The IFFI jury head Nadav Lapid kicked up a storm early last week when at the closing ceremony of the festival he didn’t hold back and referred to the controversial film ‘The Kashmir Files’ as a “vulgar propaganda movie” which he said had no place in the ‘competitive section’ of the prestigious film festival such as IFFI.
In response to his remarks, the makers of the film, BJP politicians as well as Israeli diplomatic officials were quick to pounce on him each with their own version of why Lapid was ‘wrong’ about his comments.
Reactions were ranging from accusing Lapid of belittling the tragedy, to mocking the sentiments of the host nation, as well as to even trying to discredit Lapid himself and his ability to judge a film accurately. There were even a worse range of reactions including anti-semitic remarks, mocking the holocaust and comparing the plight of Kashmiri Pandits to the plight of Jews. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant even accused Lapid of misusing the platform to make a political statement.
As a thorough professional Lapid and his jury peers were very clear about what they said and what they didn’t say. In his comments made at the festival closing ceremony, Lapid had said that the Kashmir Files, being the movie that it was, didn't deserve a place in the competitive section of the festival. He didn’t even say the film had no place at the festival in general and he certainly didn’t speak about the tragedy itself.
His comments were only about the film -- which even the most reputed film critics within the country have panned as a bad film that doesn't do justice to the actual tragedy or its victims. Among major film reviews that were published at the time of the film’s release The Indian Express gave the film one and a half stars, The Hindu termed the film as “employing some facts, some half-truths, and plenty of distortions…”, The Times of India gave the film three stars while the sole positive review about the film came from the reviewers at The Hindustan Times. Even the most charitable overview of the reviews of the film indicates that it elicited mixed reviews, at best, and bad reviews from serious professionals. In this situation then, Lapid and his fellow jurists saw the movie for what it is.
We need to remember that the competition section, the winner of which is bestowed with the prestigious Golden Peacock Award, is a section reserved for the very best films in the world that have been made over the past 12 months. Many of which are yet to be released to the general public yet. Unsurprisingly, art films, are films that involve outstanding cinematography, technique and acting. Popular films rarely make it to the section and even if they do, they will make it because of the exceptional artistic nature of the film.
This brings us to the question of how and why The Kashmir Files was selected to be a part of the international competition section of the festival when it clearly didn’t belong there. The answer to that lies in the fact that the decision to include it was a political one and not an artistic or professional one. It is increasingly clear that an agenda was forced upon the festival much to the detriment of the prestigious nature of festival.
When Lapid spoke about the inappropriate presence of The Kashmir Files in the competitive section, he had the festival’s best interests at heart when he clearly pointed out that politics should have no part in decisions concerning the films that are to be selected. No sooner that line is breached, the festival and the awards they hand out quickly lose whatever value they have as it leaves every winner past and future vulnerable to accusations of having had their films chosen for screening for reasons other than the sheer quality of the film.
Sadly, Lapid’s remarks have been completely misinterpreted forcing him and his fellow jury members to clarify their remarks -- which were again misrepresented by the foremost of the disinformation agencies to be an apology. The question is simple: if anyone cared so much about the tragedy and was affected by it, why not make a better film? Why attempt to propagate such a film that brings embarrassment on an international stage and degrade the country’s prestigious film festival in the process?
