Spoilers Ahead for Haider. Sarcasm and cynicism do not lend themselves easily writing about a good film. I liked Haider a lot. I think this was better than Maqbool and Omkara. It is definitely better than Saat Khoon Maaf and Matru. Staying true to Hamlet albeit some minor changes and setting it in a meaningful manner in Kashmir, is an achievement. I felt the story was quite natural and did not have any issue about force fitting a Shakespearean story in a modern setting. Relationship between Haider and his mom Tabu, the complexity of moms character and the confusion in Haider has been brought out quite effectively. Yes, the effectiveness of the To Be or Not to be dialogue or the moment with the skull and alas poor Yorick dialogue did not come across very strongly but there were enough good moments. For me the highlights were the the the two songs - Misbil, true to Hamlet, has Shahid Kapoor enacting the whole story in front of his Chacha, KK Menon trying to bring out his guilt and Aao Naa where the grave diggers are digging their own graves knowing the impeding doom. The monologue where Haider talks in front of a crowd has Shahid Kapoor at his best and Vishal Bhardwaj at his best with respect to the dialogues. Salman and Salman characters are the jesters and are good. Shradha Kapoor was quite impressive as Haiders love interest. Irffan Khan as the ghost is not very effective though his entry into the film was cool. I feel that the movie could have been 15-30 minutes shorter. In my opinion there was no need to tie up all the threads by explicitly showing the detailed killings and death. Vishal could have been more subtle but I guess subtlety is not Vishals strength and Hamlet is not a subtle play. Acting is top notch all through. Film is brave enough to criticize the Indian army. Music is also very good and Vishal excels in his Jazzy compositions. Lyrics by Gulzar are great - for example - from Aao Naa Diye se jal rahi saari zindagi, Hawaa se bujhey nahi saari zindagi. I give it 4 stars out of 5. Definitely check it out.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 03:01:55 +0000
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