Kashmir Ki Kali returns to Valley on Dal Lake

Audience watch movie on big screen floating cinema from decked up ‘shikaras’ (hooded boats)

Otherwise, a place with no night life or cinema halls, Srinagar saw the Dal Lake again reverberating with musical evenings and a big screen floating cinema with the 1964 Shammi Kapoor starrer Bollywood blockbuster Kashmir Ki Kali opening to an audience seated on decked up ‘shikaras’ (hooded boats).

The lake, which is the centre of tourist attraction, on Friday evening saw a fleet of ‘shikaras’ and houseboats full with tourists witnessing a gripping laser show and a film on the history of houseboats in Kashmir. The biggest attraction was the open-air theatre set up in the middle of the lake.

Several top officials, including Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta; Principal Secretary to Lieutenant Governor Nitishwar Kumar; Principal Secretary, H&UDD, Dheeraj Gupta; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole; Secretary Tourism and Culture, Sarmad Hafeez; and Director Tourism, G.N. Itoo, watched the first show of the movie, which was shot in Kashmir in the 1960s.