It would be fairly correct to say “Shikara” has been one of the more anticipated films of the season, at least for the section of Bollywood watchers that reads reviews. The film”s core — exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in early 1990 owing to Islamist insurgency promises poignant drama. Importantly, “Shikara” revisits a slice of modern Indian history that Bollywood forgot to acknowledge, and the effort is brought to life by a veteran filmmaker hailing from that region.
“Shikara” could be the definitive socio-political thriller Bollywood has been forever trying to make but never quite managed, you”d go in thinking.
For the sake of drama, writer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra introduces a fictional love story into the historic reality on which his film is based. The formula has been a popular one in Bollywood for decades now — at random, you could think of Chopra”s own “1942 A Love Story”, Mani Ratnam dramas as “Roja and “Bombay”, or Kabir Khan”s recent web series “The Forgotten Army” a while back.