Shikara Movie Evaluation: Paradise Lost and Regained in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Film

Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Shikara, through director-producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s personal admission is a love letter to Kashmir devoted to the reminiscence of his mom Shanti Devi who like multitudes of Kashmiri Pandits may just no longer go back house because of the insurgency that started in the eighties, in the end ensuing in a mass go out in January 1990.

It undoubtedly is Chopra’s maximum non-public movie and most likely for the ones causes, probably the most delicate one too.

The movie opens with an aged Kashmiri couple heading to Agra on a call for participation through the American President who’s on a seek advice from to India. Alternatively, as scenes unfurl we understand President is only a ruse, nearly a metaphor in their lives of an elusive nearly fantastical need which can by no means somewhat satisfy itself in entirety.

Shanti (Sadia) and Shiv Kumar Dhar’s (Aadil Khan) lifestyles is one among love. Shiv, is a person of letters, a poet and student, whilst Shanti, a doting spouse. Theirs is an idyllic lifestyles in probably the most stunning puts in the arena, particularly Kashmir. Sadly, as their bonds of affection fortify, issues start to flip unpleasant in the valley.

What you spot on the outset in the movie is a common bonhomie between folks of various faiths however because the movie progresses, the fault strains start to seem till lives are torn aside and destroyed. A number of the few movies to inform the tale of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley prompted through the infiltration of extremists from neighbouring Pakistan, Shikara steers clear of framing the politics of the area. As an alternative, it dwells at the non-public adventure of Shanti and Shiv from the primary flush of affection to the twilight years. Their transition from a super house in Kashmir to a refugee camp in Jammu, they witness love and betrayal in equivalent measure.

Written through Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi, and Rahul Pandita, the wonderful thing about the movie lies in its dealing with of peculiar lives put thru odd instances, torn asunder from their very roots with out somewhat realizing the explanation why. Retaining clear of the competitive narratives and optics led through armed conflicts, this one is a grieving of quietude. It mourns the unravelling of Kashmir’s close-knit social cloth comprising of all faiths. There are moments in the movie —just like the time when Shiv meets a stranger dressed in his personal relative’s (Priyanshu Chatterjee) coat, persuading Shiv to promote his space in Kashmir—which might be heart-wrenching. Thankfully, the chilly shadows are pushed away through the triumph of good–like when a small boy chanting incendiary mandir -masjid slogans in the end finally ends up as a number one neurosurgeon!

Visually, Shikara resembles a portray, a murals with Rangarajan Ramabadran’s subtle cinematography accompanied through very good manufacturing and dress design. The song through A.R. Rahman is helping take care of the lilting tone appropriate to a love tale.

Alternatively, it’s with Chopra wielding the director’s baton, the place credit score will have to leisure for imbuing his labour of affection with the part of authenticity; incessantly a vital lacking piece in Bollywood movies. His alternatives for the lead solid, particularly Sadia and Aadil Khan are impeccable. They slip into their characters of Shanti and Shiv adeptly, delicate in their show of feelings, hardly slipping right into a testosterone-driven frenzy.

Shikara, certainly is an empathetic memoir of the tragedy of Kashmiri folks, one that delicately issues to like and forgiveness as the one approach ahead.

Score: four/five

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