People living in conflict zones globally share a fated suffering of to be or not to be. Vishal Bhardwajs gut wrenching, powerful Haider is a Shakespearean adaptation of Hamlet but the tragic hero of this tale is no prince but the state of Kashmir. Kashmir land-locked and claimed by the governments of India and Pakistan is burning and burying bodies on both ends of the border. So if Kashmir is Hamlet, Shahid Kapoor plays a symbolic Kashmir as the lead character Haider he evokes a beautiful, painful self-awareness; he has an anger fueled insanity in his grief and as a moral person struggles with himself to do the wrong thing for the right reason. Haider is in perpetual agony like his home state of Kashmir, he is born in a conflict zone of a discontent marriage -- his mother doesnt love his father and a sociopath paternal uncle covets his mother. Haiders personal life plays out the geopolitical rife of war torn Kashmir, nobody belongs to him yet he cant disavow anyone, lingering between sanity and madness interminably questioning truth and death. An existential backdrop exists in state and self. Cast, cinematography, soundtrack, screenplay, direction amalgamates into art. Pure art. Haider is conscious provoking, controversial conversational art. Like a kaleidoscope, brilliant writing breaks cliches with storytelling turns bringing to light new perspectives. Haiders dialogues are poetry personified, weighted in introspection and insight but never so heavy-handed it ceases to be relatable. I have seen innumerable adaptations of Hamlet, Vishals Haider will continue to haunt me as the most eloquent. tragic, yet hopeful. My favorite song in the movie So Jao riddled my arm with goosebumps. The scratching sound of shovel on snow, gravediggers singing a welcoming song of death juxtaposed on a infectious beat, it palls a devastating dark reality (we really are eventually digging our own graves). Gulzar saab, the prolific, poet monk in his crisp starched whites could write such a stark, creepy ode in mellifluous meter. youtu.be/OwCZR_15JM0
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 06:25:00 +0000
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