Rajesh Jhala's Documentary 'Floating Lamp of the Shadow Valley'
Yesterday, I got an opportunity to see Rajesh Jhala's Documentary 'Floating Lamp of the Shadow Valley' at Alliance Francaise De Bombay which is a stark reality of Kashmir. Jhala is a Kashmiri by birth and like thousands of other Kashmiri Pandits he was also compelled to leave valley after their houses were looted and burnt, old, young, children were butchered and murdered. Jhala stayed in Refugee Camp in Delhi for almost eight years undergone through lot of trauma , his own pain are reflected in the documentary on subtle level frame by frame.
Before seeing Jhala's documentary, I also saw Vishal Bhardwaj's Haider which is also on the backdrop of Kashmir and has a subtle overtone glorifying separatist movement without understanding the reality of region.
One needs lot of courage to depict truth in the politically incorrect environment. Film runs on two different level, one - a narrative that how terrorism spread its tentacles in valley resulted in more than 80,000 dead, over 3,50,000 driven away from their homes more than one million mentally disabled and over 40,000 security people also gave their lives. On the other level, there is a story of 12 years old girl who was abducted by Militants later compelled to marry him. She was victimised, tormented by him and finally deserted her. She was compelled to live with her four children in a make shift house on the bank of Jhelum.
The idea of this documentary come to Rajesh during his visit Kashmir in the year 2005 when he met with 9 year Arif who was ferrying boat to earn bread for his family. When Arif's story started unfolding before him, Rajesh decided to stay there and document it. It took him one year to capture life of Arif and his family in all the four seasons. The documentary gives a fair idea how majority of people in Kashmir feel about the problem. The conflict between India and pakistan over kashmir not only plays a role in the backdrop, it affects life of likes of Arif's life directly as their family members are directly involved in terrorism.
But the film ends with a note of optimism that even the terrorist's family also feel that terrorism is bad.
The film has been shown in a number of festivals and widely appreciated in the Western media also.
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| Arif''s life in Floating Lamp of the Shadow Valley |
Before seeing Jhala's documentary, I also saw Vishal Bhardwaj's Haider which is also on the backdrop of Kashmir and has a subtle overtone glorifying separatist movement without understanding the reality of region.
One needs lot of courage to depict truth in the politically incorrect environment. Film runs on two different level, one - a narrative that how terrorism spread its tentacles in valley resulted in more than 80,000 dead, over 3,50,000 driven away from their homes more than one million mentally disabled and over 40,000 security people also gave their lives. On the other level, there is a story of 12 years old girl who was abducted by Militants later compelled to marry him. She was victimised, tormented by him and finally deserted her. She was compelled to live with her four children in a make shift house on the bank of Jhelum.
The idea of this documentary come to Rajesh during his visit Kashmir in the year 2005 when he met with 9 year Arif who was ferrying boat to earn bread for his family. When Arif's story started unfolding before him, Rajesh decided to stay there and document it. It took him one year to capture life of Arif and his family in all the four seasons. The documentary gives a fair idea how majority of people in Kashmir feel about the problem. The conflict between India and pakistan over kashmir not only plays a role in the backdrop, it affects life of likes of Arif's life directly as their family members are directly involved in terrorism.
But the film ends with a note of optimism that even the terrorist's family also feel that terrorism is bad.
The film has been shown in a number of festivals and widely appreciated in the Western media also.
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