Kashmir
A Venture of the Dream Merchants
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70042/eroth/01020004Keywords:
Kashmir, politics, visual cannibalism, filmsAbstract
This paper examines the representation of Kashmir in popular Indian cinema and media, tracing how Bollywood has systematically transformed the region into a mythic visual construct divorced from its historical and political realities. From the idyllic depictions of Kashmir as a timeless paradise in films like Kashmir Ki Kali and Junglee to the later portrayal of a paradise under siege in Roja and Mission Kashmir, the cinematic gaze has oscillated between romantic escapism and nationalist melodrama. Such portrayals depoliticize Kashmir, erasing its people and lived realities, while aligning its image with either erotic fantasy or global terrorism. The essay critiques this visual cannibalism that first dehistoricized Kashmir and later reframed it as a battlefield of Indian nationalism, thereby reinforcing state ideologies and stereotypes of terrorism and Islam. Ultimately, it argues that the real Kashmir—its culture, history, and voices—has been obscured by the dream merchants of Bollywood, leaving behind only a manipulated simulacrum of paradise and conflict.
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