UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Ezmae Chang
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Rajinder Singh Puller
To be true to the zest of the film, I decided to watch Kaafiron Ki Namaaz twice. I have almost read all about the film's journey from the festival circuit to censor board trouble and finally the online release. I was very intrigued by the trailer. So hats off to the team who engaged in such a challenge and then released it online with such strong belief against all the odds. Kudos! After the first watch, I was impressed and disappointed at the same time. All these reasons make KKN a difficult watch and a more difficult film to write about. KKN speaks what we should listen and then shouts out loud to the utmost distortion leading us towards a blank notion and empty opinion.KKN is a story of an Army Man (Alok Chaturvedi) who is interviewed by a Writer (Chandrahas Tiwari) after his court-martial. The conversations between both the lead actors are amazing, intense and yet quirky. The dark deep secrets starts unfolding one after another some of the most impressive dialogues in recent times. Both the actors have defined their characters with all from within and it shows on screen. But I seriously hated the writer's Tagore inspired beard which looked very silly and fake. Tiklu (Joydip) as a quite assistant and Junaid (Megh Pant) as the tea seller and part-time musician are okay. I wasn't convinced with Junaid's character as it lacked the conviction to be the important part of the story all of a sudden. Camera is handled beautifully by A. Vasanth and showed Kashmir a beautiful place with an undercurrent of uneasiness. Set of the hotel is okay. Ram Ramesh Sharma showed all his skills with his impressive debut. But there are many things which he needs to be look into. Music by Advait Nemlekar is blended rightly into the film with amazing voices of Usha Uthup, Javed Ali & Sukhwinder Singh. Jhalkiyan track is my favourite. All the other departments have done well, but nothing extra ordinary. KKN raises some very important questions on some very hurting subjects, but leaves them in mid-way, where they needed to be addressed in totality with a rigid stand. The filmmaker wanted to tell so much in every direction but couldn't justify any one of them & this is disappointing. With such a good start, I wanted to invest all in but started losing interest as after few discussions towards third act as I realize that the subject would be changed suddenly to a newer direction. And climax was a disaster for me, an easy way out which could have been the striking highlight of KKN. After the first watch, I recalled so many things, but in fragments without the establishment with the core story. From my perspective, KKN looked like a conversational play with interventions of beautiful Kashmir. And so the second watch became more difficult.Is KKN a good film? Yes, it is & it deserves a watch. Either you may like it in totality or not. A bold narrative which takes off with some amazing dialogues and good performances penetrating deep down inside, but crash lands halfway. Alas! KKN could have been a flight of pinnacle if aims in one single direction. As a filmmaker, I would love to see more work coming from Ram Ramesh Sharma. "Jab ruh hi kaafir ho jaaye, tab jism kab tak khudai par jiyega" and this is what happens with KKN after a certain point.
kprabhav
Some time ago,there was a post in Quora about what were the most over- rated Hindi films.How I wish I could go back in time to that post and say "Kaafiron ki Namaaz should be right at the top". The film opens to stunning visuals with a tinge of blue across every frame.These frames with a tinge of blue helped to depict the gloomy state of Kashmir Valley in the best possible way and I was pulled into the film.In the first few minutes,the narrator is shown moving about in a taxi which too has been painted in dull blue indicated that the story which the narrator is about to unfold isn't a happy one and I felt I was about to witness a master piece.But unfortunately,all the good things about this film ended right here(or that's what I believe).Not only do the good things end,but the bad things begin from here. The film moves to a depleted hotel,where a writer interviews an army man who has been court martial-ed and our narrator(the writer's assistant) films this on his camera.The army man who apparently is a nut job has made this hotel his abode.What follows from here is pure dialogue between the army man and the writer.About 1 and half hour into the film a third character,Junaid,a musician by day and tea-seller by night joins these two in their conversation.In between,either of the characters turn on the radio,and this radio keeps bombarding us with philosophical quotes every time it is switched on.The film's structure gets reversed in the 2nd half with the writer appearing to be the lunatic while the Army man more sane. Now,the hotel in which about 90% of the film is set looks as artificial as it can get.The army man's and the writer's costumes also look totally feigned.If the intention is to make a film based on dialogue then any film maker must learn a trick or two from Richard Linklater,which this film's director hasn't certainly learned.One maniac asking a question and the other maniac answering it only after the question has been repeated some 4-5 times(no apparent reason for this),gets on to your nerves at some point.The dialogues look well rehearsed and this was a major buzz kill.Every thing happening inside that hotel or for that matter say 90% of the film looked staged,like it was a theater act. But is that the whole point of the film,for the whole production design to look artificial??Was the theater-ish feel which this film had through out,a satire on something else all together??Was this a piece of meta-cinema and hence that artificiality(because it is the narrator who is narrating the whole story to us and this narrator can narrate it however he wishes).Did the narrator give us a skewed version of what happened inside that hotel,which draws parallel with how the media gives out skewed reports of what happens in Kashmir??What ever the P.O.V of the director was(if at all there was any)has lost it's purpose.Maybe a 10-15 minute short film could have been a better alternative than this 150 minutes of pretentious preaching. To sum it up I would say that not all beautifully shot independent films deserve critical acclaim,especially Kaafiron ki Namaaz which is a failed attempt by an extremely lucky director for he found a very supporting producer who went ahead with this project,despite the threat of getting banned looming large. P.S:-Every film which talks about Homo- Sexuality,Cannibalism,HIV,Necrophilia,Rape,Pornography etc doesn't become a great film.
