A Must Watch Film

Harud (Autum)

Director: Aamir Bashir 

Writer: Aamir Bashir  , Shanker Raman, Mahmood Farooqui

Cast: Reza Naji, Shahnawaz Bhat, Shamim Basharat, Mudassir Khan, Salma Ashai

What is Harud about?

Harud, or autumn, is the theme of the film. The name comes from the Kashmiri phrase ‘harduk zazur’, which means autumnal decay. In this film, it points to the psychological decay in Kashmir. It is a tale of insecurity, where the elder son of a family  Tauqir, a tourist photographer  goes missing during militant insurgency in Kashmir... how the family falls apart as each one starts blaming the other for the circumstances. It’s a human drama but at the heart of it, Harud symbolises the psychological damage that 20 years of prolonged conflict has caused in Kashmir, even as people go about seeking their own dignity.

Was it difficult for Aamir to shoot in Kashmir ?

(excerpts from an interview)

Kashmir is a difficult place to live. So, shooting there is even more difficult for anybody who comes in from outside with a camera. I was the only Kashmiri among the 18-member crew apart from a few local helpers. So we were seen as outsiders. We shot in Srinagar and Gulmarg. In a violent place, trust is the first thing that goes out of the window. For us it was a challenge to overcome that. We would need to negotiate every day — sometimes with the police and sometimes with the people there. Crowd control was a big task and most crew members were multitasking. But we were lucky. As soon as we finished filming and left Srinagar, protests and violence broke out on the streets. It was my biggest fear that I’d been trying to overcome all the while since I’d taken the risk of taking the entire cast and crew to shoot there.

Born in Srinagar, Kashmir, Aamir Bashir is a professional actor based in Mumbai.

He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Screen Awards for his role in the film   A Wednesday
Bashir was set to play Khan's younger brother in the film My Name is Khan  , but was denied a visa to the United States in December 2008, where the film was being shot.  He was eventually replaced by Jimmy Shergill as Khan's younger brother.


Harud is a story and screenplay that he has developed over the last 4 years. It is his first venture as a writer, director and producer.

The film , which has been winning laurels in international festivals for the past two years, is finally getting a theatrical release on 27 July.The film will be released with around 15 prints in PVR theatres in some parts of the country.The Hindi film, which has earlier run into trouble with Central Board of Film Certification forcing the filmmaker to run his promos for the film on social networks instead of in theatres.