KASMMIR, RAW AND REAL

Identity Card

STARRING: Tia Bajpai, Prashaant Kumar, Furqan Merchant, Vipin Sharma, Brijendra Kala, Saurabh Shukla, Shoib Kazmi and Raghuvir Yadav

DIRECTOR: Mohit Suri ashmir, without a Shakespearean tadka- that's the world inhabited by debutant director Ra hat Kazml's small-big film about three innocent civilians who get picked up by the Special Task Force in Srinagar.

What follows is a nightmare of Shakespearean proportions oops, here we go! There's no getting away from Shakespeare in the Valley of the Dal, is there?

Rahat Kazmi creates almost unbearable tension within the confines of the space where the three victims - a wannabe

TV journalist (Tia Bajpai), her Kashmiri Hindu friend Ajay (Furqan Merchant) and a hapless local tourist guide Raju (Shoib Kazmi, don't miss the tribute to Vijay Anand) are huddled in a hectic ritual of farcical interrogation.

The narrative is enormously stagy. Wo rd s qualify the drama. The written line is never crossed What keeps our interest level from flagging is the cornucopia of credible characters created by actors who know what they are doing and saying. The Specia l Task Force is, well, forceful enough to make them look human and almost vulnerable in their desperation to get confessions out of suspects who may or may not have anything to suspect.

These cops are on a mind-bl owing rampage - savage in their ambitions to fill up their senior 's compl aint books, but reluctant to carry the victimisation too far. Saurabh Shukla (with his impeccable Kashmiri accent) and Brijendra Kala as squabbling cops are uniformly excellent. These two bring to the table a bracing u r gency to what cou ld easily become a wordy duel of rhetoric and sermons

There's a sequence outside a mosque where Kala and Shukla explain to one another, and to themselves, why they find it hard to keep their spirit alive as the Valley burns. There is sheer genius at work between these two actors Such moments allow us to forget to fi l m's g l aring weaknesses such as an abysmal background score, uneven camera work and abrupt editing which sometimes leaves the narrative gasping for breath

But then, there is so much warmth and genuine concern for the l oss of humanism in Kashmir that this film leaves us w ith.

Vi pin Sharma as the senior-most police officer gets into his character with the ease of a pro His character is the most problematic, as its graph goes from disgustingly authoritarian parched corridors of your heart like very few biopics i n recent times Kumar weaves seamless l y in and out of Mary's remarkabl e life creating a work that is as dramatic as Mehboob Khan's Mother India and as inspiri ng as Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. Priyanka's powerhouse performance knocks the breath out of our solar plexus. She yet aga in proves herself the best actress of her generation.

Hereafter there will be an eternal confusion about whose face goes on the hoard ings announcing Mary Kom's boxing events.

PC or MC?

Subhash K. Jha to something bordering on the empathetic. But the surprise is Prashanth Guptha.

As the junior-most and therefore deliberately the biggest bully among the khaki interrogators, Guptha's restless body language, his loud whispers on the phone with his newly-wed wife who wants to go on a honeymoon, are unnerving l y satirical in a film that slaps us w ith the grim reality of Kashmir's decl i ning faith in governance.

"Think funerals, not honeymoon;• Prashanth Guptha's senior reminds him

In a film swathed in the aura of doom, there are flashes of tremendous humour and warmth

A brave, bold, thought-provoking sensitive thriller Strongl y recommended

SUBHASH K.JHA