APM - Asian Project Market

2023 Project

Logline

A Kashmiri shawl seller’s confession to a bomb blast he didn’t commit spurs an investigation revealing truths as absurd as everyday life in Kashmir, world’s most militarized zone.

Synopsis

A series of blasts throw the city into panic. In the frenzied climate, a Kashmiri man shows up at a Police Station and makes a startling confession. Identifying himself as a surrendered terrorist, he claims responsibility for blasts and offers to help the investigation in exchange for money. As a Special Force piece together his story in Kashmir, the truth leaves them dumbfounded.
Instead of the dreaded terrorist he claimed to be, he is actually a poor shawl seller who had nothing to with the blasts. Crippling effects of frequent strikes and curfews in the valley had left him no means of repaying his debts. To keep up an appearance of normalcy at home, he conned people with promises of jobs in exchange for money. As his lies started catching up, the news of the blats sparked an idea - by claiming the blasts, he sought to kill two birds with one stone - get his creditors into trouble by naming them as coconspirators and get paid by the police for the information. Yes, he may be arrested; but wouldn′t life in jail be better than the misery of Kashmir anyway?
A biting comedy arising from tragic truths, the film peeks into the heart of Kashmir - where teenagers fight armed forces with stones, weddings take place in curfews, and an entire generation wears sunglasses to hide pellet gun wounds to their eyes. Through Goglu’s story, we see what ‘ordinary’ life looks like when collective trauma is ancient and unresolved.

Director's Statement

This film is not about conflict. It is about how people negotiate the destabilizing absurdities of everyday life in a conflict zone. The film, in many ways, is trying to understand a fundamental question: How does life in jail become a better option than living in “Paradise on earth”. To me the most apt way of telling this story is through a lens which is off kilter – one that leans on humor as a “gesture of resistance” to tell stories of troubled times. I seek to take forward the work put into my first film Eeb Allay Ooo! (2019) which is an absurdist political satire about a world where becoming a monkey is more liberating than staying human.

Producer's Statement

Through my films, I am trying to make sense of the world I inhabit. It is the only way to come to terms with absurdity of what I see around me at the moment. I’m pre occupied with looking at human interest stories as a logical conclusion of their times. Simultaneously, people can become a lens to peek into the prevailing zeitgeist. The story of the Kashmiri man falsely owning up to a violent act reiterates for me that India will never have easy answers on Kashmir, because we fail to comprehend the questions in the first place. I believe that this story will resonate with global audiences as a story of human perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds.

Director's Profile

Producer's Profile