Mission Kashmir

To an American, especially a post-9/11 American, the idea of a "terrorist musical" would seem outrageous and naive. It would be grossly unfair to make fun of this film in that way, though; MK defies classification in Hollywood genres. The diapason of themes in this movie is impressive and, to quote Roger Ebert, one actually cares what happens to these people, even the unholy maker-of-fatwas Hilal. A young man's flirtation with extremism is teated, as well as the little-understood Hindu-Moslem, and little-known Russian-Pathan dynamics. I loved the scenery and cinematography, and was very interested to hear about the symbolism from the other IMDb commenter's.

"Mission Kashmir" (MK) was one of the most anticipated films of 2000. The film was hyped even before its release and compared to the other big-budget blockbuster of the year - "Mohabbatein". Frankly, I think MK has outdone "Mohabbatein" on most counts. The story of MK is about a Altaf, a small boy orphaned by masked police men headed by a dedicated officer, Inayat Khan (Sanjay Dutt) when they kill Altaf's defenceless family during a firefight with militants. However, Khan tries to make up for this tragedy by adopting Altaf as his son. Just as Altaf is slowly recovering from the terrible shock of losing his real parents, he realises that Inayat Khan is the same masked officer who killed them. In anger and frustration, he flees the house and grows up to be Altaf, the militant (Hrithik Roshan). Altaf is brought up by famed guerilla fighter Hilal Kohistani (Jackie Shroff) and returns to the beautiful valleys of Kashmir 10 years later to perform the top secret 'Mission Kashmir'.

What makes this is a great film to watch is its technical brilliance and good performances by its actors. Sanjay Dutt has given an outstanding performance in the film, supported well by Hrithik Roshan, Jackie Shroff and Sonali Kulkarni. Sanjay Dutt proves his versatility with this film and so does Hrithik Roshan. With just 2 films before this one, Hrithik exudes confidence equal to that of a veteran actor. Sonali Kulkarni, in her cameo role, has done a pretty good job, stressing the fact that if there are good roles in Hindi films, you can expect good performances. Preity Zinta, who plays Sufiya Parvez is also pretty good as Hrithik's childhood sweetheart. But Sanjay Dutt really steals the show. The action scenes are the one of the best I have seen in Hindi films and the film is technically sound. The music is satisfying, but could have been better. Having directed great films in the past (eg. Parinda, Khamosh and 1942: A Love Story) Vidhu Vinod Chopra does a great job once again.

Overall, this film is a welcome break from other Hindi action films. Although it did not do as well as expected at the box-office, I believe "Mission Kashmir" is worth watching!

I decided to continue my phase of watching Bollywood movies which I have not seen in a while and I stumbled upon Mission Kashmir , although I try to avoid very sensitive subjects regarding this the issue of Kashmir and the way Bollywood has a reputation for portraying Muslims these days I had decided to put these views to one side and view this movie and to my surprise it was nothing what I had expected it to. The film has elements of love,faith,hate and other various things so cleverly woven into it that it fits in very nicely and moves the film along at a good pace. The movie also wasted no time in getting under way with plenty of twist and turns and some good dialogue and truly some moving scenes and not to mention the fact that it was beautifully shot giving us the flora and fauna of Kashmir and the grim , ugly depiction of war. The acting from nearly everyone was up to scratch including Hitrik Roshan who I felt was a little cheesy and mousy at times but he carried him-self well, my only complaints were that the songs in this one were a little too long and that caused the film to drift a bit and I felt the Islamic terrorists were well again a little tooo clichéd as if Bollywood has been watching Hollywood a too much. But having said that , Mission Kashmir was defiantly an entertaining but yet at the same time moving, thought provoking picture which is must be checked out by Bollywood fans.

MISSION: KASHMIR - 8.5 OUT 10

TWO BRAVE MEN BATTLE EACH OTHER ...AND PARADISE BURNS!

Overall I really enjoyed the nearly 3 hour epic ride of "Mission Kashmir". But I couldn't help but cringe at times when it took on a bit of a political bent that clearly favored one side over the other in the India-Pakistan battle over Kashmir. It's not that I disagree or agree with the stance, but just that it was a bit heavy-handed at times. The way the heroes and villains were portrayed stylistically gave away the ending. The bad guys looked and acted like monsters, the good guys were smiling family men. And of the bad guys who looked good? Well you just knew it was a matter of time that they would change their ways. The action kept the movie going at a brisk pace, though I found these scenes to be the least exciting. I was more moved by the human interplay between the characters. But the highlight for me were the musical scenes; in particular, I loved one scene where the misguided hero finds his long lost childhood girlfriend on the set of a song and dance performance. It was so electrifying I had a hard time staying in my seat.

Overall, I liked this movie, and as a newcomer to Indian cinema, I look forward to seeing many more. (7 out of 10)

English Audio dubbing has been made available on the DVDs that can now be rented at Hollywood Video & Blockbuster.

The dubbing is flawless! And I think the movie is a true neutral view of the Kashmir Situation.

Good job!