Is it a coincidence that three Hindi films within a month have been located in the troubled valley of Jammu and Kashmir?
A while back Aijaz Khan’s Hamid, which is about a little Kashmiri boy’s search for his missing father, was shot entirely in Kashmir. This week director Nitin Kakkar’s Notebook takes us on a romantic excursion through Kashmir. The week after Notebook we have Ashvin Kumar’s controversial No Fathers In Kashmir which again is filmed entirely in the paradise on earth.
A movie poster of Notebook.
While Hamid and No Fathers In Kashmir delve into the complex dynamics of militancy Notebook is a pure love story set in Kashmir, like Shakti Samanta’s Kashmir Ki Kali and Suraj Prakash’s Jab Jab Phool Khile. Sun-dappled and rose-tinted Notebook gives out the feeling of zero strife and militancy in the Valley.
A still from Hamid.
Alia Bhatt who shot in Kashmir for Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi had said the valley is truly paradise on earth. “It was a like a dream shooting there. There was absolutely no tension. I’d like to go back again, this time for a holiday.”
With Bollywood again looking towards Kashmir as ‘paradise on earth’ perhaps we can hope to see more films capturing Kashmir in all its beauteous glory rather than a place of dark desperate violence
