We Are Faheem and Karun Review: BFI Flare Festival 2025

Forbidden love flourishes in Kashmir set We Are Faheem and Karun

Groundbreaking writer/director Onir continues his mission to bring marginalised stories to mainstream Indian cinema with his latest, We Are Faheem and Karun. The first LGBT movie in the Kashmiri language, it’s caused quite the stir back home for its portrayal of a same sex relationship within the Indian army – something that remains banned in a country that has otherwise decriminalised homosexuality.

Finding himself in Kashmir on the India-Pakistan border, young soldier Karun (Akash Menon) staffs a roadside checkpoint on the outskirts of a village. Karun is the friendly type, and while this is his first time away from his home in the south of the country, he is prepared to make the best of his new surroundings. Yet his colleagues warn him to treat everyone with suspicion – with skirmishes continuing with the Pakistanis across the border, they worry the locals could be hiding armed insurgents or violent Kashmiri separatists.

When one day Karun stops a handsome young man returning home from university the two men feel an immediate spark. While many of the locals treat Karun with suspicion if not outright hostility, Faheem (Mir Tawseef) is not just friendly but openly flirtatious. The two men begin a secret relationship; but just as they begin to get closer the opposing forces within their backgrounds threaten to tear them apart.

The two lead actors have an immediate, crackling chemistry that allows even the most modest of interactions to sizzle off the screen with genuine heat. From the first moment they lock eyes their relationship feels like an absolute inevitability. Even if we, and they, know that the cards are stacked against them it feels natural to root for this pairing and hope they will somehow beat the odds.

Going on appearances alone it feels incredibly wasteful that the Indian government could be against the release of this film because it manages to at points feel like (political unrest aside) a tourism advert for the otherworldly beauty of Kashmir. Onir utilises wide drone shots to set his characters against gorgeous backdrops of the craggy Himalaya, rushing glacial rivers and charming handcrafted villages.

We Are Faheem and Karun was made under incredibly difficult circumstances; on a micro budget, with a tiny crew and in a region in which the production was not welcome. The differences of Kashmir’s communities are illustrated naturalistically through food and faith, with the fundamental desire for its central characters to find peace shining through. That it manages to capture so much beauty while feeling respectfully illustrative of life in the region is a marvel.

Onir plunges the audience into the middle of a 70 year long conflict with absolutely no exposition or explanation for those who may not have cracked open a history book, yet we come away understanding everything we need to. It’s a cleverly written script that manages to inform whilst still keeping its central romantic drama storyline front and centre.

What’s somewhat baffling however is the laziness of the editing and cinematography, as there are several technically compromised shots that clearly should have ended up on the cutting room floor. Wide tracking shots used in the opening scenes and captured via drone have clearly been set to ‘autofocus,’ and swing wildly around, losing track of the actor they are meant to be following. Shots filmed from a camera attached to a motorcycle haven’t been stabilised and judder around jarringly. It makes the final product feel amateurish, and it’s hard to understand how such an experienced film maker could have left them in the final edit.   

We Are Faheem and Karun is a simple story set against a politically complicated backdrop, making for a genuinely compelling film that only becomes more engaging as it goes on. The central relationship is beautifully acted, and while the film as a whole may suffer from technical difficulties it’s worthy of wider attention.

We are Faheem and Karun was reviewed as part of the BFI Flare London Film Festival. Wider release details are TBC