Naseeruddin Shah: Films like Kashmir Files, Kerala Story, Gadar 2 are ‘disturbing’

Naseeruddin Shah has always been outspoken about his opinions. The veteran actor recently remarked that it's troubling that movies like Kashmir Files are so widely appreciated. He also called Sunny Deol's Gadar 2 "jingoistic" and "regressive" in a recent interview to promote his directorial film, Man Woman Man Woman.

Naseeruddin Shah has spoken out against how jingoism currently seems to be driving movie success, which he says is "very harmful" in an interview with Free Press Journal. “It’s not enough to love your country, but beat drums about it and you have to create imaginary enemies. What these people don’t realise is that what they are doing is very harmful. In fact, films like ‘Kerala Story’ and ‘Gadar 2’, I haven’t seen them but I know what they are about," he said.

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Shah went on to voice his displeasure with the way that films that portray "the truth of our times" sometimes go unrecognized. “It’s disturbing that films like ‘Kashmir Files’ are so massively popular whereas films made by Sudhir Mishra, Anubhav Sinha, and Hansal Mehta, who are trying to portray the truth of their times don’t get seen. But it’s important that these filmmakers don’t lose heart and continue telling stories. They will be responsible for posterity."

The Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara actor further talked about how when the future generation will see films, which ones will they like. He said: A hundred years later, people will see ‘Bheed’ and they will also see ‘Gadar 2’ and see which one portrays the truth of our times, because film is the only medium which could do that. It’s hard to resort to abstraction and capture life as it is. So regressive is a pretty mild word for what’s going on."

For the uninitiated, movies like 'The Kashmir Files' starring Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborthy, Pallavi Joshi, 'The Kerala Story' starring Adah Sharma, and Gadar 2 starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel have all become box office successes and performed surprisingly well at the box office. 

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