Srinagar, Dec 29 (IANS): Young Kashmiri filmmaker Ali Emran Kureshi, who premiered his digital feature film "Khudi" here, strongly advocates the cause of cinema in the valley.

"If we have art and culture in Kashmir, cinema has to be a part of that. Cinema per se is neither good nor bad. It is the filmmaker who makes a good or a bad movies," Kureshi said at the premiere here Wednesday.

He feels that if the local art and culture have to progress, it will have to carry the important medium of cinema along with it.

Based on the famous Ayn Rand novel "Fountainhead", the one-and-a-half-hour "Khudi" revolves around a young man who refuses to compromise on means to achieve lofty goals. Although left far behind in life's race by his friends, the protagonist does not give up.

Recently filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who grew up in Kashmir, too urged that the movie halls in the valley should be reopened. Farooq Abdullah, president of the ruling National Conference party, too advocated reopening of theatres, which were closed after separatist violence hit the region in the early 1990s.