Simple takeaway from Sugandha Garg's Kashmir: How to let go of memories

Manav Kaul

Kashmir
Dir: Sugandha Garg
Cast: Manav Kaul, Avijit Dutt, Faisal Batliwala

There's a certain sense of dread as Manav Kaul's character in Sugandha Garg's Kashmir - A Father's Day Film by TTT, comes face to face with what one immediately surmises is his dead father, played by Avijit Dutt. A dead parent evokes many emotions.

Abandonment (even if without choice), a deep sense of loss that will never heal and guilt. There's always guilt. Perhaps a conversation you never had, perhaps a vacation you never went to. Or, in this case, perhaps a piece of memory that you have let go of.

In this case, that piece of memory is Kashmir. And, as the conversation unfolds - would a simple 'hi' work in such a case? - in rather simple sentences, without the evoking of much drama, is the father's sense of loss as he finds out that the son has let go of the past. As a child, there's a sense of loss of not having being able to share more life with the parent, of coming to terms with the funeral, even rigor mortis.

What would you want to tell a deceased parent if they were to sit across the table from you, what would they ask? These two questions, perhaps, form the foundation on which the 10-minute long short has been built. Can you be their child again, even if just for 10 minutes?

With minimal furniture - there's just two chairs and a table in a long, rectangular room, all painted white - the film depends on the craft of Kaul and Dutt. Both deliver of course.

Hide and seek is a game often referred to. And so, what you're hiding from defines you.

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