A tale of a lost paradise

Another take on Kashmir, and this time there is some meat. Director Rahul Dholakia unveils the Valley and its devils at an interesting pace as he portrays the battle between hum-Kashmiris and tum-Hindustanis.

Lamhaa gives some food for thought, though there is too much to chew on. Lashkar training camps where kids scream Bharat-teri-maut, ‘half-widows’ searching for their missing men, underpaid soldiers, trapped souls across the border, and a political commodity called Kashmir... a lot to tackle here. Still, Dholakia doesn’t lose focus. He keeps masala off and gets from his protagonists a convincing and swift job. So intelligence officer Sanjay Dutt puts on his glasses while Bipasha Basu sheds her siren gait and fights for azadi. Dutt makes his way through gunshots and does some remarkable spying; Ms Basu jumps off rooftops and busts sex rackets.  

Militant-turned-mass leader Kunal Kapoor is a good biker, but a pathetic orator. His poll speeches take some steam out of the Kashmir juggernaut. Most of the suspense is built around separatist leader Anupam Kher (brilliant).

Lamhaa is disturbingly beautiful, like Kashmir.