The public's thought process is strange:
They say they will never forget, but never will they sincerely work towards that.
That brings us to this: a movie that deals with the events of 1990, reportedly with a very raw style: No drama, no exaggerations, no half measures, no censored content, no pixelated images, no colour-negative images, no syrupy dialogues.
truth. just pure truth, as the makers themselves, say, with a little dramatization of real events.
Even though it turns out it does have its own cinematic liberties, the audience tends to believe that all of this is true. And they are not wrong in their reaction. Emotions do run high, especially when fiction is added to recorded history.
So, the problem here is not that the public is loving this movie and running high on emotions, the problem is that nothing was done to heal the wounds and in the meantime, the same wounds are being tinkered with by dissecting them with sharp knives of the director and scissors of the editor.
No, there is nothing wrong with either the director or the producers or anyone who visualized this movie in their minds or hearts. The problem is the way the public is responding to it. They might justifiably promote this movie themselves without any of the huge promotional tours with the star cast from the producers. But the way the audience is reacting is in the extremes: They either loved it or hated it. This is when these polarized reactions start to create an image of our society.
Society thinks that showing off their love or hatred for a movie is enough to make a point or lead to a feeling of justice. This is NOT the justice that the victims deserved. The justice that they deserve is this: Punish those responsible for this shameless event that was one of the many blots on the image of India, our India.
The victims will never get complete justice, simply because many of them lost their lives during these 30+ years of living as refugees.
Some of the questions that the audience really needs to ask are these:
1. Why did the Kashmiri Pandits not go back despite the change in governments?
The problem is not financial issues or security. It has to do with the sense of belonging. They need to feel that Kashmir is their home and no one can take that away from them. And who needs to work on this? Not just the local state government, not just the central government, it is Everyone.
2. What is the status of those who are responsible for this huge mess? Living a VIP life?
3. Are Kashmiri Pandits living like citizens of India? Do they have a life that they could call theirs? Can they sleep a night without nightmares of those events of 1990?
These are the questions that the whole nation needs to think about and fight to get answers.
In the meantime, the movie crosses one milestone from another and crosses box office records set by previous hits.
Regards,
Anil
