Haider: Watching Kashmir Through a Broken Lens

The legendary Shammi Kapoor rendering the famous “Tareef karun kya uski” sung by another legend- Md. Rafi, the beautiful Sharmila Tagore clad in a phirin against the backdrop of a serene and heavenly place (From the movie Kashmir Ki Kali). That was my first and lasting impression of Kashmir. The many Bollywood movies churned one after another with scenes of a sparkling Jhelum, the calm Dal Lake and a singing valley glorified that impression to an even greater extent. That was. . . That was until recently, when I happened to watch the movie Haider by Vishal Bharadwaj, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set against the backdrop of a 1995 conflict- ridden Kashmir. Written by Basharat Peer, the movie captures the intense human emotions and conflicts within along with the external conflicts.

The Sparkling Jhelum I had seen suddenly turned into a stinking, watery death; the songs of the valley that reverberated in my mind turned into screams of innocent people being held prisoners and tortured; the beautiful women were suddenly ‘half widows’, even the snow laden peaks that seemed so inviting loomed like an impending catastrophe.

The movie is so powerful, it can make anyone with a heart cry. The characters have been sketched so well, the scenes are so captivating and the performances just blend in with the characters.

For the first time, the Indian Cinema has shown us the real picture of the state hidden behind its alluring persona and it is a painful one. That Kashmir which is often called ‘paradise on earth’ has come to this is a very hurtful thought and I wish it was just a movie. Sadly, I came to know through the media that this is the bitter truth and Kashmir still lives in fear, its flowers still are afraid to bloom, its water still stinks of death, its songs still are the bombs that are dropped every now and then and its women still those ‘half widows’.

I wonder when will Kashmir be that Kashmir again and when will we watch “Tareef Karun kya uski” with the genuine feeling of “wow, this is the real Kashmir” against the backdrop of a sparkling Jhelum and a colorful valley with laughing dimpled girls yet again??