“The government is very powerful,” a corrupt registrar (Ajay Chourey) tells Aasiya (Shilpi Marwaha) when she arrives for the umpteenth time to beg for a death certificate for her long-missing husband. To illustrate his point, the registrar will happily issue the certificate; all Aasiya has to do is sell him her land or lend him her body.
Power, and its absence, shape the conflict-hardened heart of “Widow of Silence,” a serenely beautiful tragedy about women and war. Set in modern Kashmir — a territory that India and Pakistan have been wrangling over for more than seven decades — this third feature from Praveen Morchhale records Aasiya’s desperate quest for freedom and agency. Seven years earlier, her husband disappeared — a probable victim of Indian security forces — and Aasiya is now a “half-widow,” unable to claim the title to her husband’s land or remarry with a clear conscience. (A solid suitor is waiting, not-so-patiently, in the wings.)
Meanwhile, she cares for her grieving mother-in-law and fretful young daughter (Noorjahan Mohmmad Younus), who barely remembers her father and whose school days are a torment of bullying. As the plot ramps up to its devastating climax, Morchhale uses a handful of nonprofessional actors to soften the mood (Bilal Ahmad, playing a jolly taxi driver) and signal female solidarity (a fine Tahmida Akter, as an empathetic nurse). No joke or commiseration, however, can temper Aasiya’s growing fury.
Breathtakingly photographed by Mohammad Reza Jahanpanah, “Widow of Silence” is a movie with a cool head and a sharp eye — one that sees greater hope in the flamboyantly jeweled tones of a carmine head scarf than in the entrenched absurdities of a broken bureaucracy.
Widow of Silence
Not rated. In Urdu, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.
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‘Widow of Silence’ Review: Burden of Proof - The New York Times
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