In Moute’e Rang, filmmaker Ajay Raina turns his camera toward Kashmiri Pandit religious identity, sacred places, displacement and the lives of those who remained in Kashmir. He describes filmmaking as a way to assert and reclaim an identity shaped by separation from the region. The film’s perspective is personal: it grows from Raina’s own family history and his understanding of what was lost.
What Moute’e Rang is about
Raina says the Kashmiri title Moute’e Rang means “At the Moment of Death.” As described in his 2022 interview with Scroll.in, the documentary examines a crisis of religious identity among Kashmiri Pandits after their ties to Kashmir were severed.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
The Amazing Nina Simone - A Documentary Film (DVD) | $25.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
American Experience: New York: A Documentary Film by Ric Burns | $99.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
![Score: A Film Music Documentary [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41rc5HqgpnL._SL160_.jpg)
|
Score: A Film Music Documentary [DVD] | $9.67 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
|
All Together Now: A Documentary Film | $17.97 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
|
CHOSIN: A Documentary Film by Brian Iglesias | $44.89 | Buy on Amazon |
The film attends to the consequences in both displacement and daily life. Those who left lost access to traditional places of worship and pilgrimage; those who stayed faced difficulty openly celebrating festivals and arranging rituals. Raina’s footage also shows sacred sites in ruins or repurposed. These are the film’s subjects and Raina’s framing, not a complete account of the wider Kashmir conflict.
How Raina assembled the film
The interview traces the project to Raina’s oral-history work. In 2012 he met Sanjay Tickoo, head of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti. Tickoo and friends had been documenting temples and holy springs during journeys across Kashmir since 2006. Raina received permission to use their footage, then filmed his own material on visits between 2012 and 2018.
#1 Best Overall
- Documentary Feature Film providing an in-depth look at the music, politics, activism, and bold life of music icon, Nina Simone.
- Only film to feature over 50 of Nina's friends, family, band members, lovers and fellow musicians, giving viewers a deeper, stronger understanding of Nina and her artistic intentions.
- Features her involvement with key friends and figures: Martin Luther King, Jr., Lorraine Hansberry, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Miriam Makeba
- Nina Simone's story from birth in the segregated American South to her death in the South of France
- The stories behind Nina Simone's most iconic songs: Mississippi Goddam, Four Women, Young, Gifted and Black, Why? The King of Love is Dead, Strange Fruit, Sinnerman, Porgy, Ne Me Qutite Pas, Wild is the Wind, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.
A separate FilmFreeway listing describes the documentary as filmed between 2003 and 2018, so the production-period descriptions differ. The listing names Raina as director and producer, gives the runtime as 1 hour, 20 minutes and 31 seconds, and records completion on April 30, 2022. It also lists a screening at the National Film Archive of India in Pune on August 5, 2022; that past event does not establish where the film can be watched now.
Why identity and return matter to him
Raina moved from Srinagar to Mumbai in 1985 and later trained in film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. In the interview, he recalls that his family joined him after his brother and sister-in-law arrived at his hostel in 1989, amid the flight of tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits. He says he did not have to leave himself, but could not go back, and describes 1989 and 1990 as defining years.
Rank #2
- Factory sealed DVD
That distance informs his account of filmmaking as reclamation. Raina has called Kashmir “a wound” and said, “I want people to think of ways to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.” Those remarks express his personal relationship to the place and his purpose for the films; they should not be mistaken for a single, uncontested interpretation of the community’s history.
Where the film sits in Raina’s work
Raina’s earlier documentaries approach Kashmir and its history through different subjects. The Scroll.in interview describes them this way:
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesRank #3
| Film | Subject described in the interview |
|---|---|
| Tell Them ‘The Tree They Had Planted Has Now Grown’ (2001) | Raina’s return to Kashmir after 11 years, encountering abandoned Pandit homes and a community living in fear. |
| Wapsi (2005) | The legacy of Partition and cross-border visits. |
| Apour Ti Yapor. Na Jang Na Aman. Yeti Chu Talukpeth (2011) | Villages on either side of the Line of Control. |
| Moute’e Rang | Sacred sites, religious identity and displacement among Kashmiri Pandits. |
Raina also co-founded the Kashmir Oral History Project, which seeks to archive testimonies from Kashmiris across faiths since 1990. In the interview, he says his response to The Kashmir Files helped prompt Moute’e Rang: he objected to using actual events as propaganda for hatred and wanted to make what he considered an objectively truthful film. That is Raina’s stated view, not an independent assessment of either film.
His political views in the interview’s 2022 context
Raina described himself as ambivalent about Article 370. He criticized its internal effects on minorities in Jammu and Ladakh, while questioning whether its removal and the arrest of Kashmiri political leadership were democratic or legally and morally correct. These were his assessments in a 2022 interview, not a settled judgment on the policy or its consequences.
Rank #4
He also rejected retaliation against Muslims in India for events in Kashmir, saying: “You cannot kill a Muslim in India to avenge something that happened in Kashmir.” The distinction matters: his account centers Kashmiri Pandit loss while explicitly opposing the transfer of blame to another community.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is known about watching the film
The FilmFreeway entry documents the Pune screening on August 5, 2022, but neither it nor the interview establishes current streaming, retail availability or future screening dates. The available descriptions therefore identify the film and one historical screening, not a current route to view it.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Quick Recap
Best Value
- Winner! Best Documentary, 2010 GI Film Festival
- "You Will Be Riveted" - NY Times
- "Superb" - LA Weekly
- "Deeply Moving" - Frmr Secretery of State Colin Powell
- "Profound" - Time Out NY
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
