THE KASHMIR FILES: JOLT TO THE CONSCIENCE OF A NATION

Tagging a narrative as hate has become an expedient modus operandi for some to discredit their ideological adversaries or counter a stance that does not suit their viewpoint. Vivek Agnihotri did not manufacture the 'hate' that is depicted in the movie.

- VIVEK GUMASTE

The unexpected and spectacular success of the movie The Kashmir Files, which por, trays movingly the brutal ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley has raised the hackles of the usual suspects—the left-liberal lobby, the anti-BJP political parties and the Bollywood cabal-all of whom have gone to town to decry the movie.

One film critic dubbed it as a “fantasy-revisionist drama”, while another accused the movie of “propagandist verve”, and “cementing the current dispensation's favoured discourse". The very first sentence of yet another review in a major newspaper left no doubt as to where its sympathies lay: "Once upon a time, writer-director Vivek Agnihotri told us a Hate Story; this week, he has etched yet another.”