Game of Thrones, the world’s most popular TV show watched by millions on television (and, otherwise) is still over a year away. As a fan of the series (if not the last season), I wish the season would be out any sooner. Alas, that’s not happening.
In the meantime, however, it’s great to watch people paying tribute to the show by using its music, its themes and its characters to great effect in custom-made videos. The Cure, directed by Ruman Hamdani by Master Visuals, a production company based in Kashmir is one of them. And boy, is it great.
WHAT’S ‘THE CURE’ ABOUT?
The short film sponsored and shared by J&K’s tourism department and, inspired by the characters from Game of Thrones narrates the story of ‘Jon Snow,’ as he makes his way to the Stark Waterfalls along with his friend ‘Sam’ (because every protagonist needs a Sam) to fetch a Rose for a dying woman, the flower presumably being a cure.
The story is dialogue-less. However, the short film says enough with its combination of stunning visual imagery and beautiful music. The cinematography, the visual photography, all apparently done on a shoestring budget is brilliant.
Kashmir, the backdrop for the short film looks stunning, whether the camera is panning over the tall Chinar trees or when it’s caressing the lovely, snow-white landscape of Kashmir.
Read: How The Kashmiris Are Dropping Guns And Using Art, Music, Poetry To Protest
The music is pretty good as well. Composed by Sufiyan Malik, the cover version of GoT’s iconic theme uses the piano and more importantly, the traditional rubab superbly. The cover version for A.R Rahman’s Escape (Slumdog Millionaire) is pretty well done too.
The video itself has seen almost 100,000 views on YouTube and has been popular on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, where it has been shared by popular personalities such as Ex-CM Omar Abdullah.
KASHMIR’S RELATIONSHIP WITH GAME OF THRONES
This isn’t the first time Kashmir and Game of Thrones have made the news together, however. Srinagar is the home to Winterfell Cafe, a GoT-themed coffee shop that sees a lot of Thrones patrons and fans visit it every day.
However, perhaps the love for the show in the valley has to do with more than just simple television popularity. A lot of people, especially young, Kashmiri students empathize with the Kashmiri struggle for autonomy and correlate it with the similar struggles of the Starks on the show with whom they share a lot of features such as topography, climate, culture and so on.
To a lot of them, the show is as much as about resistance as it is about violence, sex, dragons, and direwolves. It has become even more relevant in the last few years since political unrest has become routine in the beautiful valley.
Kashmir hence is Winterfell for a lot of the young residents there. The Cure, is Kashmir’s Game of Thrones.
This tribute to #GameOfThrones comes all the way from Kashmir. It’s a visual delight & hearing the theme music played on the traditional rubab is amazing. Well done @TheOtherRumi https://t.co/OZEzpdQ2VF via @youtube
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) March 25, 2018
Master Visuals’ custom video, The Cure is more than just another fan-made tribute to the show.
It’s also a tribute to the sheer beauty of Kashmir, both the green-carpeted plains as well as the snowy white, pristine peaks that overlook the valley.
If this video is anything, it’s not only an invitation for more filmmakers, both in India and abroad to make more films in Kashmir but, is also a unique way of passive resistance. What better way to represent Kashmir?
Image Sources: Google Images
Sources: India Today, Firstpost, YouTube
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