SHIKARA: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

It brought back memories of my first posting. As SDM New Delhi, I thought I had dealt with a fair share of relief and rehabilitation work as I went every month to the Tis Hazari Treasury, picked up the relief cash and distributed it to Punjab migrants from the days of Punjab militancy at Peeragarhi camp.  It was always an unsettling experience, as on the one hand you were handling cash, and on the other you were looking at immense human suffering, people living in squalor, where government interventions were always inept and inadequate, with some migrants also trying to cheat the system. I didn’t realise it then, but I had seen nothing; till that summer, when suddenly Kashmiri Pandits from Shrinagar and other parts of Kashmir valley, descended on Delhi in large numbers, seeking refuge and help! To survive and to live with dignity. A very insensitive administration, thought “how dare they demand a place to run their businesses in New Delhi, where land is the price of gold”  or “weren’t NDMC Barat Ghars  sufficient shelter that they were also demanding coolers”. So poignant was the suffering that it would have melted the harshest of us and it did. Soon I found myself in Rajasthan and these experiences were relegated to the recesses of memory

Till it all came rushing back to me as I watched the movie Shikara by Vidhu Vinod chopra @VVCfilms. Shikara is the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and how they have been reduced to the status of refugees in their own homeland. It is a story of love and survival under the harshest of circumstances. It attempts to steal some snippets from the story of militancy in the valley, through a very innocent love story, but it is not a chronicle of the politics or history of militancy. New comers Aadil Khan and Sadia play the role of Shiv and Shanti, fall in love and get married in Sringar. The multicultural Pandit marriage ceremony where Shehnai is played by muslim artistes and a muslim friend of the groom falls for the hindu friend of the bride are cleverly and seamlessly interwoven in the plot to juxtapose the latter day developments of communal hatred. Roghan Josh, the mutton delicacy from the valley is cooked in a Pandit household to put in relief the uniqueness of Kashmiriyat. The house built by the young couple, SHIKARA, is built of stones  lovingly gifted by the Muslim friend’s father. Several such secular examples abound.

Till all hell breaks loose and this young couple is forced to flee the valley, deserting their love-nest, Shikara, in the face of serious threats of murder and mayhem from Islamic militants. Infact the hero’s close cousin is shot dead before his eyes and the whole colony of Rainawari is set ablaze. They are left with no option but to flee to Jammu, a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, their home-state and live the life of refugees for the next 30 years! Nothing changes for the couple, except that from saris tied together to mark the boundary of their 6x6 refugee camp, they actually move into “pucca” camps. Boys who played gully cricket become doctors, but the hero continues to teach the younger generation in the camps, without sparing a thought towards a better life for himself. Yes, the dream of returning to Shrinagar and to Shikara is a constant. As are the letters that he continues to write to the President of USA.

To me Shikara is a love story. It is not about militancy as much as it is about how militancy can impact ordinary people’s lives. How human exodus brings untold misery in people’s lives. Militancy is but a prop, a kind of landscape; yet always so much interwoven in thoughts that you cease to realise whether it is in the background or the foreground. It keeps rearing its ugly head at critical moments, even though Chopra, himself a Kashmiri Pandit, cleverly removes the reality of militancy from the lives of the protagonists in their refugee camp. Having said that, Chopra does seem to have over simplified the story, without trying to delve deep into the psyche of militants or the causes of militancy, or the role of cross-border mercenaries and their political handlers in fomenting trouble. In fact, he has steered clear from making Shikara a political commentary on militancy. At the end of the day, Shikara is a powerful metaphor for homelessness, yet it is about how hope abounds in a hopeless environment.

See the movie for a brilliant performance by Sadia as Shanti. Adil Khan as Shiv didn’t impress me much but these two will be remembered for the powerful characters they played in an equally powerful movie that holds your interest and moves you emotionally, from start to finish!