To what extent does Hamid portrays the current condition of Kashmiri valley?

On the surface, Hamid, based on Mohammed Amin Bhatt’s play Phone number 786, is the tale of a seven-year-old boy who has just started to know about Allah. He wonders about Allah, to whom his father has gone. And he is curious about the number 786.

 

(Courtesy: YouTube)

 

Out of his curiosity, he calls Allah, and guess what!? His call is answered!

 

It is not Allah who answers his call though. It is a CRPF Jawan, who says he is Allah on the other side of the phone.

 

What follows after this is a dialogue between the Jawan, Abhay and Hamid, the servant of the state and a victimized Kashmiri. It is through these dialogues that we get to know about the condition of Kashmiri Valley, from both the point of views. Yes, that’s what the screenwriters Ravinder Randhawa and Sumit Saxena have done –they have refused to take sides.

 

(Courtesy: Scroll.in)

 

On one side of the phone conversations is the issue of Kashmir militancy, Kashmiri youth who is fighting for “Azaadi”, disappearing civilians (Rehmat, Hamid’s father is one of them) and the distressed families who are living in the eternal wait of a thousand of Rehmats. On the other side, is a CRPF jawan who is recruited to Kashmiri Valley and has not seen his family from quite a very long time. He is burdened with the guilt of many deaths and the atrocities in the valley. And connecting these two sides is the tension, which has kept both these sides at war with each other since ages.

 

(Courtesy: Cinestaan )

 

So you can guess from this synopsis that Hamid is the story of a boy growing up in a place which is stereotyped as paradise but doomed to be hell. And he is growing up there without his father. He thinks that Allah might have a solution but the person whom he takes as Allah is himself fighting with his demons.

 

What does all this tell? It tells that there is no Allah coming to solve the Kashmir conflict for us. It is through the dialogue between both the sides that this problem will be solved.

 

Rasika Dugal has given a fine performance as Hamid’s mother, and Talha Arshad Reshi in the titular role is phenomenal. Direction and screenwriting also go hand in hand to project the distress of every Kashmiri-dweller.