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Accents on film are tricky things. If you do them right, they should blend into the background. If you don’t, they stand out, like naughty screechy children who have to be shown their place—in the corner. Songs of Paradise is a film with great intent let down by its lead actor’s accent which is a cross between an ancient Bedouin trader and a modern Afghan warlord. We understand that Saba Azad is playing a gaam koor (village girl) with a magical voice, but she chooses to do that with an accent that sounds like a parody.

The others in the cast, even the Kashmiris, speak Hindi perfectly, which she could have done. Instead, she joins a hall of infamy led by Shraddha Kapoor who murdered Kashmiri Hindi in Haider (2014). It’s a pity because Songs of Paradise is a heartbreaking story of Radio Kashmir’s first female singer, Raj Begum, here called Noor Begum, and the troubles she went through to sing in public, defying fundamentalists. Danish Renzu keeps centrestage the cultural significance of Radio Kashmir and underlines the syncretic nature of its leadership but doesn’t explore the larger fabric of the Valley before the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits. There are offhand remarks about Lal Ded and Nund Rishi, but largely it becomes a singular story, rather than a chronicle of a powerful cultural insti­tution built by the talent and diligence of Kashmiris, regardless of their religion. When movies tell stories of individuals, stripping them of much of their context, it robs them of their richness, depth, and potential impact.

Danish RenzuPrime VideoSaba AzadSongs of ParadiseSoni Razdan