An Indian film, centered around an India-Pakistan cricket match is beginning to hit Indian film festivals, according to Alex Ritman of THE NATIONAL. There are numerous sporting rivalries around the world, "but few are as fierce as the one between India and Pakistan in the supposedly gentlemanly sport of cricket." On June 8, 1999, "this rivalry reached a peak," as India took on Pakistan in the ICC World Cup in Manchester, England, "just as the two faced each other in the bloody Kargil War over territories in Kashmir." Thirteen years later, a short film about this dual conflict is set to appear at several Indian film festivals and has already screened at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Mumbai. "Via Kargil," which was directed by Dubai-based JAPINDER BAWEJA, looks at the cricket match through the perspective of Nonu, an 8-year-old Sikh boy in Punjab, who believes his brother will return from war should India emerge victorious in Manchester. Despite the subject matter, Baweja says: "It's a mild satire on our society for giving heavenly status to a cricket match over something as grave as the Kargil War" (THE NATIONAL, 9/25).
