From snow -capped mountains to struggle and “azadi” (freedom), from calls and calls scattered, Bollywood films have shaped how the world sees Kashmir.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s acclaimed 2014 film “Haider” crosses a powerful dialogue screen, capturing the human stories of the Kashmir-A Himalayan region, where there has been a long-term struggle between breathtaking beauty and rich culture and Pakistan.
“Are we here or not? If we are, where and if not, where have we gone? If we are present, for whom and when? The character Hyder asks.
This dialogue raises the question of how India’s Hindi language film industry, Bollywood, Muslim majority depict Kashmir.
The “Haider” is optimizing Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” against the backdrop of the Kashmir struggle in the mid -1990s. The film offers a delicate depiction of violence, the applicable disappearance and psychological tolls of conflict.
Kashmir’s past as cinematic heaven
In 1947, in the decades after India’s independence from colonial rule, Bollywood is often a romantic idol: icy mountains, vibrant tulip gardens and a valley among the juicy cedar and Chinese trees.
In “Barsaat” (1949), Raj Kapoor used Kashmir as a political theme and more used as a beautiful background for romance – migration from the Humum of urban life.
Later, films like “Kashmir of Kashmir” (1964) continued this trend, while rarely accepted people or politics of this region.
For writer and filmmaker Sanjay Kak, Kashmir served as a playground, “where the imaginations of Indians can be played, play bites somewhere in the background with Kashmiris.”
Kak said the period after independence “what is with the Nehruvian optimism of secularism and brotherhood.”
Emphasis on landscape on people’s lives – romance over reality – shaped the image of Kashmir as heaven on earth, wooed tourists and wooed international imagination, while the ground for engagement with the politics of the later region of Bollywood.
Kashmir militancy is a turn for Bollywood
But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kashmir experienced anti -violent India insurgency.
The AUF armed rebellion in India administered Kashmir to Kashmir after New Delhi’s political parties accused of rigging the 1987 assembly elections in favor of an Indian nationalist coalition.
The Muslim United Front (Muf), a alliance of Islamic parties, which was predicted, would perform well in the elections, lost the election.
In response to the violence, the Government of India incorporated defends, including the discovery of laws, as the 1958 Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which expands extraordinary powers for security forces.
Thesis sociological development replaced the cinematic image of Kashmir from heaven, which is in place of increased militaryization, fear and communal division – an image that is still strong.
For Meenakshi Bharat, author of “Hindi Cinema and Pakistan”, the 1990s unrest brought Kashmir to the center of India’s political and emotional consciousness.
“Hindi cinema, as the true mirror of the Indian fictional, was forced to take cognizance of this change,” he told DW.
As a result, the film story changed. Kashmir was rapidly depicted as a battleground, where Indian soldiers fought Pakistan -backed rebels.
Films like “Rosa” (1992) interconnected with the topics of struggle and extremism with human stories and questions of freedom and identity.
India said, “The film really marked the depressed change of Kashmir as a love establishment for a theater, destroying ‘heaven’.”
From “Roja”, terrorists are often depicted as violent anti -violent – a portrait that critics say that there is a risk of reducing Muslim identity for extremism.
Filmmaker Kak argued that “Roja” used Kashmir as a landscape in which Indian nationalism and patriotism could re -organize their imaginations. ,
Screx play
In the early 2000s, films began to highlight Kashmir’s complex social, political and emotional realities – including the history of conflict and the trauma experienced by their people due to the ongoing violence.
This unresolved grief – missing, displacement and marked by fruced families – shaped the deep narratives, guiding for stories, which are interconnected to personnel with military ideologies.
Popular films of this period discovered the deep pain and complex conflicts of Kashmir, which balances harsh realities – psychological trauma, broader violence and human rights violations faced by Kashmiris – with Indian national perspective and patriotism.
This dual perspective still gives shape on how the story of Kashmir is mentioned on screen.
Bollywood’s ‘Statist’ Perspective Shapes Cinema Story
Kak Deskrui Hindi cinema today as “statistical”, which means a large -scale alliance with government narratives.
This is more visible since August 2019, when New Delhi canceled Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which allowed limited autonomy to the region. India claimed that Kashmir’s semi-reality was the “root cause” of anti-India extremism.
“As the state’s position has moved, according to cinema,” Kak told DW.
Contemporary films reflect this change. “The Kashmir Files” (2022) opposed the public debate in the form of “massacre” by representing the migration of Kasmiri Hindus in 1990 – a legend champion by Hindu nationalist groups.
However, critics stated that the film promotes a “unilateral” story that risks to strengthen the anti -Muslim spirit and deepen the communal division.
Mauhile, “Article 370” (2024) supports the government’s stand on Kashmir, which portrays the semi-late state of Kashmir as heroism and is required to restore orders and national unity.
India saw Bollywood as a mirror for the sub -life that captures the prevailing political drives and emotions.
“It is difficult to appear as a problematic romantic setting for beautiful valleys,” he said.
Edited by: Keith Walker
