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MISSION
KASHMIR
WHO
THE HELL SET PARADISE (KASHMIR) ON FIRE ?
HOW LONG WILL THIS FIERCE FIRE LAST?
WHO WILL PUT OUT THIS RAGING FIRE? THE DEVIL’S DESTROYERS
 sWHO
HAVE LOST THEIR SANITY
OR OUR OWN MEN, OUR BRAVE AND BOLD MEN WHO WILL SET
THEMSELVES ON FIRE KYONKI KASHMIR (PARADISE)
HAMARA HAI, JANNAT HAMARA HAI
JALAKAR RAKH AUR KHAAK BANA DENGE DUSHMANO KO
JO HAMARE JANNAT PE BOORI NAZAR DALTE HAI
NO MAN, NO MERCENARY, NO MILITANT, NO RUTHLESS ENEMY
NOT ALL THE FORCES OF EVIL IN THE WORLD CAN JOIN HANDS TO
SNATCH OUR PARADISE FROM US
JAB TAK JANNAT PAR UNKI BOORI NAZAR PADTI RAHEGI TAP TAK HUM
APNNE KOON KA EK EK KATRA BAAHEGE.
DOOR HATO HAI JANNAT KE DUSHMANO, SAARA JANNAT HAMARA HAI,
SAARA JANNAT SIRF HAMARA HAI.
Every
time Vidhu Vinod Chopra decides to make a film there is some
burning, some churning, some rumbling some crumbling of the
earth some whirlpool , a demolition to destroy and build again,
build all that has been harmed by the cruel hands of the devil’s
forces. It happened when he was a student at the FTII when
he made outstanding films like his diploma films, Murder On
Monkey Hill and Encounter with Faces, all of them winners
of awards at various film  festivals
all over the world. He followed his fantastic work with full-fledged
films like Sazaaye Maut, Khamosh, Parinda, 1942 A Love Story,
and Kareeb, a film which was different from all the other
films he had made till then, a greater challenge, a challenge
which he unfortunately failed to face.
Vinod who was born and brought up in the beautiful valley
of Kashmir, his birth place which was being consistently ravaged,
ransacked, and ruined by the enemy. His urge to make a film
about Kashmir grew when he was invited by the Government of
Kashmir to attend the re-opening of a cinema hall destroyed
by militant action in 1989. He was in Kashmir again after
twelve years because extremist action had shut off the valley
since 1989. The film screened after his visit was his own
film, Kareeb. It created an emotional turmoil, a typhoon of
feelings within him. It was during this visit that the idea
of making Mission Kashmir was born. The writer, Vikram Chandra,
also visited Kashmir and came back with a series of heart-rending
stories about the place and its people. The urge within led
to a maddening, obsessive mission for Vinod. Vinod and his
team of writers made many trips to Kashmir under great risk,
did a lot of research and finally found the perfect script
for Mission Kashmir. The unit flew to Kashmir amidst the tightest
security and help from the Government of Dr. Farooq Abdullah,
a connoisseur of Indian cinema. They shot on actual  locations
in and around Srinagar and on Dal Lake in Paradise torn by
ruthless violence. “The low intensity conflict”
continued even as Vinod and his brave unit continued shooting
in the very streets where the conflict was roaring at every
step, during every breath in every man. They however shot
in the thick of a war-like situation. They didn’t surrender
till the very end, till they could finish the best part of
their shoot. It was very dangerous to take any more risks.
It was almost like pleading for death in Paradise splattered
with blood. The daring adventure was over. The interiors of
Kashmir and various surroundings and locations were then shot
on sets built in Mumbai. Film City was literally transformed
into Kashmir in conflict. There was one important sequence
however to be shot depicting Kashmir. It was difficult to
go back this time. It required a number of burnt out houses
at the edges of Dal Lake. And that the main characters travel
to the location in a boat. It was Nitin Chandrakant Desai,
the award-winning art director who took up the challenge of
creating a ravaged Kashmir on the Dal Lake. He created the
location just like the script demanded at Film City, in the
very place where he had built the whole of Dalhousie for Vinod’s
“1942 A Love Story”. Nitin used every technique
and all his talent to give Vinod more than the scenes demanded.
Nitin can write a book on how he created those scenes, scenes
that amazed Vinod, the entire unit and all those who had the
good fortune to see it as it looked. This Kashmir and that
Kashmir, thousands of miles away, were the same Kashmir, indeed.
The climax, according to Vinod and the making of “my
most difficult and challenging film was possible only because
of the determination, dedication and devotion of the entire
unit, from myself, to my brother, Vir down to all the technicians
and the spot boys. From Jackie Shroff handling wire machines
and Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan and Preity Zinta rehearsing
and improvising a minute part of a scene for sixteen long
hours, trying their best to make it work and all of them shooting
in a war zone with a kind of commitment and co-operative effort
of the team, for a team moved by the suffering of innocents
on every side of the conflict. Talk to Vinod and he says:
“Mission Kashmir is a labour of love, a response to the
agony of Kashmir, a call for sanity and peace and an offering
to the spirit of Kashmiriyat, the centuries-old Kashmiri traditions
of religious tolerance and harmony.
The idyllic valley of Kashmir. A small family. A police man
(Sanjay Dutt), his wife (Sonali Kulkarni) and a son (Hrithik
Roshan).
There seems to be peace and tranquility in the family but
trouble starts with Hrithik. He is an orphan, adopted by Sanjay
Dutt and Sonali. He is a victim, an eyewitness to the ruthless
massacre of his parents by a man whose face is hidden behind
a mask, a man only Hrithik has a glimpse of.
