Usually, films based on the Kashmir conflict are told through characters in army fatigues. In Baramulla, director Aditya Suhas Jambhale, who made Article 370, for a change, infiltrates into the local Jammu & Kashmir Police to find DSP Ridwaan Sayyid, who is torn between duty and distrust. His colleagues find him a stern taskmaster, the separatists see him as an infidel, and his daughter calls him a traitor.
Thrust into a chilling investigation of missing children in Baramulla, Ridwaan soon discovers that it is not an open-and-shut case, as his junior wants him to believe. On one hand, the systematic disappearance seems linked to increasing instances of stone pelting amid surges of unrest. At the same time, a supernatural force lurks right in his official residence, which holds the remains of a putrid past.
Carrying the demons of a past operation in his heart, as Ridwaan grapples with the personal and the professional, we are presented with an emotionally resonant tale that lingers, where the line between the rational and the otherworldly blurs for a greater purpose.
Baramulla (Hindi)
Director: Aditya Suhas Jambhale
Cast: Manav Kaul, Neelofar Hamid, Arista Mehta, Shahid Latief, Ashwini Koul
Duration: 136 minutes
Storyline: A police officer investigating missing children cases discovers disturbing truths while supernatural occurrences threaten his family and Baramulla’s peace.
Aditya doesn’t pretend to create a postcard-perfect Kashmir and focuses on the underlying fissures beneath the snow-clad mountains. A wilting white tulip becomes a metaphor for the long autumn that the valley faces.
A master of his craft, Manav brings out the quiet ferocity, restlessness, and vulnerability of Syed, making him a living, breathing contradiction that the narrative wants him to be. A strong support cast, including Neelofar Hamid and Arista Mehta, ensures that the tension remains taut and believable.
However, when the shadows whisper back, the emotional text gives way to the political subtext. We realise that Aditya wants to tell us about the social undercurrents that led to the abrogation of Article 370. If the previous film focused on the economy of terrorism, here he delves into how the seeds of insurgency are sown among the innocent.
The story is more personal and local than his previous venture, but the point of view remains that of an outsider. The idea is to suggest that the present generation of Kashmiris is suffering because of the wrongs done to the Pandits. That even in the form of spirits, Pandits remain noble in thought and deed, while the ordinary Kashmiri Muslim is oblivious to the injustice that he allowed to happen in the late 1980s, unless the trouble comes knocking at his door. It is a language that is more nuanced than we read in The Kashmir Files, but the import is the same old ‘us vs them’ conversation.
Baramulla is currently streaming on Netflix