Movie Review: Haider

By Sandipan Dalal

Genre: Drama

Rating: **** 1/2

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Kay Kay Menon, Shraddha Kapoor, Narendra Jha

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Language: Hindi

Vishal Bhardwaj's interpretation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet is set in the turbulent Kashmir of 1995. Haider (Shahid Kapoor), a poet and scholar from Aligarh University, has returned home upon learning of his father Dr Hilaal Meer's (Narendra Jha) disappearance under suspicious circumstances.

The house where he grew up has been reduced to ruins, and his mother Ghazala (Tabu) is living with his uncle Khurram (Kay Kay Menon), an advocate and aspiring politician, who thirsts for power. Haider is in love with Arshia (Shraddha Kapoor), a journalist and daughter of an Indian army officer.



Amidst the chaos of Kashmir, Haider then embarks on a dangerous quest to look for his father. Shahid Kapoor plays Haider splendidly, using the character's feigned madness as a prop and leveraging the ominous setting.

The film has some grandiose touches but it never quite goes over the top. Kapoor's a tad excessive, but the overall impression he gives is that of a character fully in control of his tragic destiny. The cast is generally magnificent.

Narendra is good, and Tabu is excellent (her haunting beauty and heartbreaking vulnerability especially shine in the scenes where she witnesses her son's madness and in her exchange with him before the climax; the latter is sure to resonate with you for a long time).



Shraddha is sublime and restrained, and some of the supporting characters, especially Irrfan Khan as Roohdaar, clock fine performances. Adding to the effect is Pankaj Kapur's cinematography which scans the gloomy valleys of Kashmir, sometimes entering Ghazala and Khurram's bedroom, while sometimes taking in the graveyards (watch out for the grave diggers' scene).

In the end, Bhardwaj's ambitious approach and intelligent adaptation turn the literary text into a bold and unflinching political statement on Kashmir. Haider is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year.

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