'The Kashmir Files' only reinforces our obsession with Bollywood

Writer-director Vivek Agnihotri's 'The Kashmir Files' released in theatres on March 11, 2022. The film has already crossed Rs 200 crore in box-office earnings. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Controversial it might be, but The Kashmir Files effectively draws attention to a much-ignored tragedy of the past. At the same time, it also raises the question of why, as a society, we are so obsessed with everything our tinseltown stars do. It is almost as if before we saw Mithun Chakraborty and Anupam Kher in the movie, none of us were aware of how great a wrong had been perpetrated upon Kashmiri Pandits over three decades ago. The cramped and filthy refugee camps that housed those who had lived their previous lives in what was called paradise on earth or even the brilliant doctors and engineers forced out of their homes to seek jobs across the world, have never been part of our collective conscience till now.

Sure, books, movies and plays are meant to draw attention to social issues and to that extent filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has certainly done his job. But for the most part, stars and starmakers in Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood only look after their interests.

We on the other hand, get so lost in our fandom, that we have become slaves to their bidding. Every aspect of our daily lives is impressed upon by their actions. They weigh in on how we love and equally how we hate.

In glitzy and utterly dishonest ads they sell us dubious currencies, coaching programs for our children, insurance policies for our families and even the need for water conservation. When these investments go bust we question not the slick star who peddled them to us, but the poor salesman who merely helped us do the necessary paperwork.

We worry obsessively when they have a mental breakdown and salute them when they turn into concerned citizens zealously guarding our precious liberties. The timing of such events, mostly coinciding with the release of their latest movies, should raise an eyebrow though.

We are also equally indulgent to their many crimes - running over a few people or hobnobbing with terrorists. Boys after all will be boys and since most of our superheroes, well into their 50s, think nothing of cavorting with heroines half their age, the term boys does fit them.

The death of a centenarian star is mourned like a national calamity, even if he was a so-so entertainer and not much of a human being. Meanwhile, we quibble over whether the death count in India on account of Covid is six million or a mere two million.

And god forbid if any of their tribe is hospitalized. Hourly bulletins on their precise medical condition are issued and not just by any and every staffer. Only the medical superintendent or a top doctor will do for these worthies. In the meantime, for the ordinary folk of the country, information on their loved ones inside the hospital is strictly rationed and has to be clawed out with entreaties, threats and sometimes even violence.

The new royalty also controls information flow, bending it to their needs. So while they spend millions on armies of publicists looking for every minute of mileage for their clients, you dare not ask them an inconvenient question. That will invite severe admonishment - do you not know the time and place for such questions?

But why blame them. We have elevated them to a la-la land where they are given the right to believe they are so special and like gods and goddesses, their every action is of national interest.

“Kareena Kapoor wishes good morning from the Maldives”.

“Is Randeep Hooda dating 'Om Shanti Om' and 'Mary Kom' actress Lin Laishram? - Exclusive!”

“Katrina Kaif in denim shirt and mini skirt attends family dinner with Vicky Kaushal.”

Those are just a sprinkling of the headlines that have appeared in the last fortnight or so, not in tabloids or film magazines but in national news publications. Blaming them won’t work since clearly that’s what the readers want.

Armed with smartphone cameras, we are all paparazzi now, clicking pictures of a star entering the airport or his son going to school or, if we are lucky, of him in a slanging match at a cricket ground.

By all means let’s all watch The Kashmir Files. But let’s not limit our understanding of a complex and tragic issue to what a Bollywood filmmaker tells us.