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 still from No fathers in Kashmir
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.
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.
