Aijaz Khan’s Kashmir-set Hamid has a new release date: March 15.

The film was meant to be released on March 1 but was postponed after the February 14 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel died. The attack, for which the Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility, was followed by an Indian Air Force strike on a Jaish camp in Pakistan on February 26 and renewed hostilities between the two neighbours.

In a press release, Khan said his film is about love, peace and healing. “We hope that Hamid helps in spreading this very important message of love and redemption in these conflicted times,” he said.

Produced by Yoodlee Films, Hamid explores the Kashmir conflict through the friendship between an eight-year-old boy and a paramilitary soldier. The film follows eight-year-old Hamid (Talha Arshad Reshi), who, on hearing that 786 is “god’s number”, assumes it to be the direct phone line to Allah and calls up with hopes of speaking to his deceased father. Instead, he reaches a Central Reserve Police Force soldier (Vikas Kumar) posted in the state. As a friendship develops, “two lives shattered in the strife of Kashmir find a way to be complete again”, according to the official synopsis.

Also starring Rasika Dugal and Sumit Kaul, Hamid was premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival in October 2018 and screened at the Palm Springs International Film Festival this January.

In the press note, Siddharth Anand Kumar of Yodlee Films said, “We stood in solidarity with the victims of the Pulwama attack and had decided to push the release date for later time...we believe now is the time that perhaps the film will be better understood, and perhaps more relevant, with its narrative that calls for peace and closure.”

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Hamid (2018).