Arundhati Roy terms ‘The Kashmir Files’ a radioactive film

Award-wining Indian author, Arundhati Roy, has described the controversial bollywood movie ‘The Kashmir Files’ as a radioactive film.

Arundhati Roy said this in an online interview with St. Louis Magazine.

Arundhati Roy said, “When you’re looking at the film, it’s not about facts. It’s interesting that the prime minister came out and said, “This is the truth, and everyone must see it.” And they gave police and government people leave to go and see it. They sent their own “stormtroopers” into theaters to foment trouble. The director said, “This is the truth. But the film itself starts with a “this is a work of fiction” sort of thing. Basically, it takes a kernel of truth and then just secretes this universe of falsehood around it.”

“The film is not about Kashmiri pundits in the end; it’s about Kashmiri pundits standing in for Hindus in India, and all the Muslims are evil butchers who slaughter and kill. Whereas, in truth, there are Kashmiri pundits who continue to live in Kashmir, who continue to maintain relationships with their Muslim friends and neighbors. And their figures are that in 30 years, 619 people were killed. But in the film, it’s like the whole population was either slaughtered or driven out,” she said.

The noted author maintained that Kashmir is covered with Muslim graveyards. “That war has consumed tens of thousands of lives. And all that is just airbrushed out. You take one very tragic thread of an epic tragedy and use it to draw a curtain across everything else, and then turn it into a javelin to drive into the hearts of this very complex country.” She said.

Arundhati Roy said, “The only word I can think of to describe that film is radioactive. And, of course, there’s a professor in the film, who the actors go around saying is me. It’s literally trying to get you physically attacked if you go somewhere.”

“It’s an amalgam of me and another professor who taught in that fictitious university. How do you live with yourself when you make a work of art and the result of it is that people come out and call for women to be raped and killed, for people to be lynched, for Hindus to be armed? It’s radioactive. If a piece of cinema or art could be compared to a weapon, it’s a radioactive weapon that has been dropped, and now its half-life will go on and on and on and on. It’s ripped through the fabric of things,” she maintained.

It is to mention here that this year, the Saint Louis University Library Associates will honor writer Arundhati Roy with the annual St. Louis Literary Award. Presented at the Sheldon Concert Hall on Thursday (April 28), the award is granted to the “most important writers of our time” and “celebrates the contributions of literature in enriching our lives.” She will also speak at a craft talk on the campus of Saint Louis University the next day (Friday).