| Director | Vidhu Vinod Chopra |
|---|---|
| Box office | ₹8.2 crore |
The movie starts with an aged teacher Dr. Shiv Kumar Dhar writing a letter to the President of the United States explaining to him the situation of Kashmiri Pandits who are living like refugees in their own country. It turns out that he has written several letters since the year 1990. His most recent letter received a response from POTUS and inviting him over to a presidential suite in Agra. He along with Shanti leave for Agra. In their palatial room they see a movie DVD, Love in Kashmir, and recalls their first meet, marriage in Kashmir and forced exodus to Jammu.
On the set of Love in Kashmir, Shiv Kumar Dhar, then a young college professor and Ph.D student meets a nurse Shanti Sapru. They soon becomes friends with each other in their very first meet out of their love for poetry and Shiv being the author to newly published "Shikara". Soon they fall for each other and Shiv proposes to Shanti with the help of his best friend Lateef Lone, an aspiring cricketer and the son of a local politician who is like a fatherly figure to Shiv. Soon they get married in a traditional Kashmiri Pandit wedding and Lateef falls for Shanti's best friend Arti (another Kashmiri Pandit girl who is also her fellow nurse).
They soon build a huge mansion with the help of Lateef's father and names it "Shikara" (owing to their first night spent on a shikara). The entire community including Hindus and Muslims live together in harmony. On their first marriage anniversary Shiv's cousin, Naveen, a doctor gifts him a typewriter to write his thesis on it. However their happiness was short lived as Lateef's father, a politician who is out for a rally is fatally injured and gets admitted at Naveen's clinic. It is stated that the police attacked him on the behest of the current central government. However he dies while being shifted to a multi-speciality hospital for his surgery. Lateef cannot bear the loss of his father and crosses the border to Lahore to get trained as a militant. This incident changes the peaceful valley.
Shiv notices a lot of muslim students absent during his lectures. Shanti is also made to cover her head and remove her bindi by a group of militants while returning home from her clinic in a bus. It is there she finds out that there are illegal direct buses from Srinagar, India to Rawalpindi and Lahore in Pakistan. She even witnesses a shootout that kills 6 police officers trying to stop young men from boarding these buses to militancy. Shiv is kidnapped by a few of his missing students and taken to meet Lateef who is now leading a group of militants against the Kashmiri Pandits. He warns Shiv to leave the valley before it is too late, and he is only doing so since they were friends in the past. Shiv still believes that the Kashimiri Pandits are safe, and all these changes are temporary. However, he had misjudged the situation. A hit-list is released warning all Kashmiri Pandits to leave Kashmir valley in a month. Soon houses of Kashimiri Pandits are burnt down. Naveen is killed by millitants in front of Shiv's eyes leaving him shocked. Shiv and Shanti, along with the rest of their family manage to escape to Jammu where Arti's family breaks news of her murder by militants to them. The couple that once resided in a huge mansion is now reduced to living in tents. They see rich and affluent Kashmiri Pandits struggling to get something as simple as tomatoes. It is at this moment Shiv starts writing letters to the POTUS (George H. W. Bush then serving as the President) by the typewriter gifted by Naveen to tell them about the miserable conditions of refugees.
Shiv completes his Ph.D. and decides to take a new job at Punjab University. However Shanti encourages him to teach the local refugee students. Soon he gets a call to sell his house "Shikara" at a hefty cost to the local Kashmiri Muslims to which he denies remembering Lateef's father and Naveen's deaths and takes back one of the broker wearing Naveen's coat which former promised to gift him after he completes his Ph.D.
Over the years the Dhars get habituated to live in refugee quarters with Shiv continuing to teach local refugee students and writing letters to POTUS (now Barack Obama) while Shanti starts showing signs of having PTSD due to the horrible night prior to their exodus. One night, Shiv and Shanti are called upon by the Indian Army to meet with a now captured and terminally ill terrorist Lateef in Kashmir Valley. Shiv talks to Lateef, but Lateef dies soon after. Shiv and Shanti also visit their home "Shikara" which has now been taken over by their once trusted neighbour. Shiv and Shanti are shocked to see how their neighbour, who they treated like family, has changed everything they had built together.
Back in refugee towers, happiness comes their way when one of their neighbour's daughter is getting married. Shanti is excited to witness a Kashimiri Pandit wedding after three decades and wears her wedding sari for same. However, the wedding is nothing like what she imagined. There is a DJ, bright lights, loud music etc. The despair of losing not just her home but also her culture is evident on her face, and she soon collapses. It turns out that she is suffering from a neurological issue and needs surgery by one of the local refugee doctor who was once a student to Shiv in refugee quarters.
It is before the surgery that the couple received a call from the POTUS and went to live in the presidential suite. There Shiv reveals to her that it was him who booked the hotel and the postman got confused by the term "presidential suite" assuming that the president had invited them over. It was their 30th wedding anniversary and he wanted to fulfill her long pending dream of seeing the Taj Mahal. Shanti asks him how he managed to pay for the suite which costs around 1.25 lakhs. Shiv reveals that he sold "Shikara" for her surgery and used some of the money to fulfill her wish. Shanti is dejected but doesn't say anything.