“If there is heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here,” Amir Khusrao said, while describing Kashmir. He was speaking of Kashmir — a valley whose beauty has seduced emperors and wanderers alike, and whose cinematic potential has long made it a muse for filmmakers. But beneath its postcard surface lies a far more complicated story, one that many directors have dared to tell, even at the risk of controversy. Portraying Kashmir on screen is no small feat — the subject is emotionally volatile, politically fraught. And yet, some films have not only taken on that challenge, but risen to it. These works don’t merely use Kashmir as a backdrop; they echo Khusrau’s poetry while staring unflinchingly into the heart of its conflict.
1. Harud (2010)
Aamir Bashir’s Harud doesn’t wade into the politics of Kashmir’s insurgency so much as it lingers in its aftermath — in the silences, absences, and small domestic ruptures left behind. Set during autumn (the season that gives the film its name), it follows Rafiq, a young man adrift after the disappearance of his brother, one of thousands gone missing in the valley. His failed attempt to flee across the border leads him not to escape, but to a discovery: his brother’s old camera. From there, the story turns inward, unraveling through metaphor and restraint. Harud doesn’t shout its message; it asks a quieter, more unsettling question: who does Kashmir belong to — and who is left behind to ask? The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.
2. Hamid (2018)
In Hamid, director Aijaz Khan adapts Amin Bhat’s play Phone No. 786 into a story that filters Kashmir’s conflict through the eyes of a child — and in doing so, strips it down to something achingly human. After his father disappears, young Hamid sets out to call God on a phone number he’s heard recited in faith and desperation. What follows is less a negotiation with Allah than a search for meaning in the wreckage of loss. The film sidesteps grandiosity; its emotional power lies in its simplicity — quiet images, unspoken grief, and the resilient logic of a child who refuses to accept the world as it is. With echoes of Iranian cinema, Hamid resists the impulse to explain Kashmir. It chooses, instead, to feel it.
3. Shikara (2020)
Shikara is Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s most personal film — a love story framed by one of modern India’s most politically charged events: the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. Loosely inspired by Rahul Pandita’s Our Moon Has Blood Clots, the film follows a couple whose romance is ruptured by the rising tide of violence in the valley. Chopra doesn’t sensationalize; instead, he threads personal memory through historical trauma, drawing attention to the quieter devastations of displacement. The production design and cinematography conjure a Kashmir now largely vanished from public memory. What lingers most, though, is the film’s belief — perhaps idealistic, perhaps necessary — that empathy and forgiveness still have a place in the wreckage.
4. Yahaan (2005)
Shoojit Sircar’s debut feature, Yahaan, finds a love story in the middle of a battlefield — not by softening the backdrop, but by refusing to dramatize it. Set in a militarized Kashmir, the film navigates the terrain of loyalty, loss, and longing without succumbing to polemic. Jimmy Sheirgill carries the film with quiet urgency, anchoring a narrative that walks the line between intimacy and political tension. Sircar avoids grand gestures; his focus is on the human scale — moments between people, not ideologies. Gulzar’s lyrics, Shantanu Moitra and Nizami Bandhu’s music provide the emotional undercurrent, with Naam Ada Likhna still echoing long after. Visually, the film leans into cool blues and greys, a palette that matches both its restraint and its sorrow.
5. Tahaan (2008)
Directed by Santosh Sivan, Tahaan begins with a lost donkey and ends with a child holding a grenade. What unfolds in between is a quietly unsettling journey through the hills of Kashmir, seen through the eyes of a boy too young to fully grasp the politics that surround him. Like Hamid, the film leans into the innocence of its child protagonist, drawing stylistically from Iranian cinema, where simplicity often masks deeper fractures. Sivan, as always, frames the landscape with painterly precision — all mist, shadow, and sacred silence. Tahaan doesn’t shout its message; it lets the terrain and its smallest characters do the heavy lifting. In its final act, innocence collides with ideology — and the fallout is heartbreakingly soft.
6. Inshallah Football (2010)
Ashvin Kumar’s Inshallah Football follows an aspiring footballer from Kashmir, denied a passport because his father was once a militant. What begins as a story of personal ambition quickly reveals the deeper cost of inherited stigma. The film stays close to its young protagonist, charting how hope can flicker even in a place where opportunities are constantly deferred or revoked. Tehelka notes “Kumar’s camera catches the irony of Kashmir’s physical beauty, the claustrophobia of militarisation, the dread and hopelessness of children born into war and the nuances of relationships.” Shot with patience and restraint, the documentary trades outrage for quiet observation. It’s less about blame, more about bearing witness. In the backdrop of breathtaking landscapes, Inshallah Football questions what it means to grow up marked by a conflict you didn’t choose — and may never escape.
