Screen Southasia: Q&A session for ‘Soz: A Ballad of Maladies’

At Screen Southasia, we host monthly online screenings of compelling documentaries from the region, including Nepal, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. We present a diverse range of films, both classic and new, that showcase the unique cultures, histories and perspectives of Southasia. Screen Southasia is a partnership between Himal Southasian and Film Southasia. For updates on future screenings and Q&A sessions, sign up here. 

In this Screen Southasia Q&A session, recorded on 6 November 2023, we speak with the filmmaker Tushar Madhav, to discuss his documentary 'Soz: A Ballad of Maladies'

Synopsis: Of folk, rock and hip-hop, this documentary captures the rhythm and blues of resistance in the Kashmir valley. It is a portrait of those musicians and artists who have turned their art into weapons of resistance during periods of heightened state repression and violence in the region. As the Kashmiri satirist and poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef ponders over the credibility of his pen, a sparrow's song of lament takes over; embarking us on a journey to discover the threads of people's history of Kashmir, which have been preserved in the region's folk poetry and music for centuries. A departure from Kashmir's orientalist stereotype of a 'paradise' unfurls a transformed cultural landscape of the deeply militarized valley where spiritual ideals of Sufiyana music and traditional poetry metamorphose into political lyricism of modern Hip Hop and Rock. From underground artists and rock musicians to cartoonists and performance artists, the cultural practitioners in the film evoke collective memory of their people whilst negotiating with questions of survival, resistance and freedom – all deeply embroiled in the complex conflict of Kashmir.

The full discussion is now available on Youtube.