The Kashmir Files Unreported review: Vivek Agnihotri digs deeper into heart-wrenching & spine-chilling reality
After the massive success of 'The Kashmir Files', filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri is up with a new docu-series titled, The Kashmir Files Unreported, digging out deeper into the eye-opening and spine-chilling reality of Kashmiri pandits. The series — based on a true tragedy— features conversations with historians, experts, real life victims, Kashmiri women, and their families. And it is unfiltered and uncensored.
Vivek Agnihotri poses a question, of whether the exodus ever happened, and takes us back to 1947, when the partition shook the nation. The emotionally triggering series sheds light on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, who were compelled to flee their homes by the Islamic militants. Just like any other documentary, The Kashmir Files Unreported features and dives deeper into real-life visuals with the narration of the people related to the event. Many of the survivors were seen getting emotional while sharing their terrific horrified stories. The series strike the perfect balance between the past and present of Kashmir, which led to the abrogation of Article 370 and its repercussions. Vivek Agnihotri tries to maintain a flow by mixing testimonies and historical facts together.
The Kashmir Files Unreported begins with Vivek Agnihotri and Pallavi Joshi interacting with the survivors and breaking the fourth wall to unleash the brutality of what Kashmiri families went through. It seems, that either the director is trying to help the viewers to understand the Kashmir situation better, or he is justifying his last release, 'The Kashimi Files.'
The documentary gives a detailed look into the exodus and genocide, in which thousands of Kashmiri Hindus were massacred, women were raped; cut into pieces. Children and men were shot point blank, even today, those families, living like refugees, wish to return to Kashmir. And as Vivek Agnihotri said, "I can guarantee that The Kashmir Files Unreported will shatter your heart but the intention is so that we learn from history, and we develop a temperament of zero tolerance for terrorism and we stand up for humanity and our own people."
Once considered heaven on earth, Kashmir transformed into a blood-stained zone due to its political landscape, which led to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits and the eventual removal of Article 370 in August 2019. The hard-hitting doc-series can be called a visual encyclopedia on Kashmir. Or if we go by Vivek Agnihotri's statement, "The genocide of Kashmir is a blot not only on India but on humanity. It is considered to be the biggest hidden tragedy of modern times. It was very important for us to tell this story honestly. So far, all the movies, literature and in media, what has been reported is contemporary."