7. Shaurya (2008)
Shaurya is an adaptation of the Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson starrer, A Few Good Men. But where the film Indianises itself is by spatialising the premise in the heartlands of Kashmir. Although less of the battle happens outside in the valley, and more in the courtroom, the film is contextually rooted in Kashmir. It represents the men-in-olive with realism, and also deals with the issue of Islam and terrorism with sensitivity. A cerebral experience overall, the film is embellished with exceptional performances by Kay Kay Menon, Javed Jaffrey and Rahul Bose.
8. Haider (2014)
Set in 1995 Kashmir, Haider is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night. Embellished with brilliant performances by Kay Kay Menon, Shahid Kapoor, Tabu and Irrfan Khan, the film revolves around Haider, who returns to his homeland to find out about his father’s disappearance. One of the finest mainstream films on Kashmir, it outrightly makes the personal and political coincide, and touches upon the oedipal unabashedly. Dealing with the ambiguous nature and the sheer magnitude of the literary text, Hamlet, director Vishal Bhardwaj displays extreme finesse in his craft. Exquisitely shot and beautifully scored, the audio and the visuals come together in the film in order to create a sensory experience. Co-written by Bhardwaj and Basharat Peer, the screenplay captures Kashmir elegantly. When Ghazala says, ‘Disappeared logon ki biwiyaan aadhi bewa kehlaati hain, half widows’, it paints a gritty picture of the Kashmir conflict.
9. Half Widow (2017)
Having travelled across film festivals and received several awards, this Danish Renzu directorial follows Neela’s journey upon losing her husband to abduction. The film encapsulates the many dilemmas faced by the woman, who experiences holding on and letting go in equal measure, upon the loss of their beloved. The poignancy of the narrative lies in the duality of never recovering from the loss. The film adopts an approach of realism, from use of the local language to the simple dialogues that are true to the region. Due to the absence of theaters in Kashmir, the film was screened at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre. With flawless performance by Neelofar Hamid in the lead role, the film succeeds in showing the predicament of the ‘aadhi-bewa’, (half widow), the term commonly used in the region, as remarkably as in Haider.
10. Roja (1995)
Directed by the master storyteller Mani Ratnam, this one needs no introduction. The film follows the trajectory of a woman from Tamil Nadu, who tries to find her husband, who gets abducted by Kashmiri militants during an undercover mission. Thematically, the film revolves around the relationship between Savitri and Satyavan of the Hindu epic, Mahabharata. Besides, it was revealed in an interview by Mani Ratnam, that the film was inspired from a news article. The film also marked A. R. Rahman’s cinematic debut. It was critically well received and went on to win several awards, most notably three National Awards including the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. This masterpiece will keep you riveted whilst revealing the political nuances of the many conflicts in Kashmir.
11. Valley of Saints (2012)
‘If a place on the earth can lay claim to paradise, it is Kashmir, and if there is a place that embodies all the dark consequences of humanity, it too is Kashmir. It is a special land of forced contradictions.’ says critic Roger Ebert when he talks about Valley of Saints. Blurring the lines between fiction and documentary, and blending the two into its fold, this film narrates the story of a young tourist boatman named Gulzar. Valley of Saints is the first film set in the endangered lake communities of Kashmir. A love traingle on one hand, and an investigation of political complexities on the other; this film provides a peek into the many layers that govern the Kashmir conflict. What is the most heartwarming part about the film is its depiction of a rare kind of friendship, that which transcends the meaning of love.
12. Inshallah Kashmir (2012)
Ashvin Kumar’s documentary is a presentation of rare testimonials that preserve the coming of age story of the ordinary people of the valley. The film successfully crossed the many hurdles of obtaining the priceless experiences of the people of Kashmir. Capturing and emboldening the voices of the people of the region, the filmmakers succeeded in giving us an honest tale. The film won the National Film Award for the Best Investigative Film. It seeks to question the nature of a secular, democratic republic, that, which leads to devastate the lives of many. Every side of the larger story is given a space in the film, to breathe and to let their emotions flow. The matter-of-fact attitude of the residents while narrating the horrific events in their lives speaks much about how they are conditioned into accepting the unacceptable.
There we are! Here the best films on Kashmir in Hindi cinema. I’ll leave you with this piece of poetry by Agha Shahid Ali, titled ‘The Blessed Word : A Prologue’
‘Let me cry out in that void, say it as I can.
I write on that void: Kashmir,
Kaschmir, Cashmere, Qashmir, Cashmere, Qashmir, Cashmir, Cashmire,
Kashmere, Cachemire, Cushmeer, Cachmiere, Cašmir. Or Cauchemar in
a sea of stories? Or: Kacmir, Kaschemir, Kasmere, Kachmire, Kasmir.
Kerseymere?’
1 thought on “12 Essential Films Around The Kashmir Issue”
Comments are closed.