[Reader-list] Fwd: A documentary on Kashmir @ City Press Film Club

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fwd


210th Film Screening at
City Press Film Club
Saddar, Karachi

Saturday, 16 June 2007
at 6:30 p.m.



There was a queen...


Directed by Kavita Pai and Hansa Thapliyal
India, 2007, Colour, 122 min
Kashmiri/Urdu with English  subtitles

The film makers started this film looking for peace initiatives in the
conflict-torn region of Kashmir. This search took them to different
parts of Kashmir where the women ― young and old, eager speak about
the life under siege ― told them how difficult it was for them to
think of ' Peace'.


More about the film...


Voice of the Valley

SHUJAAT BUKHARI


 The Srinagar audience was reduced to tears at a film show
highlighting the suffering of women during Kashmir's 17-year turmoil.


 This was for the first time a women-exclusive film was shown
highlighting their sufferings ________________________________


 For a moment it seemed as if it was not the same Tagore Hall, usually
a venue for cultural programmes, plays and musharias. As Kashmir's
prominent poetess Nasim Shifai recited a verse reflecting the
sufferings of people in the trouble torn Valley, only sobs and shrieks
could be heard. "Ye Aes Akh Padshah Bai (There Was a Queen)", the
two-hour documentary was screened at the hall highlighting the women's
initiatives in Kashmir's 17-year conflict in which women have been the
worst sufferers.

 "Mate Martew Wane Chu Wanse Kam, Mate Martew Wane Chu Na Manze Nam
(Do not die you are too young, Do not die you the henna is still on
your nails)" ― this is how Shifai described the fate of youth in the
conflict by modifying the verses of great Kashmiri poet Mehmood Gami.
In fact the title of the film has also been picked up from Shifai's
poem, and the princess also talks about her children who come home
late. Her verses reduced scores of those mothers whose sons have gone
missing in these 17 years to tears.


Young filmmakers

 Two young filmmakers from Mumbai, Kavita Pai and Hansa Thapliyal,
have made the film for Other Media Communications and travelled to
remote areas in Kashmir to trace the role of women in the conflict.
From highlighting the brave fight many women have put up, to the
efforts of others who joined empowerment avenues, the filmmakers have
primarily stressed how the brunt of the struggle is faced by women, as
mother, daughter, sister or wife.

 The film revolves round Parveena Ahangar, whose son Javed is missing
in "custody" since 1990. An illiterate woman, she founded Association
of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and is fighting till date,
not only for her son but thousands of others. Pai and Thapliyal agree
that Parveena figures in the film many times, but say it does not
revolve around her. It is just because she has played a "greater role"
they explain. That such women are rare in Kashmir makes her more
relevant, adds Pai.


The story


                            The documentary starts with the infamous
fake encounter exposed in February this year, in which bodies of five
civilians killed as "foreign militants" were exhumed. Ghulam Rasool
Padder, father of Abdur Rehman, one of the victims, gives the
statement about his missing son. Then the long and unending story of
miseries in Kashmir with focus on women starts. There is Mughli, who
lost four of her sons, talking about the tough life she is leading,
and a group of girls in Maisuma, the heart of trouble in Srinagar,
engaged at a vocational training centre. The innocent girls have
powerful expressions of their stories. One has lost her brother while
another talks about how difficult it is to walk past a security forces
bunker. An interesting discussion takes place at the Centre in which
the girls try to define who is a shaheed (martyr), the one killed by
security forces or the one by militants. One young girl has a strong
argument that whosoever is innocent and killed is a shaheed. The
example of two young girls killed in crossfire in Sopore also reveals
the trauma of the people.

                                             "Why is Pakistan playing
cricket with India when it says Kashmir is disputed and we are a party
to it," is the terse comment from a woman in Sopore who lost her
daughter and blamed the Army for deliberately killing her. Same is the
case with a young woman in Malangam (Bandipore) whose brother was a
militant and killed in a gunfight. She brought up his children and did
not marry. But she curses everybody from the government to the
Hurriyat for not paying attention to their needs.

 In her interview Shifai highlights the plight of Kashmiri youth
saying, "When they go out of Kashmir to save themselves they are being
harassed, especially on the eve of August 15 and January 26. Every
Kashmiri youth is a militant."

 Hamida Naeem, a teacher at Kashmir University, believes women in
Kashmir have braved everything like men and even suffered more. "The
right of self determination is our inalienable right and we should get
it," she says in the documentary. But she does not hesitate to
criticise the militants too. "Why should they (militants) kill the
civilians? Why are they settling scores with their own people? This is
not in the interest of the movement," she adds. "This was for the
first time a women-exclusive film was shown highlighting their
sufferings," said Raashid Maqbool, a local journalist. Kavita and
Hansa say that it was difficult for them to identify the people on
whom they could work. Initially hesitant to take up the project, they
were happy they did.


The camera work is  by Ranu Gosh. Sound is  by Gissy Michael,  editing
by Gouri Patwardhan and music  by Manish J Tipu.  --  The Hindu,
Friday, 04 May,2007


For information:

-- 
Ajmal Kamal
City Press
Publishing House, Bookshop and Film Club
316 Madina City Mall, Abdullah Haroon Road, Saddar, Karachi 74400, Pakistan.
Tel: (92-21) 5650623, 5213916