Between Knowing and not knowing: A Study of Trauma, History and ‘Memory’1, and the ‘Crying Wound’2 in The Kashmir Files (2022)

This paper examines how Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Kashmir Files (2022) participates in recreating trauma, reconstructing memory, and how ‘history gets short-changed in movies’. It showcases the conflict in two narratives; radical Islamic extremists’ Jihad and the traumatic narrative amongst non-violent Kashmiri Hindus, ‘a war of narratives’ (1.22.0).  The focal point is the complexities of adapting history to the silver screen, which creates complicated and debatable negotiations between knowing and unknowing, reality and history, and truth and fiction. Traumatic memories of Genocide3 often challenge the rational faculties. The article investigates how the intelligentsia needs to address traumatic narratives as a genre. ‘Traumatic neurosis’4 reflected through ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Kashmiri Pandits5 in The Kashmir Files, offers new assertiveness. The text hits upon the ethical dilemma of how not to betray the past. The ‘not knowing’ or ignoring Traumatic incursion is thus recreated through the film that demands social healing. The paper examines the impact of The Kashmir Files on post Genocide peace and reconciliation.