Kashmir-born Tariq Tapa, having studied film-making at CalArts, decided to shoot his first feature film in his country of origin, specifically in the area around Zero Bridge (which gives the movie its title),where he grew up. His intent was to paint a realistic, gripping portrait of contemporary India, his most obvious source of inspiration being, by his admission, Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves. A noble project, on paper at least; as it happens, Zero Bridge is actually everything but a piece of Asian Neorealism. In reality, it's a teen drama. And not a very good one.

The very basic story follows the troubled fate of Dilawar (Mohamad Imran Tapa),a young boy who has been abandoned by his mother (what a surprise) and is forced to work for his exploitative uncle (Ali Mohamad Dar). He makes some money on the side by stealing wallets doing his former classmates' homework, hoping that one day he'll be able to leave the area and find his mother. One day he has to get some documents signed and meets Bani (Taniya Khan),a clever girl who studied in the US but can't go back because her passport was stolen along with other belongings. Naturally, Dilawar is the one who stole them. And just as inevitably, he falls in love with her. No prizes for guessing for how it ends.

Similar scenarios have occurred in movies and on television since the dawn of time, and Tapa's biggest mistake is he hasn't done anything to make the plot a little original. The only "artistic contribution" worth mentioning is the hand-held camera he uses to tell the story. Such a style has two purposes: a) it gives a documentary feel to the story, which supposedly adds to the realism (it doesn't); b) since most of the shots are close-ups of Dilawar's face and hands, it's meant to make us identify with the lower-class protagonist. it doesn't work, primarily because not just Dilawar, but every single character is as wooden as they come, alongside a done-to-death narrative, including the completely gratuitous moment when a tourist asks our "hero" is there's any reason for him to stay in Kashmir. The hand-held approach isn't helpful either: most of the time the film looks like it was made by Paul Greengrass during an epileptic seizure (think The Bourne Ultimatum on crack) , so "infuriating" is a more fitting description than "compelling".

Bottom line: this dull, uninspired soap opera doesn't deserve to exist. Forgive the cheap joke, but there are zero reasons to watch it.

My husband and I was very moved by what we saw at the Biennale and by the intelligence of how the camera was moving. It was like we were there already, in the landscape. The camera was completely transparent, no artificiality or melodrama. This beautiful friendship story was so delicately realized in the direction of the actors and the camera and the music that my husband and I were both in tears and in shock at the end. Especially the last shot!! There is nothing to manipulate the viewer's feelings, but the feelings come anyway, very slowly, they creep up on you. You feel so much for the characters but you are not asked to pity them. You feel so much compassion instead.

I was a bit skeptical about this film as I had never seen a movie entirely shot in Kashmir.Although I am a Kashmiri I never liked the kind of films which are made by Bollywood in Kashmir as they always try to show things which don't exist in reality and never try to be honest.They always try to twist the truth for their own benefit.But after watching Zero Bridge I was astonished and I really liked the movie for portraying a closer to reality version of Kashmir.The shots taken at Dal Lake portray the beauty of Kashmir in a really delightful manner.The story was simple and the performances were excellent.I have given it 9/10 for being an excellent Kashmiri film.