ZIYARAT (THE PILGRIMAGE)

India, 2011, 110 minutes, Colour.
Daughter Suresh K. Goswami.

Ziyarat is an earnest film. It takes up the plight of the Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) who have been expelled from Kashmir, especially with antagonism towards the occupying Muslims in that area of India. The film shows an attack by terrorists on a Hindu family, the murder of the elderly parents, the daughter and son-in-law fleeing for their lives, thinking their baby has been killed.

The film opens with a wedding, a Muslim wedding – somewhat resented by the family because they had taken in the Muslim boy when he was young and treated him as a son. However, with conversation and with a meal, the family are drawn together, with hopes for a happy life and harmony between Muslims and Hindus.

The Muslim son witnesses the attack by the terrorists and discovers the baby. He takes it home and he and his wife bring the child up for several years. The important thing for the man that he go in search of his family. This takes many years, something like a pilgrimage. He had intended to go on the Hajj, but at the end of the film his wife explains to him that this quest to find the family was the equivalent of the Hajj.

The film shows the various incidents that happen during the man’s search, interactions with local people, a car crash during a lift, an encounter with two social workers (who are both sympathetic and, at the end of the film, get married in a Catholic church with Hindus and Muslims both present). The latter part of the film has a long historical explanation of the clashes between Hindus and Muslims in that part of India, recounted by the son who fled after his parents were killed. Then, somewhat inexplicably, the couple entrust their child to the Muslim couple who have been bringing him up – and they walk off into the future.

The film sounds better in synopsis than it is in fact. The film plays something like an evangelical Christian film from the United States, the message very obvious, the earnestness of the message inescapable. However, the director who wrote the screenplay, photographed the film and contributed the musical score, is very basic in the screenplay as well as his interpretation, very stolid. It is as if he had decided on particular incidents and the way that they would be handled and then rather schematically presents them. Some of the shots go on for a long time, way beyond their value, especially in close-up conversations and speeches. The acting is very awkward, the performances drawing attention to themselves rather than to the characters as the cast seems to look towards the director and his instructions and simply obey them.

The evangelical earnestness as well as the stolidness of the direction and performances takes away from the fine colour photography, the basic message – and the final hope for some kind of peace in Kashmire.