No Man’s Land

They filmmakers began their research in 2007,when they visited Kashmir. “We got in touch with a professor from University of Kashmir,who briefed us on the prevailing situation,” says Mohindar,adding,“It was here that we met our protagonists Jawed and Iqbal,whose stories we traced thereon.”

The filmmakers got to know their subjects better as they spent more time at the university. “We had already begun to shoot bits of the documentary in 2008,which was a year of turmoil as large-scale protests broke out in parts of Kashmir,” recalls Mohindar.

The documentary began in Kashmir and then panned to Delhi,where Jawed and Iqbal were to pursue their MA and Phd in Public Health from Jawaharlal Nehru University. It is also the point in the film where the attention converges on Iqbal. “It was in Delhi that Iqbal and Jawed found expression. Iqbal,particularly,started exploring and assessing what was happening in Kashmir from Delhi,” says Mohindar.

The movie gauges the strides of Iqbal,who hails from Anantnag district. “Pursuing a degree in public health,Iqbal decides to base his thesis on the impact of the upheaval on health,and chooses his hometown as the sample,” says Mohindar,adding that the documentary also encompasses accounts by people and testimonials.

“The documentary thereon deals with growing up in Kashmir,amid frequent raids on houses,crossfires outside schools and frequent disappearances of people,” says Mohindar. “There are parts where Iqbal talks about the anxiety involved in growing up in the locale. This has been captured particularly well in a conversation between Iqbal and his mother,” she says.

The documentary also shows Iqbal interviewing a former militant as a part of research for his thesis. “He talks about being tortured brutally and how it is easy for one to get entangled in the complexities of the separatist movement building up there,” says Mohindar. Equal amount of light has been shed on growing militarisation in the Valley and its impact on a child’s psychology.

The filming went on until 2011 and was put together through a crowdfunding initiative. My Kashmir premiered at the Mumbai Women’s International Film Festival last month where it won the Special Mention award.

My Kashmir will be screened today at Open Space,Koregaon Park,5.30 pm onwards,followed by an

interaction with Mohindar