Kashmir may be paradise on earth for many, but for Gopal Sharman, the director of The Kashmir Story, it has now begun to symbolise a painful valley of distressed and displaced locals. Scrutinising every aspect of the state, the film, a blunt and uncompromising account of the Kashmir issue, was shot primarily in various regions of the state, bringing to fore hard-hitting real-life narratives that compel the audience to ponder over what the world is coming to nowadays.
The Kashmir Story is an unending saga with not much changing since Sharman and his wife Jalabala Vaidya first started filming it. “We were approached in Delhi by some Kashmiri Pandits to come and see their plight in the makeshift camps in Jammu. One was at a under-construction bus station in Jammu. Each family had to manage by partitioning a miniscule 6x6 sqft with old saris on the still rough multi-storeyed building. Even here the girls were subject to rape by the Muslim bus drivers, the very people they had fled from in Kashmir valley. It was pathetic, but it made for a good story to capture,” says Sharman.
Their search took them to Kargil, Drass, Lamayuru monastery, Hemis monastery, and Tikse monastery, where they met anti-Muslim militant fighters like Rigjin Jora (who later became a minister in Kashmir), and head of several monasteries, Togdan Rimpoche of Lamarayuru, Phyang, and other monasteries in Ladakh, who said things like “If they attack us, we will certainly give it back to them.”
Through the trip, there were many people who proved to be sources of great stories, information and anecdotes, however there was one person named H N Jattu, a leader of the Kashmiri Pandits, who left a powerful impact on Sharman and his wife. “He was informed on the telephone that his secretary was being murdered as it took place. He exemplified the anguish, distress, futile search for alternatives to giving up their homes, in considerable detail, and it was through such people, that the story of Kashmir could be captured in a reel that’ll perhaps one day make people think where we’re headed with all the conflict and chaos. Considering the illiterate-seeming brouhaha the JNU students are fuelling at the moment, our Kashmir story should be compulsory viewing for those who think that all Hindus are fascists,” says Vaidya.