The Kashmir Files – First Indian Movie on a Hindu Genocide

For millennia Hindus have suffered in silence, their voices forcibly suppressed. Many were murdered for speaking up for their human rights, and others stifled, in fear of their lives. But, the tide is turning. The Kashmir Files, written and directed by eminent filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, brings to life the suffering and trauma of the Kashmiri Hindus, who were forcibly expunged, persecuted and tortured in 1990, their history and culture wiped out, their very identity thrown into chaos.

No other medium of communication is more powerful than a film. It evokes emotions and it allows the information to percolate into you in a way that you are unlikely to forget. The Kashmir Files is a powerful movie which does all this, and more.

The creators of the movie spent several years meeting victims of the Kashmiri Hindu genocide, documenting their stories, and collecting all historic evidence. The movie is brave enough to declare in the beginning that it is based on facts and is not a work of fiction. Even historic drama movies and series do not claim so, unless a documentary, to avoid the hassle of legal troubles. But to call the Kashmiri Hindu Genocide shown in the movie as a work of fiction would be a great injustice. Thus, braving the full might of the left-wing extremist systems, Vivek Agnihotri and team declare the stories to be true, rendered with some creative license.

It is true that the movie includes disturbing scenes, mind boggling facts and shows bloodshed. But so do all war movies and genocide movies. Saving Private Ryan, a movie not based on facts, includes a lot more bloodshed, but went on to be one of the most talked-of and celebrated movies in the last 3 decades, and won Oscars. It is a folly to assume that the Indian audience does not or would not appreciate a serious movie.

I watched Schindler’s List when I was barely 14 years old. I remember it to this day. I understood the profundity of the Jewish holocaust based primarily on the movie. The Kashmir Files is the same tectonic shift that persecuted Hindus all around the world need. We need serious movies that capture our suffering, and make the world take cognizance of it. We need less of “romedies” that numb you to the reality of life. The Kashmir Files is not just important because it renders scenes from the past before your eyes, but because it is a warning of the future. It can, potentially, change the course of Bollywood film production.

It is important for every Indian, and every Hindu to watch this movie atleast once, to understand the threats we are living with, till today.

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