Syed Mir
Just finished the 1st watch. I must say I loved it. Have to watch it again. That I do only when I really loved the movie. I wish the makers of the film and all people associated with it a very good luck and all the best for its release.My take: Review A. There are a lot of positives:-1. Beautiful movie: One of the very beautiful movies I have seen in recent past. 2. Beautiful narrative and chilling concept. 3. While the character of convicted fouji is not as chilling as I used to feel in reality wherever I had to show my ID card at various checkpoints while visiting home (Kashmir) in 1990s. But then being a Kashmiri, I could relate more with the movie, as I have lived the time depicted in the movie (the initial 1990s). The first shots of the movie shot in Haztarbal are just two km away from my home. 4. Wonderful acting, particularly by the lead character (writer). The loved the way character of the writer has been played, really of international standard. I could relate it to that of played by Sean Cornnery in "Finding Forrester". 5. Beautiful and witty dialogues. 6. Amazing cinematography. The Kashmir shown in as in winter is chilling, like most crimes are done during the night, In Kashmir winters of 90s were dark nights. B. On the negative side:- 1. Title: May be inhibiting a lot of current Indian public away from the movie. Then I think the target viewership is not the Dabang-o-philic public. 2. Length of Movie; the movie is somewhat long by international standards. 90 minutes or maximum 120 minutes would have been optimum. Avoiding the repetition of dialogues could have shortened many shots.\ 3. English subtitling not accurate at many places, then I think that has been deliberate.At the end of the movie, I was starting looking at my own kufur and my own namaaz. Every one of us is filled with our devilish and angelic features. Our past is also full of our evils and good deeds. The movie definitely touches the raw nerves. The movie focuses on these characteristics such as; opportunism, moral corruption, and probably the struggle with own inner devil, But all at individualistic level. The problem in Kashmir was (and in todays greater world still is) that such crimes are not perpetuated merely at individualistic level, but at larger scale either as state policy (where state is involved), or by large groups (where non-state actors are involved).
admirbeuty
It was a great experience at 20th KIFF watching Kaffiron Ki Namaaz.It was a well written script with some powerful dialogue- "Man get his religion even before he gets his name,if he is given a chance to learn all the religion of the world and an option to choose his own religion then there wont be any violence in the name of religion", left a lasting impression in my mind.Ram Ramesh Sharma gets full credit in extracting a fine performance from all the three lead characters.Though the major part of the film was inside a room in the format of an interview, it was so gripping and engrossing the audience never felt a moment of boredom, all the credit goes to the director Ram Ramesh Sharma for coming out with a such a masterpiece in his debut direction.Kudos to the entire team and specially the director Ram Ramesh Sharma and producer Bahrgav Saikia for the great debut.It can match any other international film in terms of execution, direction and production value and should be sent as official entry to Oscar from India.In fact it was my top five pick along with The Search, Omar, Force of Destiny and Chhoti Moti Batein in 20th KIFF.A must watch for all lovers of good and quality films with the best take away- Man gets his religion................Wishing the entire team for your theatrical release.It will be a surprise HIT like The Wednesday and Aamir.With Reagards, M.Venkat Raman
