Article 370

Aditya Dhar and Monal Thaakar's story, inspired by true events, is exciting. Everyone is aware that Article 370 was abrogated but no one knows how it was carried out. Aditya Dhar, Aditya Suhas Jambhale, Arjun Dhawan and Monal Thaakar's screenplay (additional screenplay by Aarsh Vora) is gripping. The writing becomes a bit technical in places but the writers compensate for it with some entertaining and thrilling moments. Aditya Dhar, Aditya Suhas Jambhale, Arjun Dhawan and Monal Thaakar's dialogues are powerful and clapworthy. Aditya Suhas Jambhale's direction is captivating. The film is 160 minutes long but doesn’t get boring or lengthy as a lot is happening every minute. The makers adopt a no-nonsense and realistic approach and it gives the film a nice touch. The first half doesn’t pack a punch, as intended, but post-interval, the film gets much better. The scene where Zooni interrogates Yakub Shaikh (Sumit Kaul) will be loved by the masses. The episode on how a crucial piece of information was deleted from a legal document is quite a shocker. Two tracks run simultaneously in the climax and both are entertaining and captivating.

That kind of sums up the film in totality. Director Aditya Subhash Jambhale has made a 160 minute long explainer on why the government took the step of abrogating Article 370, with the government’s point of view firmly in place. There’s even a powerpoint presentation about the same highlighting the legal nitty gritties. Aditya Dhar, who is one of the producers of the film, has married a proper action thriller with a political film, turning his wife, Yami Gautam Dhar, into an action hero in the process. She’s a fine actress indeed and has taken to doing action like a duck to water. She’s the only heroine perhaps who held a gun properly in films. Her stance is perfect and so are her movements as she takes cover and runs towards her target.

Starring Yami Gautam and Priyamani as the two forces driving this intense narrative, the film informs, educates and keeps you invested for most part. For everyone who is vaguely aware of what Article 370 stands for, its existence and abrogation, but has never really cared to understand its significance or relevance, this 2 hours 30 minutes film is nothing short of an impactfully narrated chapter that delves deeper into the intricacies of politics, and in a much simplified manner, presents an engaging watch for an average viewer to understand. Is Article 370 an extension to The Kashmir Files? To some extent, yes, but from a very different lens, and an entirely different perspective, a refreshing one indeed. The film never resorts to a jingoistic narrative or even slight undertones, neither it tries to enter the propaganda zone.

Set in six chapters like any History and Civic book, the film, set between 2015 and 2019 tries to tell the harrowing tale of how Kashmir has been betrayed time and again, by politicians and bureaucrats. To keep themselves in power, they have allowed radicalisation, and continue to brainwash the youth into making them stone pelters and hail the call for 'Azaadi'. While makers call it an 'inspired' film, you cannot ignore how the two leaders in Kashmir have been painted as Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, albeit in a darker shade. Credit given where due, the makers did hold themselves from doing the obvious - bashing Pakistan or the Muslims - which most films have been doing recently. Also, there are no cliche dialogues or overtly desh bhakti songs to prove one's patriotism. The film is high on production value, which producer Aditya Dhar had earlier also managed in ‘Uri’ (2019). Even though not jingoistic, 'Article 370' is tuned to the propaganda value as it tries to put the BJP government in the spotlight.

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.