family still resides in Jammu.
Ridhi Pandita, a student in Mumbai's Somaiya Vidyavihar University who is currently in the city to pursue her undergraduate, told the Free Press Journal that to call The Kashmir Files a 'movie' would be not fair as it's a flashback of the past that's immersed in reality for many like her who are a part of the Kashmiri Pandit community. "Regardless of the film being a testament to our reality, it only presents 10% of what our families have actually been through," expressed Ridhi who further added that more such films on what not just the Kashmiri Pandits have gone through but also other religious groups have faced should be showcased to a larger audience without censorship as it's important to educate each other through the visual medium more than ever.
PM Modi praised The Kashmir Files for "bringing out the truth and presenting history in its correct perspective". The Prime Minister met film's director Vivek Agnihotri and wife Pallavi Joshi, who plays the role of a professor in the historical thriller.
