|
MUMBAI: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Lt Gen SN
Sinha said today that the rare films relating
to World War II (WW II) had proved that Indian
soldiers were second to none in the world.
The
governor, who has been responsible for the special
package of rare films relating to the WW II
from the archives of the Army, earlier inaugurated
a package of films from Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking
at a press conference during the ongoing Mumbai
International Film Festival (MIFF) for short,
documentary and animation, films he said that
the films from J&K really needed to be shown
to the militants in the Kashmir valley. There
was need to identify the target audience, he
said, adding that he had carried out a similar
exercise when he had been governor of Assam,
and had succeeded in making the people there
feel they were part of India and not aliens.
However,
he had come to the capital with an appeal to
the film industry whose sophistication of presentation
could help him reach this target audience.
He
explained that he had been able to succeed in
Assam by picking on three icons of the northeast:
Mahaprabhu Shankardev, military hero Lachit
Borpukh, and the first Assam chief minister
Lokmanya Gopinath Bordoloi.
Asked
why the militants in J&K who numbered less
than 1,500 could not be brought under control,
he said he had to keep the local conditions
in mind, apart from the difficult terrain, and
the fact that many of these militants were operating
from Pakistan. But he also said that there was
now a light of peace at the end of the dark
tunnel of violence, and he hoped that advantage
could be taken of this.
Unfortunately,
however, many orthodox Kashmiris felt cinema
was a cultural invasion, particularly since
they did not want their women to be modern as
depicted in the films.
Earlier,
inaugurating the Kashmir section of films, Lt
Gen Sinha made a special reference to films
like Budshah by Mushtaq A Bala as he
said these films took people back to the times
when tolerance was encouraged and non-Muslims
often taught the Koran to young Muslim children.
Bala
who was also present said MIFF was an ideal
platform for filmmakers from remote states in
the north, or the northeast, to display their
work.
|
