After a long time, I saw a movie (Haider) that managed to motivate me enough to stop all other work and write down a review. So, here we go!
Story, Screenplay, Direction and Cinematography:
Toggling with two sensitive stories – William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and the situation of Kashmir in 1995, Vishal Bhardwaj has tried to weave an intense story in a very simple manner.
The cinematography is beautiful. Barring a few shocks here and there, overall, the camera has been handled extremely well. In every scene, the emotions have been displayed precisely and in case they haven't turned out to be what you expected, blame it on the actor.
I won't spoil the plot here but some sequences in the film deserve a mention – Shahid's 'mic testing' in Lal Chowk, Tabu caressing her son during the climax, Kay Kay Menon's lust for power and love for Tabu, Kulbhushan Kharbanda's dialogue emphasizing that peace cannot be derived from vengeance and "An eye for an eye ends up leaving the whole world blind", Narendra Jha's recital of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poetry, and the blood spilled sight of the snow – all the angles explored were beautiful in their own special ways. The dialogues and the references to words like inteqaam, bewa and chutzpa enhanced the treat.
What got missed in the film was the loose end related to Ashish Vidyarthi. Barring showing that it is Shraddha Kapoor's father who is an extremely high authority in police now, the entire sequence doesn't show much. Ok, in reality, there may have been an officer called Murthy who would've tried to control the situation but honestly, as a viewer, I'm not really interested in that. Besides, seeing Ashish Vidyarthi on the screen, an unintentional wish to see more of his scenes got created because he's a brilliant actor.
Some people had a misconception that this film shows the army and Kashmir in a poor light. However, firstly, I recommend that such people watch the film and then decide what is does rather than base their 'passionate' opinions on others' perspectives. Secondly, we must all be open to the possibility that some thing may have gone wrong at some point of time in Kashmir and/or the army. So, if the army is ok with accepting it, I think even we need to take it all with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the film ends with a message of peace and calm, a message of using your own sensibilities and not getting swayed in emotions surging within you due to incidents or others' provocation.
Music:
Since this is a Vishal Bhardwaj movie, a song by Sukhwinder Singh is obviously expected. Though "Bismil Bismil" is a great song and has become quite a hit, I feel "Aao Na Ki Jaan Gayi" is the song that steals the show. To add fuel to the fire, the way the song has been shot gives you goose bumps! Overall, the music is good but not as mesmerizing as an "O Saathi Re" running in the background (Omkara).
Cast:
I wonder what has Shahid Kapoor been doing all this time. The transitions and the display of emotions that he has shown in the film are amazing! When he wasn't awarded the Filmfare Award for Jab We Met, we could let that pass because Chak De India released and it was a tough fight. But if Shahid doesn't win an award for this film, the entire Bollywood fraternity, in my opinion, would desperately require psychiatric treatment.
Though its tough to choose between Irrfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon and the likes, Tabu clearly steals the show for her brilliant portrayal of a woman seeking happiness and attention, yet is uncompromising and willing to sacrifice anything to save her son.
Personally, I don't think Shraddha Kapoor was an accurate fit in the film. But then, it's a Shahid film and any girl who could be believed to be Kashmiri would've done the job provided she did not steal the thunder.
Overall, I think Haider is a great watch, actually, a must watch! The Vishal-Shahid combination reminds you of 'Kaminey' time and again and though I liked Kaminey more, but this film has created a mark of its own. I'd say it's a 3.5/5 :)
