By Fast Kashmir on 26/05/2017. No Comments

Sargoshiyan Story: Vikram embarks on a road trip across Kashmir with his friend Aryan and an NRI student on a work assignments which makes the trio realise where the true beauty of Kashmir lies.

with 7.2 IMDB Ratings and more tham 70% positive ratings from all the critics, Imran Khan led Sargoshiyan is ruling the heart of Jammu & Kashmir

Sargoshiyan Review: Photographer Vikram Roy (Indraneil Sengupta) is in a serious need of money, thanks to his wife’s spending habits. He takes on a photography assignment from a Kashmiri bank to shoot their annual calendar and asks his friend Aryan Raina (Hasan Zaidi ) to accompany him. The bank wants Vikram to travel across Kashmir and get pictures which show the real soul of the valley. They meet an NRI student Sheena Oberoi (Sara Afreen Khan), who is doing a Ph.D. thesis on Kashmir and joins in along with a bank employee Imran Dar. Along their journey, they meet several interesting people who reaffirm their faith in humanity and change their perception of the place.

The saving grace in Sargoshiyan is its intent to explain Kashmiriyat; a term most people are unfamiliar with, given the cacophony around the region. The term broadly means the indigenous secularism among people of Kashmir that has existed since centuries. But it does that in such a lopsided way that it feels more like a propaganda film. The film doesn’t have an iota of violence, doesn’t delve into the conflict that the region suffers from and strictly focuses only on the good that is to be found in Kashmiris. This is also the films biggest failing because while doing that, it encapsulates itself in a bubble and presents to the viewer a half-baked raelity. Of course there are good Kashmiris and bad Kashmiris, like how there are good people and bad people.

There is some merit to the drama in the film, and a handful of surprises as well. The best performance is clearly by Hasan Zaidi who underplays it yet keeps it real, followed by Farida Jalal. You’re happy to see her on screen after such a long time. She should be cast often and hopefully in more complex roles than this one.

The title of the film Sargoshiyan means whisperings. But as far as the current situation of the Kashmir valley is concerned, one would need more than just delicate whisperings to bring the tourists back to the valley, which is the tagline of the film.