Review: 'Harud' is an honest effort which had way more potential

Film: Harud
Director: Aamir Bashir
Cast: Reza Naji, Shanawaz Bhat, Shamim Basharat and Salma Ashai
Rating: ***

The issue of Kashmir is perhaps the most complicated chronicle in the history of independent India. With innumerable films and untold documentaries, various directors have tried to cover the diverse issues that surround the Valley and the residents of this disturbed land.

Caught in the middle of military and militants are the common families of Kashmir, who seemed to have made peace with the violence in the Valley. It is set in the time when the most enthralling news in their hopeless and disconsolate lives is the government’s decision to launch sim cards. Actor-turned Director Aamir Bashir (who played a cop in A Wednesday) draws attention to the soring lives of people residing in the Valley who spend each day in the fear of losing their family members and do not know whether they would return home by the end of the day or not.

Set in autumn (Harud) the film narrates the tale of an average family living in Kashmir. Harud begins with shots of uprising in the Valley with people calling for azaadi (the word has been muted due to censorship). Rafiq (Shanawaz Bhat), the narrator, makes a failed attempt to escape to Pakistan to become a militant. He returns home to a dispirited life where his friends are finding ways to escape to a comfortable and propitious life, while his family is trying to subsist in a world filled with fear, outrage and despair. While he is coping with the loss of his elder brother Taufiq who is among thousands of those who have disappeared, his mother Fatima (Shamim Basharat) lives in the elusive hope of finding any news of Taufiq’s existence or even his remains. Paranoid father Yusuf (Reza Naji), a traffic cop, is seen undergoing post-traumatic disorder as his condition worsens with each passing day. While living an aimless existence of a newspaper delivery boy, Rafiq comes across his brother’s camera, which gives his life a direction. Bomb blasts, militant firing, military action is all a part of their routine lives.

Harud presents a lamenting view of the lives of Kashmir’s residents who struggle to merely survive in the disturbed Valley. There is an entire generation that is forced to either resort to militancy or move out to peaceful parts of the country only so that they could live a peaceful life. It is a picture of every family in Kashmir that starts each day with a fear that they may never see their loved ones again.

Inspired by neo-realist cinema, Bashir attempts to show what is behind the news reports and movies from ‘third person point-of-view’. Which brings us to the fact that the movie may be targeted for certain audience, who the film-maker assumes knows enough about the situation in Kashmir from a third person’s point of view. Even though coverage of the Valley is way too complicated to capture in a 1-and-a-half hour feature and Bashir does his best to cover every aspect, Harud would fail to captivate an audience that may not be completely aware of the situation in Kashmir today. While the intellectual movie-goers will find the film amusing, there is no commercial value to this narration. The film could have been supported with statistics.

The movie boasts of mixed-bag performances. Reza Naji steals the show with a flawless depiction of a protective father. Shanawaz Bhat, the main protagonist seemed like he was confused with the character himself. With an expressionless face throughout the film, the actor was either representing a dejected life (in which case he should have frowned at least once) or unable to act. In either case, tight close-ups of his impassive face in maximum parts of the film were uncalled for. The rest of the cast does justice.

The film scores high on technical grounds, though it tends to go overboard at times like in the case of Shanawaz’s close-ups. Blasts and gun-firing are the only background score of the film.

The decision to release it in select PVR cinemas is perhaps an intelligent one as the cine-goers for such films is a reserved lot. All said, the film does deserve a watch by all to understand the mental state of people living in the troubled areas of the valley and show sensitivity towards them.

Harud is an honest effort by a man who has lived his life in the turbulent atmosphere of Kashmir. However, lack of information and superfluous complexity take away the credit Bashir deserves for the film. Though it is an honest effort on his part, the movie could’ve been much more than a mere feature film if it had been treated well.