Mission Kashmir (2000)

Well-made, but more violent than your typical Bollywood film

I am a huge Bollywood fan. I'm an American that lived in India one year, so at times I almost prefer Bollywood to Hollywood. For those who aren't really familiar with Bollywood, often the films are romances - great dramas, etc. I'd have to say that Mission Kashmir was very different. It was very well-made (many Bollywood films are not), the acting was good, etc. However, the story line was a little slow at points, and very violent overall. I've seen some conflict Bollywood films like Refugee and Dil Se that deal with issues between India - Pakistan - the northeastern states, etc. that were much better in my opinion. If you're interested in these issues, I'd recommend watching the film but maybe not buying. I'm very glad Bollywood producers are looking at some of their country's problems instead of always having happy-go-lucky romance movies. This film also features the popular song Bumbro. Preity Zinta has a more minor role, and Hrithik and Sanjay Dutt are excellent. January 9, 2008

One of the worst films I've ever seen....

This is a really bad Bollywood film. I don't like most films from India, but this is one of the worst films I've ever seen. It tries to combine Rambo style combat, musicial numbers, a love story, and a story about the importance of the Kashmir struggle, and it ends up being a really bad joke. It trivialises and cheapens the Kashmir conflict worse than a Hollywood studio would, and that's really saying something. The performances are over the top, the musicial numbers are totally out of place here, and the message is simplistic and insulting. The only good thing is that the film is mercifully short (by Bollywood standards). It's only 157 minutes, but it is still painful to watch. There is a good film to be made out of the Kashmir conflict, but this isn't it. July 28, 2007

Happiness is always within some sad suffering

A beautiful film about a very serious problem, the political strife in divided Kashmir in India, I mean in the Indian half of Kashmir. Beautiful because of the dancing, the music, the constant celebration of something or other since one of the main characters is a TV actress. The main hero is himself able to sing, to dance, to play some music, to draw and to paint, and do so many other things. This gives a great atmosphere and a marvellous picture of what Indo-Aryan people are. It also gives an extremely open vision of the Moslems there who are not at all submitted in any way to any orthodox fundamentalism. Yet behind this brilliant picture, there is a situation that hurts in the deepest cells of our brain. The fundamentalists are trying to take over this half of Kashmir and reunify Kashmir under a basic moslem rule. The fundamentalists are shown as terrorists who cast a curse, a death sentence - it has another name but this name does not tell us what it really is - against anyone who will cooperate with Indian soldiers or police. The first victim of this sentence is a doctor who dared take care of a wounded soldier, and the second victim will be a child who will not find the treatment he needs because of the fear of doctors who refuse to treat him. The film also shows how the police can kill a whole innocent family just to kill one terrorist, making us wonder who the terrorists are then. Then we sink lower and lower into the terrorist dilemma with the main hero who is divided between avenging his family killed by the police and recognizing that it was an accident and yielding to the love of the beautiful girl who is a TV actress and forgiving the police. We are thus taken down into the minutest details of a terrorist attack against the Indian Prime Minister and our hero will make it fail at the very last second due to his epiphanic conversion. This is Indian cinema that associates drama and even tragedy to romance and musical pageant. That's a way of looking at life as being always the association of totally antagonistic elements and considering the truth can only be found in such a cocktail of black, white and grey elements into an optimistic finishing colourful touch. It is a way to see the light of hope even in the darkest moments of history and demonstrating to us that a fair dose of meditation will always alleviate unhappy events and prospects.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
October 16, 2006

One of my favourite hindi movies...

This movie made me a fan of Hrithik, Preity and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Sanjay Dutt does a great job as well. The acting is superb, and the story and direction amazing. This movie embodies the best of indian cinema - the songs, the drama, all enhance the narration. I love the music, and the lyrics and picturization of 'Dhuan Dhuan' sets the perfect tone for the rest of the movie. In this age of terrorism, this movie offers a glimpse of the complexity of the emotions that are at play - nothing is as black and white as Bush would have us believe. Unless we see everybody, including terrorists, as human beings driven by human emotions, there will be no reconciliation - only an un-ending cycle to rage and retribution. August 30, 2006

Sufi symbolizes love in a world of hate

At the beginning of this movie, a young girl named Sufi playfully pushed Altaaf into the water. When he runs home, he finds his family held hostage by islamic terrorists. The police have been tipped off, and in storming the house Altaaf's parents and sister are killed. When they grow up, Altaaf is full of hatred, but Sufi is a loving person. This is no accident, because in Islam, the Sufi sect's central concept is love. They believe that love is a projection of the essence of God to the universe.

Altaaf joins up with a group of islamic terrorists, filled with hatred and violence. To them, anyone who doesn't agree with them is an infidel, even other Moslems, so they should be killed. All of this violence is done in the name of their god, and they make frequent use of killing. Their ultimate goal is to blow up a mosque while the prime minister of India is visiting the area. It is important for understanding this movie that all the main characters are Moslem . . . or claim to be moslem.

As probably most often happens, the supreme terrorist takes some perceived offense expressed by someone and channels that into terrorism. In Altaaf's case, the leader took the hatred he had of his adoptive father to turn it into hatred of anyone who did not practice his version of islam. However, Altaaf's mother, possibly a Sufi Moslem, loved him in spite of his violence and terrorism; she was trying to let her God's love flow through her to her apparently evil adopted son. Believing that her God was an Islamic God of love, not the god of hatred and violence of the terrorist's sect, she risks her life to go to him with the message that his choice is not just one of kill or be killed, but of choosing the way of love and life or the way of hatred and death.

This movie does not skimp on showing the utterly brutal violence of the evil moslems, carrying out their terror in the name of some god. This is partly dramatic, but also because islamic terrorists have killed more people in India, say since Sept. 11, 2001, than in the rest of the world combined . . . By a factor of ten or so. It is a stark reminder of what will inevitably happen in Europe or the US if they ever gain enough influence and power.

Some of the musical interludes seem a bit long, but the words to the songs are related to the message of the story. They are worth reading (or listening to if you understand the language). This is an excellent movie on the choice to follow the ways of hatred and evil or a life of love and forgiveness.

For another good movie depicting Sufi Islam, be sure to see Omar Shariff's Monsieur Ibrahim (2003) [Starring: Omar Sharif, Pierre Boulanger Director: Franois Dupeyron]


[I want to point out that in this review, I have capitalized the words that refer to a true religion or deity, and deliberately left off the capitals to refer to a pseudo-religion or the anti-diety.] May 17, 2006

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