Mumbai: Enraged Kashmiri Pandits on Friday slammed Bollywood film maker Vidhu Vinod Chopra for his latest flick ‘Shikara’ that was released on Friday. Angry Kashmiri Pandit’s took to Twitter and social media slamming the film maker, accusing him of commercialization of their plight while paying lip-service to the genocide they had to face in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990’s. So intense was the outrage against the movie, that an unnamed Kashmiri Pandit woman protested and disowned the movie at its screening in a theatre. Rubbing salt to injury, Chopra is seen saying “Bahut Achi Boli, Tali Bajao, inke liye Shikara 2 banayenge”.
Well known Kashmiri Pandit activist Sushil Pandit who was seated next to the angry, distraught woman was seen calming the woman down in the cinema hall. Taking to social media later, Sushil Pandit in series of tweets, slammed Vidhu Vinod Chopra over the movie.
“Watched #Shikara. It has secularized the #HinduGenocide in #Kashmir and remolded it for the mega bucks it will make. Our homes and murders are a mere prop in this story. Massacres, rapes and vandalized temples must’ve been too gory to qualify for even a prop, in a love story”, tweeted Sushil Pandit. In an another tweet, he went on to say “…Gross simplification of the issue of our return #Shikara like #Padmavat turns #HinduGenocide into entertainment for commerce”.
Another noted Kashmiri Pandit activist Ratan Sharda who shared the video of the screening in which the fellow woman lashed out at the film maker, remarked “shocking part of it is that Vidhu Vinod Chopra is seen making fun of the woman. He is seen saying Bahut Achi Boli, Tali Bajao, inke liye Shikara 2 Banayenge”.
Jammu Kashmir Study Circle (JKSC) Mumbai chapter vice president Shakti Munshi revealed that it was precisely for this reason that she had turned down an invitation for a Tv News channel debate. “I have been telling our people to stop giving interviews to these people. They want us to cry like Ruddali’s over our plight. We are angry over the attempts at commercial exploitation of our grief. Stop exploiting us and our grief for your TRPs”.
The distraught Kashmiri Pandit woman seen in the video was heard wanting to know from Vidhu Vinod Chopra as to why he had not taken Kashmiri Pandits for the lead roles. She wanted to know as to why the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits was not shown for even two minutes in the film and why radicalization in the valley was not shown. When the woman said that she was disowning the movie, Chopra was heard saying “clap for her, she spoke well, we shall make Shikara 2 for her”.
In an another video, an unnamed Kashmiri Pandit youth slammed the film maker arguing that the plot of the film is too flimsy. “the lead character gets radicalized just because the police beat up the father of his best friend who plays Ranji Trophy cricket. There is nothing in the movie on why the Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave the valley. Not even two percent of reality has been shown for two minutes in the movie”.
