Article 370 movie review: Yami Gautam-starrer serves its politics unabashedly as it mixes facts with fiction

Mixing facts with fiction, and some convenient untruths, dipping into the right-wing narrative of Jawaharlal Nehru’s “blunders” in Kashmir and Maharaja Hari Singh’s “inclination” towards India, Article 370 presents the government of the day’s scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir as a masterclass in State craft. The bending of Constitutional obligations along the way is just a necessary evil.

On this side are committed soldiers and intelligence agents, hardworking bureaucrats, and a Narendra Modi-lookalike Prime Minister (Arun Govil, of Ram fame) who pops up at intervals to offer Great Leader-like prescience. On the other side are greedy, buffoonish Kashmiri politicians, brainwashed militants and “paid” stonepelters, getting their guidance from an Islamabad which has no answers to Delhi’s devilry.

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By the time we arrive at August 5, 2019, and abrogation of Article 370, the film has brushed the cobwebs off former J&K governor Jagmohan, shone a favourable light on episodes such as the tying of a person to the front of a jeep by an Army officer, and presented demonetisation “cutting off the money trail of militants” as a fact.

What helps it all go down smoothly is that, like Uri, Article 370 is a very professional production – with its action scenes particularly impressive, its dialogues shorn of melodrama, and its acting efficient (director Jambhale has critical recognition under his belt).

Yami, an intelligence operative who is a Kashmiri Pandit, does a good job shouldering both the emotional and the professional burden of the film. Article 370 also laudably places her along with Priyamani, as an immaculately dressed senior bureaucrat in the PMO, at the heart of the momentous legislation.

Article 370 also finishes with flourish – pacing the build-up to the abrogation day as a race-against-time, simultaneously playing out in Srinagar and Delhi.

However, from the encounter of Burhan Wani (who is perhaps the only one identified by his real name), to the Pulwama attack, to the Balakot strike, to journalists (one TV anchor in particular, and you will know who) who are just self-serving careerists, to mocking human rights, to the mass arrests and the security clampdown that lasted for months after August 5, 2019, Article 370 offers us only one perspective on an issue that continues to defy simple answers.

The ordinary Kashmiri is personified in just one old man, who says he is tired of “begging” existing Valley leadership for favours and of seeing their children pushed into militancy. The film does not even venture into Jammu, forget Ladakh, crucial pieces to the puzzle.

Those who come the worst off are J&K politicians – a Mehbooba Mufti lookalike played by Seth, and a Farooq Abdullah clone with Zutshi hamming away. Even Ghulam Nabi Azad gets a shoo-in during the Rajya Sabha debate on the abrogation Bill as the Leader of the Opposition, but perhaps due to his not-unfriendly ties with the government currently, he is given a new identity that is neither Muslim nor of a J&K native.

The Amit Shah-lookalike Home Minister (Karmarkar) fares little better, mostly just hanging around the scenery. But then the moment of his placing the Bill in the House comes, and Karmakar redeems himself.

The only character with some complexity to him in the film is Khawar Ali (Arjun), the local Intelligence Department chief in Srinagar, who runs covert operations as these were run once, with a few concessions here, a few favours there. However, operating in the zone of greys, in a film that revels in its blacks and whites, does not end very well for him.

Yami Gautam in Article 370.

Yami’s Zooni Haksar, whose father’s death is portrayed as the direct fallout of the J&K Bank scam (in which Abdullahs are facing a probe), gets to give a long, and passionately delivered, speech on how terrorism is all about money, Azaadi just a ruse, and Article 370 at the root of all evils from SCs not getting recognition, to Pandits having to leave the Valley, to women not getting their full rights.

And the house claps. And the government hears.

So, how is the josh? Clearly unflagging. Main Atal Hoon just went by, while up ahead (with two months to go for elections still) are films honing to the same script such as Accident or Conspiracy: Godhra, Bastar: The Naxal Story, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar…

Meanwhile, 370 now has a new flavour – no longer an Article in the Constitution, it’s the BJP’s seat target for 2024.

Article 370 movie director: Aditya Suhas Jambhale
Article 370 movie cast: Yami Gautam, Priyamani, Skand Sanjeev Thakur, Arun Govil, Raj Arjun, Sumit Kaul, Kiran Karmarkar, Raj Zutshi, Divya Seth
Article 370 movie rating: 2.5 stars