00:00I feel very privileged, honored and very happy to be invited and at the outset I'd like to
00:07congratulate the Honorable Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir Umar Abdullah Sahab and the organizers
00:15of this festival and I would say that this is an excellent initiative where the Jannat of the
00:22world has its first international film festival and I would say that this is a great moment for
00:29the entire Jammu Kashmir to celebrate because cinema is the strongest medium it is a medium
00:36that builds bridges between nations between cultures between civilizations and it is in such
00:44platform where when festivals are held the message of every aspect of the past and present and the
00:53whole creative workers the writers the directors the actors who are involved in conveying such a
01:01civilizational or historical or cultural message or even a romantic film or an action film it becomes
01:07an important event of the festival and I'm sure the selection committee has done great justice to
01:15have this film Dead Dog as the opening film of Sarah Francis and I'm looking forward to seeing this film
01:25and I hope and pray that the jury and all people in the selection committee have worked with true
01:32conscience to bring for films of absolute merit and not ignored any film to not suit any ideology of a
01:40period of a time and to reject it because history keeps changing history is a fact history is something
01:47which has to be projected and you should not alter or or or or the bidding historians should not deviate
01:56from
01:56history if a historical film of a period is there that film should be presented no matter what the time
02:04of the
02:05you know government may be so facts are facts so cinema is unpolluted cinema is free like a river that
02:13flows free and and and
02:14pure so we have to make sure that every film festival the committee members are responsible
02:22people who choose the real value of an artist's aspiration our creators passion uh writers passion which
02:30is stamped on the celluloid and projected in the uh you know festival screens and uh that makes it one
02:38of the
02:38most important aspect of a film festival and that gives a moment of great rejoicing for all filmmakers
02:44to interact with each other exchange ideas exchange possibilities of co-production so i think this is a great
02:52initiative by the government of jammu kashmir and srinagar especially so because i feel that it's a
02:58amazing destination and if if the festivals are planned here as passionately as this i'm sure it will outdo
03:07cannes film festival this is my honest and uh you know humble up well i have a connection my heart
03:17my
03:18soul my darling sister delshad has been married in a very noble family of jammu kashmir sheikh ameen
03:25sahab and my late brother-in-law javid sheikh and she's my my closest flesh and blood and i love
03:32my sister
03:33so i keep visiting kashmir to visit her and be with her and i enjoy every aspect i have the
03:39greatest
03:40regard for faruq abdullah sahab i think he's the greatest intellectual a man with great amount of
03:45intellectual prowess he's a literary man he's a scholar and he has the vision of having a united india
03:53having a vision to bring every caste religion creed together to sing songs of bhajans or any
04:01religious songs where he himself many a times has sung such beautiful songs i feel he's a great leader
04:07he's the tallest leader one of the tallest leaders in our country i have the greatest regard for him and
04:13umar sahab is an excellent dynamic young chief minister with an excellent articulate
04:20way of expressing what geopolitics and political economics and political social and uh various
04:29aspects of uh the political situation of jammu kashmir which is so linked with the whole of india and
04:35which has uh always an intellectual message of uh uh of uh umar abdullah sahab whenever he interacts
04:43with the political platform or or tv show he's always coming across winning because he like his
04:50father once a united solid india an india which is proud and kashmir is the crown of our country
04:56kashmir people have great sentiments kashmir has a great traditional
05:02identity which is totally different from every state's identity every state identity has its own
05:07charm so they the people of kashmir have always stood forward to protect this identity of that and
05:15it is an amazing identity which is a mixed mixture of sufism and sufism is that umbrella which brings
05:22four people together to put hands in one dish and eat whether he's a brahman whether he's a muslim or
05:28whether he's a uh you know uh any part of the world that comes in they share a meal that
05:34is a symbolic the
05:35waswan the historical waswan of uh you know uh uh jammu kashmir is a great uh symbol like last night
05:44we were having the ambassador of bangladesh and uh the my dear brother friend uh vijaydar sahab and two
05:52others we were in the same plate enjoying this meal and talking about the the philosophy of kashmir the
05:59sufism of kashmir the unity of kashmir and it was one of the most interesting dinners i had last night
06:06at the vijaydar sahab's day
