‘Article 370’ 2024 | Free movie download and full review: (Hindi version) Yami Gautam steers this explainer on the government’s Kashmir policy; Free Hindi movie download.
Released in an election year, Aditya Suhas Jambhale’s film milks
historical events according to the political narrative set by the ruling
dispensation
As audiences warm up to the election
season, filmmakers have begun their share of canvassing. The first out of the
block is Article 370, a persuasive sarkari explainer on the
government’s Kashmir policy that led to the abrogation of the contentious constitutional provision on August 5,
2019.
These are recent events and very much in
the public memory, but the makers’ goal seems to be to take the audience into
confidence about what led to the end of the special status of Jammu &
Kashmir before the ruling party goes to the polls. For a decision whose
long-term impact has yet to pan out, the film is in a hurry to present it as a
master-stroke.
Like a fancy PowerPoint presentation backed by a thumping background score, director Aditya Suhas Jambhale efficiently joins the dots that often get lost in the din of electronic news channel debates. The timing of the release doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Aditya Dhar’s Uri (2019) efficiently dramatised what went behind the surgical strike against Pakistan after the Uri attack of 2016. That film was also released in an election year. Dhar is a co-producer and co-writer of Article 370 and his better half and competent actor Yami Gautam leads the team here as intelligence officer Zooni Haksar. A Kashmiri Pandit, who has a personal grudge against the corrupt political leadership of the State, Zooni is strategically positioned to peddle the us vs them narrative.
The writers milk the historical events according to the political
narrative set by the ruling dispensation. So Jawaharlal Nehru’s alliance with
Sheikh Abdullah was flawed but the film keeps mum on the takeaways of the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s coalition government with Jammu & Kashmir People’s
Democratic Party.
Article 370 (Hindi)
Director: Aditya Suhas Jambhale
Cast: Yami Gautam, Priyamani, Raj Zutshi, Arun Govi, Divya Seth
Storyline: Zooni, a spy, leads
an operation laying the groundwork of the abrogation of Article 370 in the
erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir
While Uri had the license to go jingoistic, here the
subject demands a little more nuance and Jambhale resists tonal exaggeration.
The film smartly weaves into the narrative how back-channel diplomacy has
become passe and the trusted methods of negotiating with the separatists and
double agents to buy temporary peace in the Valley have become outdated. More
importantly, it talks of the business of terrorism and conflict economy to
expose the moral ambiguity of the separatist movement and the local political
leadership. There is no attempt to see Delhi’s role in this matrix but the
pragmatic approach to look at the problem works and provides heft to the story.
But in its effort to demonise the Kashmiri
leadership, the film reveals a lot about their erstwhile friends in Delhi. For
those who choose to see, it gives the impression that the present dispensation
chose to pick technicality over constitutional morality on the Kashmir issue.
And that human rights violations are an option for its officers. In an
important scene after the Burhan Wani encounter, when her senior officer asks
Zooni what could she have done differently, she says, she would not have
returned the body of an alleged terrorist to the family and towards the end
shows that she could do it. It leaves us with the thought of whether the land
is more important than the people. All the talk of providing reservation to the
scheduled castes and tribes sounds hollow for a film that sees Kashmir as an
integral part of India invests very little in depicting Kashmiris as people
with flesh and blood. They are presented as opportunistic parasites for whom
370 was an article of faith, literally.
Seasoned performer Raj Zutshi plays a political figure that seems like a
cross between Farooq and Omar Abdullah with a diabolic flourish. Similarly, the
ever-reliable Divya Seth turns Mehbooba Mufti into a quiet manipulative
monster. In contrast, Arun Govil, making an impactful comeback, adds graces and
gravitas to the character of the PM. Kiran Karmarkar, as the Home Minister, is
an answer to the claptrap theatrics of Zutshi.
Those who propagate the official narrative often lament about how the
ecosystem hasn’t changed despite the power shift. Here the makers have
attempted the methods of the so-called ‘system’ to put its point through. The
idea of two women, in control of their emotions, leading the charge is
interesting. And, Yami and Priyamani — as the determined deputy secretary in
the Prime Minister’s Office —consistently deliver the goods. Yami, in
particular, internalises a combustive character that is struggling to save her
purpose from a process that is not delivering the intended results. But after a
point when the film reduces to just a two-woman show, the proceedings become
increasingly simplistic and similar to one-man armies that used to populate the
Bollywood landscape. It seems the makers want to bypass the democratic ethos
even in the dramatised parts.
Article
370 is currently running in theatres