Yahaan

Aman, an army officer posted to Kashmir, meets Adaa, who is from a local family. The relationship begins, but both sides know what it means: her brother is inside the militant movement, and nobody in the region gets to be neutral. The subject is not the conflict but the people caught in the middle. The film neither fully vindicates the army nor the militants; what it looks at is how an ordinary family is torn apart in a place where both sides impose their own logic. The form is calm. It uses the songs and romance of mainstream Indian cinema while avoiding high-pitched melodrama. The Kashmir landscape appears here not as beauty but as checkpoints and patrols. It is Shoojit Sircar's first feature. He would later be known for Vicky Donor and Piku, and the cool tone here anticipates them. The film left no mark at the box office but is remembered as one of the few Indian films to treat Kashmir without taking a side. Jimmy Shergill plays the officer, Minissha Lamba plays Adaa in her first film and Yashpal Sharma the brother. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian drama with a political background. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear side; the film vindicates no one in the end, and for some viewers that reads as indecision.