Sports For Peace:
It is a tragedy of the beautiful mountain state, that mention of Kashmir first brings to mind militancy, and then its scenic splendour.
The web series, Real Kashmir Football Club (on SonyLiv), directed by Mahesh Mathai and Rajesh Mapuskar, goes back to a Kashmir of 2016, that has absorbed the aftereffects of terrorism and the forced eviction of Kashmiri Pandits. The impact of constant strife is that normal life is disrupted by curfews, checkpoints, and protests; the young are easily seduced by political rhetoric because of a general sense of malaise. The foundation of football to explore the fractured yet resilient spirit of Kashmir, has been inspired by the true story of the formation of the club after a devastating flood, and its rise to a professional league team.
Journalist Sohail Mir (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), quits his job because he is forced to write the kind of rabble-rousing stories that serve no purpose. He manages to sweet talk Shirish Kemmu (Manav Kaul), a Kashmiri Pandit businessman, to sponsor the football club. Kemmu, who had left the valley during the exodus, has returned to set up an alcohol business, against local political opposition, but is still unable to return to his childhood home with memories of loss embedded in the walls.
Sohail never takes no for an answer and puts together a ragtag team, whose only hope of getting to participate in tournaments is the local football hero, Azlan (Anmol Dhillon Thakeria) who is at a loose end, but has his arrogance intact. He gets into constant ego hassles with the coach Mustafa (Muazzam Bhat), who has reluctantly agreed to take on the job. Mustafa is understandably hurt when a foreign coach (Mark Bennington) is hired, but the white guy does add structure and discipline to the boys’ chaotic playing.
.The series does not waste too much time on the actual training or games, but more on the struggles to build the team and give it professional legitimacy. Each young player—a butcher, a school dropout, a boy drawn by the salary, an underage Hindu boy—represents the complexity of the situation and the attempt by the team to rise above it. The story of the teenage manager Amaan (Abhishant Rana), torn between conservative pressures of a rabid politician (Adhir Bhat) and the promise of redemption and assimilation into a unified society through the game is particularly effective.
The directors have taken a low-key approach over the loud chest-thumping of competitive sports. However, this measured restraint stays away from the troubled socio-political reality of Kashmir, which is like sweeping unpleasant reality under the carpet. Still, the series has an emotional power and a grounded sincerity that Ayyub and Kaul’s performances bring to the story.
They play the real characters of Shamim Mehraj and Sandeep Chattoo, who did not initially conceive the club as a competitive team but as a community outreach programme, to give the disillusioned the youth of Srinagar a sense of purpose and to keep them away from being indoctrinated by opportunistic leaders. Which is what makes the team and the series such a strong metaphor for healing and unity.
(This piece first appeared in seniorstoday.in)
