Flames OF Paradise - Season 1 - Episode 13

Episode 7 years ago

Flames OF Paradise - Season 1 - Episode 13

Snigdha spent the evening re-writing few portions of her script as the village, Sonmarg, they had intended to go next day had been blocked. They lined up Khilanmarg quickly and met the ‘Sarpanch’ the village head to select a few people for interviews. This was one such situation that they had been prepared for, therefore Nitin had already talked to local village heads just in case they would need to change locations. Finding victims in Kashmir was not difficult as the entire area bordering Srinagar had been affected by militancy and army cover. After a lot of convincing, Snigdha had agreed to let Srinivasan and Nitin go with the D.O.P. to take the interviews without her though principally she was not comfortable with the decision, yet had relented eventually as the village was threatened by terrorists and also protected by one of the leading separatist group Jung-e-Azadi which was infamous for opposing any kind of press coverage or shooting. The leader of JEA, Sheikh Ali Ahmad had discussed with Nitin on phone about getting all the footage checked before leaving Kashmir.
After a nail-biting wait, for more than 12 hours, the team was welcomed late in the evening, everyone looking tensed but unharmed. After trips of hot Kahwa, the team sat huddled together to watch the rushes, one of the most difficult taken so far due to the extreme danger involved in meeting the surrendered militants and some victims at Khilanmarg. Snigdha’s eyes looking intently at young girls’ half covered faces, of weeping widows narrating harrowing tales of rape and carnage, of stony silences of villagers shrouded in white ‘chaddars’, of grating harsh voices of perpetrators of violence half covered with black shawls, talking about their experiences in the camps in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, of painful military training programmes, of religious feeds that they were given about the destruction of mosques in India, and about Islam on the verge of getting vanished from the face of earth and many such indoctrination that they were given before they joined hands with the Al Faran group. Snigdha’s eyes suddenly got arrested on a visual of a tall man standing in the group, with a menacing gun hanging from his arm, and a black shawl covering half his body from head to upper thigh. A denim clad leg could be visible. As the camera took a pan shot, Snigdha’s breath got caught in her throat somewhere as she felt as if he was the man from the boat few days ago who had thrown the rose at her. A rose that was still kept hidden inside her bag, lest Dimple would be curious about it. Before she could react, next shot came.



Snigdha asked Nitin to play the digitally recorded clip and once again, she could see the man standing straight, lurking in the motley crowd gathered around the terrorist being interviewed, his body tensed and hard, visible even through the semi darkness. She could not forget that proud tilt of his head, and the half-covered face which she found so familiar. A chill slid down Snigdha’s back and she felt anger and disappointment flare inside her seeing the guy from the boat in this crowd, which proved her speculation that he was a terrorist or a part of this gang.
After watching the chilling interviews, none of them were in a mood to eat anything. Snigdha congratulated Nitin and Vikram her D.O.P. for the excellent work done that day. Nitin cleared his throat and dropped the bombshell of the day.
‘Tomorrow all of us have to go and meet them.’
‘What?’ Everyone said in unison.


Srinivasan continued, ‘the chief of Jung-e-Azadi wants to see the footage and meet everyone, especially the director.’
‘But we can’t go!!’ Burst Tripti and Dimple incredulously, for once agreeing on something.
‘We will have to! Otherwise they will seize the entire footage! And we won’t be allowed to go out of Kashmir.’ Nitin said in a worried tone.
‘Oh God! Who told you to interview these barbarians Nitin? We could have reconstructed!



It’s all because of this oh-so-important director madam! I just don’t know how all this had been approved!’ Tripti was now tight with anger and tension, fiddling with her lighter.
‘There is no need to be so upset about it.’ Srinivasan interfered and said in his typical Malyalam accent which was more pronounced now due to distress. ‘See, if you don’t want to go… fine. But Snigdha and Ruby will have to accompany us because they have a fair idea who all are involved in the process.’
‘Thank God!’ Tripti heaved a sigh of relief.
‘Why do they want to meet us?’ Dimple asked in a tensed voice.
‘Have no idea. Maybe for curiosity’s sake.’
‘Wouldn’t it be dangerous for us?’ Snigdha asked remembering the gun hanging from the arm of the man from boat.
‘I have taken assurance from the JEA leader that no harm will come to us.’ Nitin said, trying to appear confident.
Snigdha had already come to a decision. She would go, even if just for curiosity’s sake, to know who that man was, and what was he doing there in the village. She knew it was utterly stupid to jeopardise her team’s safety by agreeing to go and meet these dangerous people, but she had this niggling doubt which she wanted to clear. She wanted to look for the man with the rose and ask him who he was and why he had acted the way he did.
‘Let’s leave around 12ish then, and take the remaining visuals that we have to take of the villages on the way.’ Snigdha’s tone gave a finality to the plan and gradually everyone dispersed.