New Delhi: Indian filmmaker, Vivek Agnihotri, in his movie The Kashmir Files has made exaggerated claims on the violence against Kashmiri Pandits who fled their homes when Kashmiris intensified their indigenous struggle against India’s illegal occupation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir in 1989.
The ‘Kashmir Files’ is based on the story of exodus of Kashmiri Hindus during the Kashmir Insurgency. Critics have accused the film of being a work of historical revisionism and consider it to be propaganda aimed at fostering prejudice against Kashmiri Muslims.
It is also widely believed that the film has BJP/ RSS government’s patronage and support. Overall, experts described the film as disturbing; a work of concocted and agenda driven historical revisionism, created with “no facts, lies, and plenty of distortions” aimed at inciting hatred against Muslims. Shubhra Gupta, established Indian film critic gave the film a 1.5 out of 5 stars; for the sole reason that, the film was held to be a work of propaganda aligned with the ruling party’s discourse that only aimed to stoke the “deep-seated anger” of pundits.
Rahul Desai (A film critic formerly of Mumbai Mirror, Catch News and columnist ‘The Hindu’) graded the film in following words, “totally unconvincing screenplay with weak characters, it is a propaganda that strove only to tune in with the Hindu nationalist mood of the nation rather than offer genuine empathy to the displaced victims”. Amid the international criticism on the agenda driven film Kashmir Files, Singaporean authorities refused classification of The Kashmir Files for “its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the on-going conflict in Kashmir”. Singapore has banned the Bollywood movie ‘The Kashmir Files’, assessing it to be “beyond” the city-state’s film classification guidelines.
A joint statement was issued in Singapore by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). They said that the film’s representations “have the potential to cause enmity between different communities and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multiracial and multi-religious society”.
Under the film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification. Indian government’s fake media machine is using Bollywood to propagate its expansionist designs, the character of Indian media has been completely exposed at national and international levels. Web Desk
