Nipped in the Bud?

This article examines the major ‘Kashmir films’ of 1960s Bollywood: Junglee (), Kashmir Ki Kali (), Jaanwar (), Jab Jab Phool Khile (), Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (), and Aarzoo (). These films made the Kashmir Valley the space for the expression of a new youthful modernity for urban Indians, especially through the technology of colour. Through a symptomatic and materialist analysis attentive to both cinematic strategies and contemporary political context, this article links the pleasures of these films with the formation of a modern Indian subjectivity, contrasts these pleasures with the mounting political tensions within Jammu and Kashmir, and based on fieldwork in Jammu and Srinagar, examines how they are remembered by Kashmiris today. The historicization it offers of Bollywood's long Kashmir obsession is thus equally an exploration of how this obsession fits into the contested political relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Union.