The Kashmir Files Unreported Review: Forget Propaganda Or Agenda, At What Point Do We Talk About Solutions Keeping Aside The Blame Game?

Cast: Vivek Agnihotri, Pallavi Joshi, Real-life victims.

Creator: Vivek Agnihotri & Pallavi Joshi.

Director: Vivek Agnihotri

Streaming On: Zee5.

Language: Hindi (with subtitles).

Runtime: 7 Episodes Over 30 Minutes Each.

The Kashmir Files Unreported Review: What’s It About:

Vivek Agnihotri, with his wife and partner Pallavi Joshi, brings to us an account of the victims of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their homeland. The docu-series tells a detailed story of the rise of Islam in the Kashmir valley (as per Vivek’s research) and features the victims telling their stories of the hard times.

The Kashmir Files Unreported Review: Analysis:

It’s been over a year to the release of the controversial and questionable The Kashmir Files. A movie that might have earned a big chunk at the Box Office and got footfalls, but was still a movie that spoke about the hate more than a solution. While a lot has been spoken about the movie that was labelled manipulative and propaganda, Agnihotri, with wife Joshi, now brings a docu-series on the same subject. But why does he choose to tell the same story yet again with no visual growth in the conversation and saying ‘as per my research’ almost 10 times every episode?

While The Kashmir Files Unreported serves as a docu version of the movie, it is more of a “see! I didn’t lie in the movie, they all did suffer,” attempt to justify his feature film that opened with a disclaimer that questioned its own material. Talking of disclaimers, even the docu-series that has Shankh Raj Yadhyaksha (Editor & Episodic Director) and Tripti Kappu Sharma (Writer & Creative Director) join Agnihotri, opens up with one that cuts all the ties between the platform and the content. It says that the testimonies and comments made on the show are not authenticated by any house of law or authority. It also says that the studio that is backing the show doesn’t support and claim the accuracy or factuality of the material. People claim things about political leaders like Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru & Mohommad Ali Jinnah, for your information, and, the factuality is already out of the window.

Keeping my ideologies aside, how, as an audience, am I supposed to invest in a show that deals with one of the most sensitive catastrophes in Indian history and also runs backward from its own content? No learned individual will deny the exodus. It indeed happened and many lost their homes, but that tragedy deserves a much more nuanced telling and an unbiased approach. The Kashmir Files Unreported feels like a show made to rectify somethings, and justify many. When the show gives 5 minutes to the conversation that not all Muslims are bad and the Muslim youth was brainwashed and weren’t born with hate, you are reminded of the biggest criticism the movie faced. So is this Vivek accepting that he did wrong in the movie? Because his feature film didn’t show even a single ‘good’ Muslim character. My mind refuses to believe that there weren’t any then.

The Kashmir Files Unreported does pinch when some victims talk about what it meant for their elders to leave home. The trauma of their existence and exile. There is also finally a conversation about hygiene and sanitation in those times (though in the final few scenes), but all of the good is sabotaged by the ideology that wants to push down one community to give an upwards push to another.

The biggest question here is not whether this is propaganda and agenda or not; rather, it is what is the conclusion to this conversation? What are we expecting this to churn out, and what is a filmmaker so hell-bent to help doing on ground zero? Does he want the youth of today to get on the streets with their swords and take revenge? Does he want us to carry the hate and remember it only to multiply it for generations to come? Because neither the movie nor his series talks about any substantial movement, or initiative that has been formed to help the ones who still seek homes? His interviews are mostly with elite people in their posh mansions sitting besides heaters with comforters. Where are the people who are still below the poverty line? Is something being done for them?

Why do we make a 7 episode show and not include helplines, trauma counseling information, and their current statistics? We are instead treated with a very visual history of how Kashmir belonged to Hindus, and Islamic invaders took it from us disguised as Sufis. Did we need it? However, Vivek and Pallavi end The Kashmir Files Unreported by saying their movie has started a conversation worldwide. It’s been a years Good Sir, what has it led to?

Also, the filmmaker continues to use Hum Dekhenge in a very wrong context, and I hope Faiz’s words someday reveal their beauty themselves to him and Swapnil Bandodkar, who is credited for the music. The music is good, but the setup isn’t.

The Kashmir Files Unreported Review: Last Words:

There is a tug-of-war between ideologies, now more rampant than ever. Hate always chooses the shortcut as love continues to walk on a longer and merrier path. It is either quick doom with hatred or a glorious life with love; choose wisely.

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