Haider (2014)

Overrated and overhyped

As Good As It Gets

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It is the last film of Vishal Bharadwaj's Shakespearian trilogy and the most ambitious one. In the first two films (Maqbool and Omkara) the focus was on the plays and adapting it in an Indian backdrop. But in this film the focus was on Kashmir and it's complicated relationships with India. The play is integrated into the conflict. In Hamlet in the end everyone dies and so in the Kashmir conflict everyone loses as the situation has reached a stalemate. The film if taken on it's own merits is a bit slow paced and the acting by KK Menon and Shahid Kapoor is not always convincing. But when the play is added to the equation it makes more sense. It's a ambitious project and Vishal Bharadwaj pulls it off more or less.

Haider the VB version of William Shakespeare's Hemlet. This man VB(Vishal Bhardwaj) is real magician,he know how to take out juice from the script and how to best utilize Shahid Kapoor in row. Kashmir problems are very well casted in the story.and fetch knowledge to those who are unaware of day to day life in Kashmir. As per me every inch of the movie is the outcome of perfection.great performances by actors, thanks to Shahid,Tabu,Irfan,Kay Kay Menon.Music is very close to heart and background score is again give complement to screens. Kashmir shown in the movie is beautiful which actually drag you from screen to fresh hills. Choreography for the song Bismil is at its best,generally you will see such type of work in Ashutosh Gwarikor's movie but here at Haider you will find some fine work in choreography, Best thing; awesomestoryline and acting performance. Weak thing:movie little bit allow you to take Quick nap in middle.When you have khan then please allow some more time to him on screen. Why to watch: if you really want to know how is the life of Kashmir's and what are there daily requirement which is generally not as per our requirement.

I'm not a huge fan of Bollywood, except when I'm really forced to watch something. Haider was one of them. Yesterday I watched Haider and I really thought its a film lost in its narrative, a film not clear with its motive. Here are some of my points why I didn't like the film the way everyone's been raving about.1. Overly long film, could have easily edited the part about love story, why the hell would one like to listen to a song where the hero who was just in a maniacal depression due to his father's death, dance stupidly around trees for love, loses the credibility of the whole flow. The scene about he going around searching for his father with flyers is unnecessarily long and over dramatic. The song sequence in Kay Kay and Tabu's marriage was another commercial trapping for a realistic film as this one could have been.2. What was the purpose of the speech that he gave in the middle of the road? The speech seemed like the director deliberately inserted to have a solid impression of Shahid's acting otherwise around 100's of people listening so quietly to a layman is a another Bollywood style where the actor is actually the hero, no matter what.3. The film has many commercial trappings like the time when he's about to kill Kay Kay Menon and the police come at the exact right time and spot, the police spots him in the fire torn building when he's about to cross border at the exact right time and spot. Funnily a country where the police is never on time here co-incidences lead them to them to the points without any prior information.4. Why did Kay Kay not have him caught while he was singing the song and dancing, may be he was mesmerized like everyone else by his moves.The only thing good about the film is Pankaj's Cinematography and Tabu's acting.

January 2014:Attending a screening of the first ever Lollywood movie which claimed to have been filmed completely in English, (that actually turned out to only be half in English,which thanks to the lack of Subtitles led to me not having a clue what the characters were talking about for half the time!)in the gritty Thriller Waar,I was taken aback by a breath- taking trailer,for what appeared to be a Bollywood adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet.December 2014:After spending the whole of the X-Mas period ill in bed,I decided to make New Years Eve a better event,by trying to track down a DVD of Haider. Stumbling on a news report about there being a court case in India that was attempting to stop the movie coming out on DVD over there,I was happy to discover that the UK DVD of the title was due to come out in 3 days time,which led to me getting ready to finally meet Haider.The plot:Returning home after the sudden disappearance of his dad Dr. Hilal Meer during a shoot-out over the separatism of Kashmir, Haider Meeris is surprised to find that instead of being desperate to locate him,his mum Ghazala Meer appears to be having a jolly old time with her brother in law Khurram Meer.Learning that his dad was taken for questioning by the military,Haider gets into contact with a mysterious stranger called Roohdar,who tells Haider that both he and his dad were tortured in a detention camp,which Hilal claimed he was placed in,thanks to Khurram being an undercover informant.Taking a closer look at Khurram and Ghazala's relationship,Haider begins making plans on getting revenge for their betrayal. View on the film:From the opening of the film,the score from composer/singer/co- writer (along with journalist Basharat Peer)/directing auteur Vishal Bhardwaj becomes deeply entwined with the unfolding tragedy being underlined by the industrial hum of Bhardwaj's score unleashed an extremely strong atmosphere of impending slowly covering the landscape of Kashmir.Keeping away from including any songs designed to make the soundtrack a chart topper,Bhardwaj emphasises the feelings expressed in the score,by making each of the songs (one of which is sung very well by Bhardwaj) lay bare sections of Haider's personality that are about to fall over the edge.Filmed entirely on location in Kashmir over 2 harsh seasons, (with the first section being shot during the late autumn season of November-December 2013,and the final part of the title being completed during a freezing winter season of January-February 2014)Bhardwaj and cinematographer Pankaj Kumar beautifully open every wound that the battle scar city has suffered.Placing Haider in a corrupt world filled with death & betrayal,Bhardwaj and Kumar give the first half of the title a stark,washed out appearance,whose clarity increases with Haider sets his eyes towards those who betrayed his dad. Casting a suffocating Film Noir shadow across the title,Bhardwaj & Kumar steam the darkness out of the screenplay by covering the screen in mountains of snow,which along with showing the coldness inside Haider,also reveals the destruction of purity in Haider's loved ones,as their blood turns the snow a frosty red.Collaborating with journalist Basharat Peer, (writer of the highly- praised book Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in Kashmir)Bhardwaj and Peer make their modern take on Shakespeare's dialogue one that never feels gimmicky,but precise,and perfectly fitting with the decay that infects Haider.Avoiding any option of taking the film in an easy Bollywood melodrama route,the writers cast a critical eye over Kashmir,with Haider's revenge tale being used in a mature allegorical manner to show the recurring acts of violence that take place across the Kashmir boarder.Bringing a fresh-face Haider back to Kashmir,the writer's strike the film with a tremendous intensity,with Haider's relationship with his family being closely examined ,which allows for the gaps in the relationships to be exposed to a brittle sunlight.Peeling away Haider's levels of sanity,the writer's keep an unflinching eye on showing Haider's toxic revenge engulf all signs of humanity that he possessed.Shimmering across the screen,Tabu gives a remarkable performance as Haider's mum,with Tabu showing Ghazala to have a closed-in nature to her surroundings,which leads to Tabu showing the hope on Ghazala's face that Haider is still her little boy.Bringing the Oedipus complex in Ghazala and Haider's relationship,Tabu keeps away from any over dramatic notes to instead express Ghazala feelings about her son entirely through body language,with every gesture that she makes towards Haider lingering that little bit too long.Turning down (along with Vishal Bhardwaj) his wage so that every penny could be put on screen, Shahid Kapoor gives an extraordinary,trans-formative performance.Entering the film rather innocently,Kapoor makes Haider's desire to avenge his dads death an idea whose grip intensity's,as Haider feels his dad's shadow wrap around in,as he looks with new eyes at everyone who he has ever known.Sliding Haider into insanity,Kapoor wisely keeps the ghost in Haider's life on his shoulders,so that no matter how psychotic the character gets,his roots are always laid bare,as Haider wonders to be, or not to be.