By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: Kashmir short film exhibition has cruised through different places in the city despite huge opposition from Right wing groups and shockingly also from the police.
On last Saturday nearly 40 hoodlums of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Yuva Morcha ransacked the film screening venue Prasads Theater, assaulted the organizers and even stole their belongings including a laptop.
Interestingly this Kashmir film festival titled ‘Kashmir, Before Our Eyes’ which became an issue of contention of right wing groups and even the police declaring it anti-national was being organized by Kashmiri Pandit filmmakers.
Two days after the attack, when organizers moved the venue to a cultural center ‘LaaMakaan’, curators of the fest again faced opposition but this time from local police. After the incident at Prasad theater organizers applied for the security, but Banjara Hills police refused to grant it citing pre occupation of force due to Ganesh Pandal security arrangements.
This ordeal for Kashmiri film makers didn’t end here, when organizers were going ahead with the screening with or without the security; police inspector deployed constables at the cultural center to stop the screening.
Local Police shockingly echoed Right Wing rhetoric and termed the festival anti-Indian as National Award winning film ‘Harud’ was scheduled to be played is seen by the police critical of Indian army. Even though all the listed films of the festival were cleared by the Censor Board of India, local police bend it down on with fringe mentality.
Undeterred by the chauvinist right wing threat and unofficial ban of police, Organizers went ahead with their schedule and made steady successful screening at many intellectual hot spots which concluded on Thursday. In this whole week screenings were conducted at the University of Hyderabad’s Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, Nalsar Law University, English and Foreign Languages University and the Annapurna International School of Film and Media.
Other civil rights groups also joined in solidarity with the film fest organizers, Professional Solidarity Forum condemned the incident, and later Panun Kashmir a civil rights organization of displaced Kashmiri Pandits also condemned the attack by right wing goons. Ambedkar Students’ Association of the University of Hyderabad organized a ‘protest screening’ of the film Jashn-e-Azadi by Sanjay Kak, which itself was attacked at Symbiosis university in Pune last year. Another short film The Valley of Innocence by students from S.N. School of Arts and Communication was also screened.
Related Report:
Attack on Kashmir film festival in Hyderabad