Filmistaan

Filmistaan is one of the most powerful movies I have seen in recent times. It proves that you do not need a superstar, a beautiful heroine , an item number , some heavy weight dialogues or expensive cars colliding to  make a good movie..a multi crore blockbuster may be. But for making one that will touch hearts you have to put yours into the making of it.

The essence of the movie lies in the scene where the lead character, when told that he has been kidnapped and is held hostage in Pakistan, says how could he have known where he was...everything including the  faces, their mannerism and even their food is identical.

There is another scene where a hakeem treating the lead character recalls his childhood  days in Amritsar . When he is told about the no more in existence of a particular 'mohalla' he use to live in, he says with a sigh " When the nation itself could not survive partition, how could a small neighbourhood have !! " It was an extremely powerful performance,however in the middle of it, l suddenly realised that this generation depicted through this hakeem ,which saw and survived partition, is soon going to perish...may be in another 10 to 20 years. Those who have not experienced that pain , including me who is much younger and both Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif  born post independence,  can and will never understand what it was like. So their efforts for peace , however sincere, can also never be the same. This implies that this is the time... before it gets too late for it. And Filmistaan is an excellent effort in the direction coming from bollywood. Nitin Kakkar and Sharib Hashmi you can both take a bow !

I remember fearing , while I was a kid in the 80's , that it may never be possible for me to ever be able to visit Kashmir and Punjab , parts of  my own country. I am glad  that is no more true, having actually lived in the heart of Punjab for 3 years in the recent past and looking forward to visit Kashmir very soon . I hope for the day I will be able to say similar things about our neighbouring country too.