By Saquib Salim,
Vishal Bharadwaj’s ‘Haider’ is the flavor of the season – you like it or not. I cannot take away any credit from him as a great narrator, who can adapt Shakespeare for the Indian scenario and can captivate the audience so well.
But is this film close to reality? I have serious reservation about it.
We, who are living in rather peaceful parts of India, actually cannot imagine or maybe we do not want to admit, the harsh realities of a conflict zone such as Kashmir … more so, the plight of the women in the valley.
Newspaper reports during the 1990s – the period on which this story is based and narrated – talked about the way insurgent groups tried to keep women away from work area and schools, how their freedom was being curtailed by these militant groups on the one hand, while on the other hand, we got news from areas such as Kunan Poshpora, where allegedly around 100 women were raped by the army. (It was the same incident on which banned documentary Ocean of Tears was based.)
Trying to portray the real Kashmir and bypassing the plight of half of its population is nothing but criminal.
We should keep in mind that in a combat zone situation sexuality of the women is appropriated as war field where each group want to prove its power to enslave and master it. By overlooking the sexual violence against the women we are just closing eyes towards one of the very important aspect of the situation.
Further, as if it was not enough, the film maker made us watch a young girl driving her own car, that too alone, sometimes in army camps and sometimes in market places. It gives the audience an impression that women in valley during the mid-nineties were as liberated as they are two decades later in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. It is shown as if this young girl had no issues with sanctions of the militants or the violence from the army. Too realistic, huh?
Another very important impression that I get from the movie is that even if you are living under the AFSPA, about which the movie talks quite a bit, you are free enough to criticise India, Pakistan, AFSPA and everything else by collecting people at a busy chowk. Now, this is something I will say is downplaying the effect of AFSPA. Even if it talks a lot of it but still what we get the impression is that it is used to combat the cross border terrorism and to deal with people who are helping them. What it overlooks is the serious human rights violation associated with it. Except the detention and disappearance, this movie does not seem to touch much of the Kashmir issue.
Viewer gets the image of Haider being attacked by the local militia sponsored by the Police; mind you, it was a police officer who asks Kay Kay Menon to start this militia, not the army.
The cold blooded encounter of the three young boys was also shown to be by the police and the officer was shown a local Kashmiri.
It seems a far cry from the ground reality of a war torn human society. The only refreshing thing was to see poetry of Faiz, a fitting tribute as he was one of the greatest champions of this suppression of human beings in the hands of the state.
(Saquib Salim is pursuing MA (Modern History) at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi)
Related:
Haider: Kashmir’s dilemma – To be or not be