Baramulla Review: Manav Kaul's Haunting Ode to Loss, Memory and Exile
Manav Kaul delivers one of his most deeply affecting performances in Baramulla, a Netflix film that explores not supernatural terror, but the haunting nature of grief, memory, and exile. It is a reflective journey into loss and belonging within the Kashmir Valley.
Baramulla is not a typical horror film. It avoids clichés of jump scares or shadows and instead reveals a far more unsettling dread — the fear of separation, of losing identity, and of being torn from one’s roots.
“The horror here lies not in ghosts, but in grief — the sorrow of being uprooted from the land that once embraced you.”
Although the film initially presents itself as a psychological thriller, it soon uncovers deeper layers — a meditation on exile and the lingering ghosts of a lost homeland. The screenplay, written by Aditya Dhar and directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale, follows DSP Ridwaan Sayyed, played by Kaul, a stern officer drawn into a series of strange disappearances in Baramulla, Kashmir.
As the investigation unfolds, children vanish mysteriously, leaving behind only their scissor-cut hair. What begins as a procedural mystery gradually evolves into something more profound: a descent into history’s unhealed wounds and the quiet suffering of the displaced.
- Director: Aditya Suhas Jambhale
- Writer: Aditya Dhar
- Lead Actor: Manav Kaul as DSP Ridwaan Sayyed
- Platform: Netflix
Baramulla achieves its chilling power not through the supernatural, but through memory itself — a reminder that the past, once disturbed, never truly disappears.
Author’s Summary
A reflective, atmospheric film where Manav Kaul transforms a tale of mystery into a poetic exploration of grief, identity, and the ache of displacement.