THE SOUL OF THE BUSINESS
A PRIVATE   FAITH MADE DANGEROUSLY PUBLIC 
The Making of a Paper
 By SHOMA CHAUDHURY
 In Gratitude
 By TARUN J TEJPAL

Paramita Ghosh on Sanjay Kak’s Kashmir documentary

Listening in: Sanjay Kak

The questions the film raises are kept exclusively in the framework of the Indian State

Documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak’s film Jashn-e-Azadi is strewn with symbols. Barbed wires, gun salutes, the tricolour, the national anthem — through them is woven a feature-length documentary that explores the concept of azadi in a state under siege. Jashn-e-Azadi is, however, not the film on Kashmir. It doesn’t claim to be. That’s the least of the problems with it. The film marshals a collection of voices to raise questions about culture, family and religion but exclusively around the framework of the Indian State. Although a well-meaning, well-researched effort, it does not build enough upon the controversial point of Indian colonisation and Kashmiri independence. The film also leaves out the Kashmiri Hindu voice. But that can perhaps be justified. The Hindu minority, the beneficiaries of state policy, would hardly have joined common cause with the majority Muslim demand for independence. And they didn’t. So this film is not about them.

The non-linear narrative, the constant cuts from 2004 to 2006 and back to 2004 and then to 1989 are distracting. Surprisingly enough, the film thought it necessary to add touches of entertainment: sequences of touristy idiocy on the snow slopes or while dressing up in Kashmiri costume (first under the guidance of Kashmiri photographers and then under the protection of Army personnel) weaken the impact. The segment on the bhands, the popular performers who keep alive images of protest and survival, the poignant scene at the Muskaan orphanage where cheerless children sing songs of Indian patriotism under watchful Army eyes, the talk of ‘women’s empowerment’ contrasted with the desperation of widows for livelihood were some of Jashn-e-Azadi’s most meaningful and telling moments. Good film, bad film — is not the issue here. But it must be seen and talked about.