Lamhaa (2010)

Thanks for the memories!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Here is a filmmaker who has the courage of displaying the truth on screen. It is the story of Kashmiris who are playing by the hands of crooks and leaders. And there is no happy ending to this never ending spin in heaven and hell. They have blamed the forces, they have blamed Pakistan and Lashkar sorts. In a situation like this everyone has their fare share of blames and this has been filmed perfectly. The first movie in my knowledge which talks about Kashmiri Pandits, though the director has not tried to go in much details of their sufferings. But still at least the audience can think about the two sides of the story. Indian audience is not yet matured to come out of Yash Chopras and Johars psyche. Probably thats why I see the drop in the ratings. Otherwise its a good movie to watch.

I don't know how many will take this review in the right spirit, since majority of prior were 1,2 or 3 starred. As i defined the title, this movie is rare, audacious and inspiring.I have been to Kashmir and can say that director has made sincere effort while writing the content and 90 % of the screenplay was authentic. Some can find this to be an exaggerated stuff but the tone of this movie is the voice of internal politics of valley.First half of the movie comes up with lots of characters and Second Half sums up all end points and hence make this as a complete circle; yet movie fails to embark any high voltage drama since many of the cine-mongers were unable to understand the climax, it was same what went wrong for Mission Kashmir.Before i can explain the climax of Lamhaa i think Mission Kashmir needs few lines, Kashmir is a very different state and it is divided in two parts, one wants to be with Pakistan and the second wants complete autonomy.By No means GOI will ever make any judgment which will please the above two categories and hence the only option left is make Kashmir as an International Issue. IN MK (Mission Kashmir)the attack on Hazzart bal (Most reputed Shrine) and the follow up on Shankracharya (Shiva Temple in Kashmir) was shown as an attempt from Terrorist to make Kashmir issue to be an International Issue, and seek UN's Intervention. So one can say that climax made some sense but yes it was not shown properly.The Current sate of Kashmir is like that non Muslim are not at all welcomed hence this makes Kashmir as a very different place. The plot of Lamhaa was to create such situation in other parts of India and hence make GOI to succumb. Sequel to MK's climax is Lamhaa.... Migrants who left Kashmir in 1989 are in Jammu and Terrorsit planed suicide attack at the rally which was supposed to be reconciliation effort from moder day Kasmiri Muslim. The High point is if any such incidents happens in Jammu, then again it will lead to multiple conclusions, probably People will left jammu to seek more safe and better place or Jammu will become Armageddon (Hindu-Sikh Vs Muslims) or something like that....Apart from climax, the 1989 holocausts was dealt as if one explains definition, some detailed interpretation would have made this docu-drama better. Editing was bad, some scenes could have trimmed very easily and hence would have made screenplay more effective. The most absurd part or the only thing i disliked about Lamhaa is that it tries too hard to explain small things and left major chuck unnoticed and finally tries to compile and give some solution, this actually questions the intellect of people who are dealing with Kasmir issue for last 20 years.Yes Lamhaa never explains the scenario in detail, and i think its quite justified because this can lead up to lots of controversies(dangerous ones) and that too which can vandalize the current peace of state in Jammu and rest of J&K minus Kashmir. In short, Its a true film about Kashmir and gives the insight of what actually happens in day to day life. A must watch affair.

This movie is not all about Kashmir. This what they think of Kashmir. The tag-line of the movie say "The untold story of Kashmir", and believe me the story inside is not of Kashmir, its of the hate and racism. The game is on in Kashmir with the help of Indian military. And when the Kashmirs fight for their Kashmir, they say it militancy? What a joke? The movie is a joke filmed on this joke.The characterization of Vikram (Sanjay Dutt) is good but he doesn't look to be in his full form. Bipasha has done all fake as one can feel from his face expressions. I wonder does the director had no other choice?The movie openly blames Pakistan for its interactions in Kashmir, but do not gives any proof of this interaction. So blaming is an old game for India and so for Indian Cinema.!

Everyone, says someone important in this searing document of our times, is playing politics in the Kashmir Valley. In a milieu of all-pervasive politics, thank the Lord for a creative voice that can look into the burning Valley with dispassionate compassion.Lamhaa is one of those docu-dramas that could have easily toppled into the territory of over-statement and over-simplified politics. And boy, haven't we seen that happen in very successful political cinema in recent times?! Rahul Dholakia who earlier made the gently persuasive Parzania on the aftermath of the Gujarat riots, doesn't lose his storytelling equilibrium even when the sitiuations of crises described by the skilfully-written plot scream for attention.Restraint and honesty go hand-in-hand in Dholakia's Kashmir, which we'd like to believe, is the real Kashmir, unalloyed, non-magnified, intense and utterly devoid of artifice.The camera moves restlessly through the dangerous crowded main roads and tense bylanes of Kashmir where anything can happen.The cinematographer James Fowlds seems to know the Valley of the damned with the transparent scrupulousness of an insider who can place himself outside the explosive bustle of a portion of earth that's rapidly slipped into the stratosphere of anarchy and mayhem.The high-octane screenplay has no space or time to shed tears for the innocent and the dead. Miraculously liberated of overt sentimentality Lamhaa moves with candour and confidence through a world whose politics has become progressively impossible for the outsider to comprehend. Dholakia's narrative moves through a labyrinth of pain and violence without trying to make common sense of them.Lamhaa is not an easy film to watch. It comes to no decisive end. It takes into consideration the entire politics of Kashmir without careening towards excessive drama.This is that rare political drama where every component in the jigsaw of politics and terrorism is put on screen with a sensitivity and precision that repudiate melodramatic excesses.A word of special praise for Mithoon's songs. The lyrically lush tunes break into the deafening sound of bomb blasts and roaring guns to remind us that once the best poets of Kashmir wrote poetry on the beauty of the Valley.