FJ Kashmir

  Inam ul rehman “What would you say to militants if they enter your house,” asked a commandant of paramilitary forces to my father after finishing the search of our house. It was the first crackdown in our area. My uncles and cousins also lived in the same house and were all gathered in our residential compound. “We,” replied my father to the commandant, “can neither deny you nor them as both of you hold guns.” The commandant looked at my father, smiled, nodded, and walked away with his troops. As an 11-year-old, I realised that in front of the barrel of a gun we become nobody.   Pattern returns On 10th January of this year, the daily Kashmir Uzma Urdu newspaper published two public announcements, in which former members of the Jamaat-i-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (a right-wing extremist Muslim party similar to the Bharatiya Janata Party) publicly disassociated themselves from the religio-political party. While reading it, I had a wry smile.  When the armed i...

inam ul rehman In Kashmir it is said when a trend catches up it is done to death by all. At present we are witnessing three trends: opening up of eateries, everyone becoming a social media influencer, and launch of videocasts or podcasts. Kashmiris love to chatter patter. We love to give advice on everything to everyone even if we have never travelled outside our own district. We interfere without permission in everyone’s affairs.  So, podcasts are ideal for the Kashmiri propensity for discourse. But there is a catch: we love to hear only ourselves not others. For the past many months, I have been surfing podcasts hosted by Kashmiris. And not to my surprise I saw many, many podcasts on YouTube. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to state that Kashmiri podcasts reveal not a hunger for meaningful dialogue but a preference for safe and familiar ideas.  Here I look at some of them that caught my attention. As happens often many of these, at present seem, are just for ...

inam ul rehman Baramulla is a haunting thriller and different from The Kashmir Files . We know Pandits were driven out from Kashmir, but produced and written by Pandits, the movie itself is empathetic to characters. It does not weaponise that deracination.   Any Muslim who stands for Pandits in the movie is shot dead.   The director weaves the story with supernatural and psychological elements, reminiscent of Ram Gopal Verma ’s Raat movie, but does not match its eeriness. It is an emotional, socio-political allegorical movie directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale. The film uses the allegory of ghosts and families to depict the inner conflict of Kashmiris struggling with its past. Set in 2016, it shows the complexity of Kashmiris where the father fights against militants, but his own daughter terms him traitor to the Kashmir cause, an MLA takes oath on the Indian constitution , but his own son is against the same system. The father and daughter, father and son duo, divided ...

  inam ul rehman   I think the last film I reviewed for any newspaper or portal was Vishal Bhradwaj’s Haider. And it was in 2014. One of my colleagues at that time, and one of the brilliant journalists of Kashmir, Mir Hilal , on reading it said that it is a rant rather than a review. I disagreed and published it. Now I agree with what Mir Hilal said.   Eleven years later here I am reviewing “ Songs of Paradise ” of Danish Renzu . A Kashmiri filmmaker’s inspirational take on the melody queen of music, Raja Begum. Remember, it is not a historical take, but an inspirational one. It is historically as correct as Salim-Anarkali stories of Bollywood , or Padmawat , the Kashmir files, Chhaava movies .  Getting sponsors for a female protagonist film is tough. In Indian cinema only a few commercial films have succeeded with a female lead. These have mostly been driven by the star power of an actress. And some even needed male star power to get wide release. Alia...

inam ul rehman It is a mid-summer afternoon. People are mostly scattered to their workplaces and for labourer class it is lunchtime. Hardworking labourer parents are taking their lunch when their four-year-old child wanders on the street alone. He has taken to this street multiple times along with his parents. The kid believes the street belongs to him. It is safe to move around. Suddenly a stray dog comes in front of him, the innocent child smiles and keeps walking. The dog barks at him again, which startles the child. The kid does not know what to do as the stray dog is joined by a few more dogs. Then one dog pushes this child on the ground. A dog gnaws its teeth in his yet to be developed flesh, the other dog catches his limb and tears away his soft flesh. A few puppies also enter into the frame. The child is screaming but urban noise dwarfs his. The dogs drag him beneath the bonnet of the car. Then we see his body in a hospital bed. Mauled .   The child was just another num...