Star Cast: Manav Kaul, Bhasha Sumbli, and others
Director: Aditya Suhas Jambhale
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What’s Bad: The initial pacing is slow and might test your patience.
Loo Break: Not recommended. You’ll miss Manav Kaul’s eyes, and trust me, you don’t want to!
Watch or Not?: Yes! For Manav Kaul, for the searing climax, and for a film that treats Kashmir’s wounds with solemn respect.
Language: Hindi
Available On: Netflix
Runtime: 120 Minutes
User Rating:
Whenever you hear the word Kashmir, you paint only two pictures, both of them extremely opposite to each other. One of them has snow-capped mountains, the Kashmir, which gets printed on postcards and calendars. The other one has raging shots and bloodstains. But Aditya Suhash Jambhale decides to bring another side of Kashmir. The Kashmir that terrifies and the Kashmir that is scared. Baramulla incorporates all these elements into the Kashmir that should still haunt us!
The film has a lot of elements put together in a perfect blend, and you cannot initially point out the genre! Is it a supernatural thriller? It might be! Is it a politically driven agenda film? It seems like. Is it a social drama? It never aims to be that, but has shades. Is it a suspense thriller? Well, it reaches there at some point! But in the end, it turns out to be only a film that breaks your heart. A film that takes you to the past, which still cries, which still asks why? And it takes you to the grief that refuses to settle!
Baramulla starts off deceptively simple: DSP Ridwaan Sayyed relocates to Baramulla, taking on the case of missing children who vanish into thin air, leaving only a lock of scissor-cut hair behind. What begins as a standard cop thriller quickly spirals into a dense, chilling exploration of the supernatural and the unseen horror that haunts the Kashmir Valley.
The story masterfully weaves two timelines, letting a dark, decades-old wound from the past bleed into the present, affecting Ridwaan’s family in their newly assigned, creaky vintage house. The biggest triumph of the story is its decision to use the supernatural element not for cheap thrills, but as a metaphor for an unresolved, collective grief.
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The protagonists feel the weight of the film as they project their characters. Manav Kaul is magnetic, and his masterful, restrained performance is impressive. Ridwaan’s arc is less about solving a crime and more about facing his own doubts and the trauma he carries. He conveys volumes through his exhausted eyes and painful silences. He starts as a fierce cop but eventually surrenders to the truth that is bigger than any police file. Meanwhile, after The Kashmir Files, Sumbli again proves her mettle. As Ridwaan’s wife, she embodies the quiet strength and storm of a woman trying to keep her family intact amidst chaos.
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The film brilliantly finds its soul in the tragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits and their exodus of the 90s. The ghosts here are not merely creating scares through spooky eyes or glances. They haunt deep, they cut through your soul! The film serves as an emotional ode to that community, treating their loss and exile as a deep, unhealed scar on the valley itself. The horror you feel comes from the recognition of their terrifying history of anguish, not jump scares.
The only thing that does not work for the film is the first half, which is sluggish and takes time to set the premise. Many times, you would feel like watching it at 1.5X.
Baramulla is a profound story on what it means to lose a home, an identity, and a sense of belonging. It is a rare triumph from Netflix India. It takes the heavy history of Kashmir and weaves it into a psychological, supernatural thriller that is deeply rooted in human grief. It’s mature, moving, and mindful. This film doesn’t just ask you to watch a story; it asks you to remember, and grieve. That is what I would do, not forget and grieve. This nation owes a collective apology to the Kashmiri Pandits! We are sorry!
4 stars.
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