Reviews & Ratings for
The Kashmir Files (2022)

The Kashmir Files Movie Review
I have stopped reviewing films for all intents and purposes. I still watch a lot of cinema, but most of it is not worth commenting upon. I even saw The Batman last week and did not bother to review it.
However, The Kashmir Files is not just a film worth seeing, but worth talking about.
This is a difficult movie to review. Since this is more like a case file than a film. Seeing this as just an entertainment piece is not possible. This one movie tries to encapsulate the entire Kashmiri Pandit Genocide the best it can.

Does this movie succeed? Well, yes as a narrative peice. but as a purely cinematic experience, it does falter at times due to technical issues.
On to the positive aspects.

Ever since the falsely marketing film ‘Shikara’ which the trailers showed like it dealt with the Kashmiri Pandit genocide, but was a love story on the backdrop of the same, The Kashmir Files movie has been on my radar as a must watch film. This same directtor made The Tashkent Files and that was a good film.
Then the trailer of this film came out and it was absolutely shocking.
The trailer wasn’t false marketing this time! The movie is totally shocking and eye opening. Most people don’t even know about the incidents being referenced in the film. So this is new information for a lot of people, not to mention, a conversation starter on this ignored and over looked genocide which happened in the recent past.

The best way to describe this film is, it’s like the Indian Schindler’s List without the positive outcome. The displaced Pandits never made it back home. They never truly got justice.
As a film, the story takes place across multiple time periods, but the narrative thread is well knit and the viewer is not confused as to which time period the film has jumped to. The acting is overall quite good, but there are a few mediocre performances in there by the extras. Mithun Da works his magic as someone who is first hand witness to the atrocities that took place as well as the inaction from the then Indian Government.

Darshan Kumaar is shown as a new age rebel JNU student who wants to leave the past behind and move on. Forgive and forget he says. But it turns out he doesnt even know the reality. His acting is decent, nothing path breaking, but believable and sincere.
Pallavi Joshi is still attractive as the typical JNU professor demanding freedom for Kashmir, her role is to showcase the stereo-typical (so called) liberal professor who turns students into activists. Her acting is so realistic, its difficult to separate the actor from her performance.
What this film lacks, is sharpness / attention to detail in direction and acting. The low budget shows at times. Some shocking scenes are shot fine, but the VFX is lacking. The last scene was meant to be shocking, but the acting of the extras keeps it from gaining true masterpiece level.
Plot wise, the current time period story-line has a non-ending as none of those plots can be resolved in real life, so they are left hanging.

But all of that is not important. This film, as I mentioned is more than a just cinema, it’s an information piece in the form of a film to tell the world what took place in Kashmir in the recent past. The mass genocide of Indians in their own country which no one talks about, no one outrages about or even mentions.
In that goal, the film succeeds. The narration and pace is brisk, it is not boring or loud. It also shows the point of view of the ‘other side’ and doesn’t treat the audience like fools.
Rating: As a film this is a 7/10. However, this is more than film which is made, directed and produced. This is a voice for those helpless many who never got any headlines, let alone outrage or justice. As that, this is a 10/10 effort of tell a direct and hard hitting, fact filled retelling of those events.
Overall : This is a film which was eagerly awaited by me and it doesn’t disappoint. This is a 100% must watch for all Indians to know the real life incident which happened in our own country and we don’t even know it.