Sadaf Shabir and Fahim Mattoo
After nearly three decades, Kashmir got its three cinemas— one in Srinagar and the other two in Pulwama and shopian. It’s not the first time that the government have tried to reopen cinemas across Kashmir. An attempt was made by Dr Farooq Abdullah led government to open cinema halls in Kashmir in 1999 but on the first day, a grenade blast took place in a cinema which led to the death of one person and left twelve others injured.
Cinema halls became the first target of militant groups when insurgency started in Kashmir in 1989. It was the least popular group Allah Tigers who announced a ban on cinema halls.
After that attacks were carried out on cinema halls across Kashmir. At the time around 15 cinema halls were functional in Kashmir but now they host police and central reserve force personnel.
Militants groups branded films “unislamic” and called for an Islamic revolution. Local people paid very less attention to these threats at first but later militants swung into action and put many cinema halls on fire after that all the cinemas got closed till 31 December 1989.
On 20 September lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated INOX multiplex in Sonwar, Srinagar multiplex is owned by Vijay Dhar a Kashmiri pandit businessman and INOX group. This cinema has a seating capacity of 520 people.
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha called it a revolution sweeping through J&K in the last 3 years. He said it’s a reflection of a new dawn of hope, dreams, confidence and aspirations of people, but what do the Kashmiri people think about it?
Maktoob media tried to take different perspectives regarding the newly inaugurated cinema halls of Kashmir a journalist wishing anonymity said “Cinema halls were a common sight before the insurgency period of the 90s in Kashmir. During the 90s when insurgency erupted, militants attacked nearly all cinema halls and sets many of them on fire in Kashmir valley. Nobody exactly knows why cinema halls were particularly targeted; people have been interpreting these incidents differently”.
“As the government has started reopening cinema halls in Kashmir, people in the valley have both good and bad memories of cinemas in Kashmir. They feel that if militants start attacking these places again, they might become collateral damage in these incidents”.
“Nevertheless, the government is making sure that these places are well secured and protected by all means from any the attacks in future. For now, people might hesitate in going there but if the situation remains peaceful, these places will witness a manifold increase in daily visitors” he exclaimed
Additional general of police Vijay Kumar has ensured full proof security to cinema halls but Kashmiri people consider avoiding cinema halls, for now, a wise act.
Sheikh Humaira, a student while talking to Maktoob media said “I wanted to visit cinema halls in Kashmir I have watched movies in cinema halls outside Kashmir as well but for now I don’t want to take any risk, we all are aware of the circumstances here it’s too risky to visit such places here and I think these cinema halls might become soft targets, so, for now, I think avoiding cinema halls will be the best reasonable decision one can make”
Kashmir has witnessed a sharp rise in unemployment in recent years Kashmiri youth think instead of wasting money on the construction of cinema halls government could have taken some initiatives to employ youth.
Surkhab Zehra a student said “I don’t know why we even need cinema halls in the age of digitalization, I can watch hundreds of movies on my phone today, the government should have invested this money in developmental work so that unemployed youth of valley can have a secure future, we are witnessing a sharp rise in unemployment and I think these things are working as a divergence from soaring issues faced by Kashmiri people”
Haya Jvaid, a local in his mid 40’s, recalls the time when he used to visit cinema halls in Srinagar.
“People used to love movies, Kashmiri people were big fans of Bollywood movies so cinema halls used to be packed with people of all age groups and genders, but in the ’90s cinemas were closed down and we bid farewell to cinemas.
But now in today’s time, the situation is entirely different today I can’t take my son along with me to watch a Bollywood movie its full of indecent content my son will feel ashamed to watch it before his father so cinema has lost its essence now and I don’t feel today movies are worth watching in cinemas”.
Sadaf Shabir and Fahim Mattoo are Kashmir based journalist. They worked with multiple national and local news organisations in last five years.
