Baramulla is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language supernatural horror thriller directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale, featuring Manav Kaul and Bhasha Sumbli in lead roles. The film premiered on 7 November 2025 as a Netflix original, immediately sparking conversation for its bold blend of horror, mystery, emotional drama, and reflection on Kashmir’s troubled history.
The film revolves around DSP Ridwaan Sayyed played by Manav Kaul who arrives in the snow-covered town of Baramulla, Kashmir, to investigate a series of baffling child disappearances each marked by the mysterious cutting of hair. As the investigation deepens and the case’s eerie threads start to intersect with his own family’s life, the film reveals itself to be much more than a procedural: it’s a meditation on grief, identity, historical trauma, psychological fracture, and the supernatural echoes of collective loss.
Social Commentary – Community, History & the Weight of Memory
One of the most compelling things about Baramulla is the way in which it weaves complex social narratives into what could have been a very straightforward thriller. The film introduces us to a society that has been impacted by decades of political turmoil and upheaval. The setting of Kashmir, with its snow-capped mountains, empty streets, and worn-down houses, becomes more than just a setting; it becomes a character in and of itself, one that reflects the collective pain of loss and displacement.
However, at the very center of the mystery of missing children and supernatural events, there is a very disturbing historical fact: the displacement and persecution of Kashmiri Pandits during the insurgency of the 1990s. This is a very painful part of history that is still remembered in the collective memory and is incorporated into the story without resorting to easy dramatics. Instead, the story incorporates the supernatural as an allegorical device to explore how the collective grief of past traumas continues to ‘haunt’ the present. In the moments where ghostly apparitions hover around abandoned houses and the sound of whispers trickles through the halls, the supernatural moments symbolize the societal amnesia that communities suffer when their wounds are left unattended. This social layering gives the film a political undertone that is particularly unusual in the horror genre: the film does not simply use politics as a background setting but also dares the viewer to consider how historical injustices can reverberate across generations.
Political Undercurrents – Uprooting, Identity & Conflict
Baramulla situates its horror in the political trauma of Kashmiri history, making the ghosts not just paranormal beings but symbols of unresolved injustice and collective displacement. The Sapru family whose spirits appear tied to the villa Ridwaan’s family inhabits were victims of brutal violence and forced to flee, representing a community whose very identity was under siege. Their lingering presence underscores how political miscarriage isn’t easily exorcised. The film asks subtle yet resonant questions: Who gets to belong? What happens to those uprooted from their homeland? How do societies make sense of unresolved violence? In scenes where spectral figures protect or confront the living, the supernatural is politicized not for shock value, but as symbolic justice for lives erased and families shattered by conflicts.
Psychological Depth – Fear, Guilt & Familial Fractures
Psychologically, Baramulla excels at probing internal human conflicts as much as external mysteries. DSP Ridwaan’s investigation is not only professional; it also becomes a personal struggle against his own fears, guilt, and broken familial ties. His troubled relationship with his daughter Noorie, characterized by unresolved tensions and emotional distance is one of the most poignant subplots of the film. However, with the supernatural elements making their presence felt in their home, Ridwaan is also forced to confront his own inability to overcome emotional distances, thus turning the ghost story into an allegory of unspoken traumas in his own family.
The psychological horror in Baramulla emerges less from jump scares and more from cognitive dissonance where characters grapple with what’s real, what’s remembered, and what’s feared. Nighttime sequences, whispers in empty rooms, and sudden shifts between past and present echo the kinds of psychological fragmentation experienced by individuals living in a state of chronic unease.
Haunting as Metaphor
Supernatural elements in Baramulla are metaphorical extensions of the film’s emotional and historical core. Ghosts in this world don’t simply frighten; they communicate pain, protect the innocent, and demand reconciliation with forgotten histories. This makes the horror ambiguous and unsettling that forces characters to reflect. The spirits of the Sapru family, and the eerie phenomena that plague Ridwaan’s household, emphasize how the past can linger in the present, refusing to fade until justice and acknowledgment are achieved, an idea that transcends typical horror conventions and pushes the film into the realm of poignant allegory.
Baramulla is a bold cinematic experiment ambitiously merging supernatural horror with social critique, political reflection, and psychological depth. While not without imperfections including uneven pacing and debates around its political framing, its strengths lie in textured storytelling, evocative imagery, and a refusal to let the audience escape into simplistic genre tropes. It’s a film that lingers in the mind, not just for its ghosts, but for the lived human wounds it dramatizes.
Where to Watch
Baramulla is available to stream on Netflix India.
