A poster for the Bollywood movie 'The Kashmir Files' at a theatre in Bhayander, India, March 21.

Photo: divyakant solanki/Shutterstock

To Sadanand Dhume’s question, “Why Is Israel Kowtowing to India Over ‘The Kashmir Files’?” (East Is East, Dec. 22), perhaps the obvious answer is that many Israelis know what it means to suffer through a genocide and then have others deny or play down the tragedy.

I watched “The Kashmir Files” on opening night in the AMC theater at New York’s Times Square. Most of the audience of around 100 people seemed to be Kashmiri Hindus (I am not one). As expected, the movie was a sad narrative of their exodus, but watching that movie with that audience was unforgettable.

The suppressed sobs from all over the theater, as well as a spine-chilling wail from behind me, made it a gut-wrenching experience. Depending on the source you check, the number of people affected by this tragedy varies from a few thousand to well over 100,000. But it does make one wonder how small could that number be when, 30 years later, halfway across the world, in a small theater in New York, there are so many who still relive the trauma.

Anshoo Misra

New York