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| Bollywood, Kashmir, Orthodoxy & The great hypocrisy! | | | I remember my maiden
tour to Kashmir in the
summers of 2011, reaching Srinagar I de-boarded the cab at the tourist reception centre near Dal gate. Took a mild walk till I reached Dal Gate and took a mini bus for Hazratbal, where my friend (in NIT Srinagar) had promised me boarding till I had to stay in the valley. Living at fringes of valley had made an impression on my mind that after two decades of the ethnic cleansing and boasting of installing nizam-e-mustafa in Kashmir, the societal set up in Kashmir would be very conservative. College boy and girls cannot be seen having a walk along the roads and the public display of love and affection would be a far off thing for Kashmir. The moment I stepped into the mini bus; I found a couple enjoying the maximum intimacy one can afford publically and even more. This thing astonished me very pleasantly.
Next while being on the way to Chashma Shahi, I entered the scenic botanical garden, the activities I witnessed there is something which should not be described here for sake of being sedate. Conservativeness; no, Kashmir is not at all a conservative society. It is just like any other Indian city.
Where there is even an iota of beauty, the camera is always there and Kashmir is having a lot of it. & Kashmir has been the darling of film industry right from the time the camera started to roll outside the studio. It goes back to the decade of 60s till today with a hiatus of almost 15 years; courtesy the armed terrorists roaming around the streets of Kashmir.
Right from days of romance of Manoj Kumar and Asha Parekh in 60s in Do Badan till the villainous role of Tabu in Haider, the valley has seen and been through a lot. Just because Betaab movie was shot at a place in Pahalgam, the place is named as Betab valley and because Noorie was shot in a village of Bhaderwah, the village is named as noorie's village, it can be easily inferred that this part of India is no less crazy for bollywood. But when infiltration and the ethnic cleansing started in 1990 for so called independence of Kashmir and making it an Islamic country, the society went into shell for a decade in which no intellectual transaction with the outside world took place in the world. You can yearn for genuine coffee shop where a person would sit and discuss any issue.
The mental faculty of whole Kashmir stopped working and surrendered it too in front of few goons who exploited them for their political purpose. A failed politician who did not get much of attention as a legislator under his chameleonic tendencies changed to come up as a new leader for independence of Kashmir with hardcore ideology of uni-dimensional society having no space for minorities. That's Geelani for you! Disguised his political ambitions under veil of independence movement and accelerated the movement by exaggerating the discontent of kashmiri youth athereby virtually forcing them to indulge in some highly drastic and destructive activities. The separatists kept on with their pogrom till the anxiety of the youth took shape of hatred for anyone who denies to reach on an agreement with their utopian ideas and hence diminishing anything which comes under the purview of inclusiveness.
Wherever cinema goes it takes along with it an economic boom to the tourism sector for that very place, but those Kashmiri goons are least interested when the issue is economic security of a commoner in Kashmir. Because they are more busy in getting extortion money from New Delhi.
This is a place where a music band of girls 'Pragaash' is banned by a highly rated cleric Bashir ud din Ahmad, just because music is haraam in Islam and the same guy is caught enjoying gazals in a concert of a local artist. There is no movie theatre in whole of Kashmir but the latest song of Arijit Singh reaches the music players of Budgam much before it reaches Bhatinda. The latest hair style of Honey Singh is visible more on the roads of Srinagar than in Gandhi nagar. Even then Kashmir is being kept in shell, for reasons best known to Mr Geelani & co. This reminds me of an instance of 15th century when printing press was invented and reached the Islamic countries; a cleric of Ottoman empire passed a fatwa against printing of Koran as it would disrespect the particular religious scripture because it had to come out of a machine. The time knowledge was percolating in the roots of other societies by printing of literature, this part of the world remained untouched with the light of knowledge which had illuminated the rest of the world. Later the ban was lifted. Cinema is also a form of literature, it should be used as a source of inspiration and there is nothing in it to feel envious of or keep away from.
Sometime ago I had heard Farooq Abdullah advocating opening of cinemas and pubs in Kashmir. In that case I also raise my voice concurring Mr Abdullah. Kashmiris have their own film industry but they do not endorse others. This is a sort of isolated existence. Cinema theatres should be used as confluence of different ideas and a source wherefrom evolved ideas take birth. The more a society is open to new ideas, the more it will progress but this thing is alien to Kashmir till now.
I also heard Mehbooba Mufti admitting being a Mc Donald freak and wants such restaurants to be installed in Kashmir; such things should also be welcomed as these small steps would help in settling the psyche of Kashmiri youth.
This hypocrisy should be treated in earliest possible time and different cinemas should reach the valley and this can be done only when theatres are installed there. The separatist elements should be ignored which is what we have been doing for last 25 years. There are black sheep in every business and the sanity lies in giving them a cold shoulder.
Kr Swarn Kishore Singh, An advocate working in Supreme Court of India & a political observer. |
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