The turmoil in Indian-administered Kashmir is an urgent topic but Ashvin Kumarīs coming-of-age film feels lifeless and leadenAshvin Kumar is an Indian film-maker who has made Kashmir an urgent focus of his career and was Oscar-nominated for his short film from 2004, Little Terrorist, about a Pakistani boy playing cricket who goes in search of his ball knocked over the Indian border. This nfilm, of which Kumar is writer, director and co-star, is about a very pertinent contemporary topic: the `disappeared` people of Indian Kashmir - reportedly now as many as 8,000 - picked up by the Indian forces and imprisoned without trial or access to family or lawyers as a result of the heavy-handed new security crackdown following the government revoking Kashmirīs independent status last year.In this story, a 16-year-old Kashmiri-British girl called Noor (Zara La Peta Webb) goes to Kashmir with her mum, Zeinab (Natasha Mago), and her mumīs new partner, a somewhat pompous Indian government apparatchik. Zeinab is on a mission to have her parents-in-law sign official documents declaring her husband dead so that she can remarry: Noorīs dad is one of the `disappeared`. Once there, Noor befriends 16-year-old Majid (Shivan Raina), whose father is also one of those made to vanish by the brutal military.No Fathers in Kashmir is released in the UK on 24 January. Continue reading...
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