The opening sequence is beautifully shot. Outdoor visuals are super strong. On-location Kashmir cinematography is dreamy and contemplative. That is where the good things end. That is it. The end. The rest is a trudge through a muck-filled failed attempt of filmmaking by inept hands which has given birth to this terrible hack-job of a pretentious low-intelligence wannabe piece of audio- visual waste.Even the first few minutes of the film, a seemingly poignant conversation between the son and the off- screen mother lacks authenticity. But when the story starts to unfurl inside the abandoned hotel all things go haywire. Terrible writing, terrible dialogue. Bad pronunciation: 'Ismoking' (smoking), 'Istrayt' (straight), 'Exazzaration' (exaggeration), 'LiteRAYture' (literature), Koschen (question); there are many such instances of embarrassment in here. Funny thing is that this same character i.e. the writer corrects the mispronunciation of the tea seller. The writer who is supposed to be a Bengali, can't even speak a word of Bengali correctly. Total disgrace. The acting is theatrical. Very uncinematic, to say the least. The characters keep repeating their lines again and again, sometimes 5 or 6 times. It is irritating and takes the focus away from the film. There is absolutely no tension throughout the film, no attempt to make the characters believable.The failed attempts of comic relief, which are not required at the first place, are so heavy handed that the whole effort seems naive and loses it's credibility. The films preachy tone is so out of the place that it becomes laughable. Oh and the outlandish characters! An orphan, pork-eating, homosexual, Gandhi-hating, Muslim, court-martialed, Indian soldier, who shoots a Kashmiri married Muslim woman, then rapes her dead body in the ass! Need I say more? Some realistic film they were making!This has to be the worst film I have seen in recent times. It's sad to see an independent Indian film (which is a rarity) fail so miserably in almost all aspects. Bad film. Period. After 1 hour I really wanted to leave the film half way unwatched, but I stuck to my guns to give this overlong, empty film a fair chance to resurrect itself somehow. I wish I didn't. It only got worse. Utter waste of time.There are some real good independent films from India in recent times: Masaan, Miss Lovely, Titli, Ship Of Theseus, Labour Of Love, etc and even zero budget films like Kshay, The Untitled Karthik Krishnan Project and Gandu. This film is not one of them. Please let's not make an undeserving piece the face of Indian independent film.

Kaafiron Ki Namaaz is a beautifully woven story that brings the two sides of the human consciousness. It is one of the finest movie that dealt with the human psychology so beautifully and vividly that nowhere did it sound preachy but smoothly seeps in. One of the finest movie of the year that stayed with me even as i left its screening. One of the movie which explores the human side of an army man and writer rather than going the retrospective way. The director has indeed done a brilliant job. The screenplay and the character progression is marvelous.The songs and the background score just adds to the mood of the film.This one is definitely on my movie list for sure. Do watch this movie which has its mind and soul at the right place....

Watching the screening at IIT Bombay Filmfest 2015 was an experience worth sharing, the interaction with the film makers taking it up by several notches. A beautiful narrative throughout, this movie has a soundtrack that is too good not to be mentioned. Mostly set inside a single hall, the concept of space is very beautifully expressed. The lighting as well as the cinematography was amazing. The movie shows a retired army man and a journalist in the lead roles; and the audience is kept engrossed in their discussions that subtly grow intense as the night progresses. They discuss beyond the regular topics; spanning religious standpoints, their past careers and arguing most of the time. As the movie progresses, the discussions turn into confessions so deep that it seemed they had never thought about those issues, let alone talk about them for a long time. Also with them is a local shopkeeper who mostly serves tea to the two lead characters while witnessing their arguments. The characters are beautifully thought of; the army man being a person from the exteriors of a society, the journalist being from innermost circles of a society and the shopkeeper as an ordinary person witnessing the arguments. A must watch!

Just finished the 1st watch. I must say I loved it. Have to watch it again. That I do only when I really loved the movie. I wish the makers of the film and all people associated with it a very good luck and all the best for its release.My take: Review A. There are a lot of positives:-1. Beautiful movie: One of the very beautiful movies I have seen in recent past. 2. Beautiful narrative and chilling concept. 3. While the character of convicted fouji is not as chilling as I used to feel in reality wherever I had to show my ID card at various checkpoints while visiting home (Kashmir) in 1990s. But then being a Kashmiri, I could relate more with the movie, as I have lived the time depicted in the movie (the initial 1990s). The first shots of the movie shot in Haztarbal are just two km away from my home. 4. Wonderful acting, particularly by the lead character (writer). The loved the way character of the writer has been played, really of international standard. I could relate it to that of played by Sean Cornnery in "Finding Forrester". 5. Beautiful and witty dialogues. 6. Amazing cinematography. The Kashmir shown in as in winter is chilling, like most crimes are done during the night, In Kashmir winters of 90s were dark nights. B. On the negative side:- 1. Title: May be inhibiting a lot of current Indian public away from the movie. Then I think the target viewership is not the Dabang-o-philic public. 2. Length of Movie; the movie is somewhat long by international standards. 90 minutes or maximum 120 minutes would have been optimum. Avoiding the repetition of dialogues could have shortened many shots.\ 3. English subtitling not accurate at many places, then I think that has been deliberate.At the end of the movie, I was starting looking at my own kufur and my own namaaz. Every one of us is filled with our devilish and angelic features. Our past is also full of our evils and good deeds. The movie definitely touches the raw nerves. The movie focuses on these characteristics such as; opportunism, moral corruption, and probably the struggle with own inner devil, But all at individualistic level. The problem in Kashmir was (and in todays greater world still is) that such crimes are not perpetuated merely at individualistic level, but at larger scale either as state policy (where state is involved), or by large groups (where non-state actors are involved).