One day Hrithik discovers that the man he calls “abba”
is the same man who destroyed his family. The innocent son
turns into an instant and intense warrior. He wears the same
mask that his “abba” had worn when he killed his
parents and flew in a rage into the darkness of the night.
Ten years later, a well-known guerrilla fighter named Hilal
Kohistani (Jackie Shroff) leads a mission, a group of militants
who are out to plan their own outfit, their own agency without
any foreign help. Their aim is a mission to earn a reputation
for themselves in just one attack.
The group is highly secret mission called Mission Kashmir,
a mission aimed a change the map of the sub-continent for
ever. Jackie, the leader of the mission, is willing to go
to any lengths to fulfil his mission. He is even willing to
sacrifice millions of human lives, feelings, love and faith.
All he needs he says to fulfil his mission is a fearless soldier,
a trained fighter, whose deadly combat skills and burning
fury will drive him to the target. He finds his man-Hrithik.
Hrithik undergoes a drastic change, becomes a full-time militant
obsessed with his new mission ,blended with the “sacred”
vow to find and kill the killer of his parents.
In Srinagar Hrithik meets his childhood sweet-heart, Preity
Zinta, who is now a vivacious T. V. reporter. Her beauty,
her compassion and sheer optimism helps Hrithik in finding
love and hope again. But is it just an interlude of happiness
in the general drama of pain?
Hrithik, however, can not forget or forgive the killer of
his parents. As the countdown for Mission Kashmir starts,
Hrithik and the killer of his parents come face to face and
are locked in a duel to death. THE FATE OF KASHMIR DEPENDS
ON THE RESULTS OF THIS DUEL.
Will Hrithik and his enemy kill each other? Will Jackie reveal
the purpose of Mission Kashmir? Will the worshippers at the
Hazrat Bal mosque and the Shankaracharya’s temples still
be able to pray side by side? Will Kashmiriyat live in dignity
or die a disastrous “death?” The answers lie in
the heart of Mission Kashmir. What is Mission Kashmir? Why
Mission Kashmir? Will Mission Kashmir put an end to all militancy
and all further needs to form missions to kill, missions to
save? Will Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s dedication of his film:
“For my children, Isha and Agni Dev and for all the children
of conflict. May they dream freely and may they some day rediscover
that valley of love I grew up in, that heaven of harmony,
that paradise called Kashmir”, Kashmir also known as
heaven on earth, be just another filmmaker’s dream or
turn into a solid reality some day?
Vir Chopra, brother of Vinod, is the creative producer, Binod
Pradhan is the associate director and cinematographer, the
late Renu Saluja is the supervising editor and the associate
director, Shankar Mahadevan, Eshan and Loy are the music directors.
The rest of the technical team is a mind-boggling group of
men with the mission to fulfil one of the greatest missions
of our times.
It is this film which can play a very important part in solving
a problem that is burning paradise both physically and mental
for years. Many have tried but the expectations from Vidhu
Vinod Chopra are the highest. If his film can convince the
comity of Nations, the world as a whole, the people with a
conscience all over, he will have fulfilled what no man can
easily fulfil. He could even be canonised for it, he could
be made a saint.
Ali Peter John
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Chori:
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at Luni Fort
Ek
Rishta:
Explosive
father-son tale
AAGHAAZ:
COME,
LET’S BEGIN BUILDING A BRAVE NEW WORLD
Dhaai
Akshar Prem Ke:
ONLY
LOVE CAN SAVE THIS WORLD GROWING IN HATE
HAMARA DIL AAP KE PAAS HAI:
THERE'S NO POWER LIKE THE POWER OF LOVE
DHADKAN:
THE HEART BEATS BEST WHEN IN LOVE
DEEWANE:
THERE’S A FIRE IN THEIR FEELINGS THERE’S A METHOD
IN THEIR
MADNESS THERE’S A SLICE OF HEAVEN IN THEIR PASSION
HAR
DIL JO PYAR KAREGA: LETS'S ALL FALL IN LOVE-THE
ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE WORLD
KUNWARA:
TIPS TOPS AGAIN AND TOCHES NEW PEAKS IN ENTERTAINMENTS
PAPA
THE GREAT: WAKE UP, ALL YOU FATHERS
REFUGEE:
AN ENGROSSING FIRST HALF AND A TAME SECOND
B
I C H H O O: LOVE SOOTHES, LOVE CAN ALSO STING
JORU
KA GHULAM: RIB-TICKLER ALL THE WAY
JOSH:
Josh hai toh hosh hai Hosh hai toh zindagi hai Josh nahi
to kuch bhi nahi hai
HUM
TO MOHABBAT KAREGA: KUNDAN SHAH KI BAAT HAI
TO ZAROOR KOI BAAT HAI
KYA
KEHNA!: LET’S ALL FALL IN LOVE
JODI
NO.1: TOGETHER THEY ARE A BLAST TOGETHER
THEY GIVE LOVE A NEW LIFE
CHAL
MERE BHAI: BRINGING
UP BIG BROTHER
DIL
HI DIL MEIN: TRUE
LOVERS HAVE LITTLE HEAVENS IN THEIR HEARTS
‘BAAGHI’:
ONE
MAN'S FIRELY REVOLT TO SAVE
DULHAN
HUM LE JAYENGE: DAVID
GIVES AWAY THE BRIDE
VIDROH:
COME,
TEAR ALL THREATS TO TATTERS
PUKAR:
A
CLARION CALL TO CHALLENGE, TO CAPTURE AND CRUSH THE ENEMY
BADAL: HE'S
OUT TO WIPE OUT EVERY DARK CLOUD
PHIR
BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI: IT'S
TIME EVERY INDIAN FELT PROUD BEING AN INDIAN
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Cover
Story
