Dinesh jain
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- Joined
- 3 Feb 2014
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Hamlet is by far one of the most celebrated,
most complex and most discussed and
debated plays of Shakespeare. Director Vishal
Bhardwaj has already adapted Macbeth as
Maqbool and Othello as Omkara is his earlier
cinematic ventures. Going purely by his past
oeuvre, Bhardwaj had raised hopes amongst
his fans and admirers with regards to what he
would serve in Haider, an adaptation of
Hamlet.
To his credit, writer-director-producer-
composer-dialogue writer Bhardwaj comes out
with flying colours in the way he transforms
Hamlet into Haider, basing it in strife torn
Kashmir with militancy at its ugliest. How the
director and writer Basharat Peer juxtapose
the turmoil in the chief protagonist Hamlet's
mind against the tumoil witnessed by the state
of Kashmir is handled with remarkable design
and detailing. The Shaperean line, 'There is
something rotten in the state of Denmark' is
easily applicable to the chaos and conflict
caused by the militants in the valley and to
what is happening within Haider's family.
The story of Haider (Shahid Kapoor) wanting
to avenge his father's death (Narendra Jha),
after he discovers that his uncle Khurram (Kay
Kay Menon) plotted to kill his own brother
manifests itself into an uncontrollable, internal
rage for Haider. That rage is waiting to explode
when he finds that his own mother Ghazala
(deliciously played by Tabu) agreed to marry
her father's younger brother even before the
flowers on his graveyard had wilted. The stage
is set for an intense back and forth journey
where the major characters and the minor
ones are all pulled down one by one by the
flaws in their own character. Bharadwaj
achieves this with the dexterity of a
consummate painter where he strokes out all
details very delicately and at a leisurely place,
often giving the audience and the characters a
little too much time to ruminate over the
situation.
Even the Oedipal theme between Haider and
Ghazala is captured marvelously well by
Bhardwaj and portrayed equally brilliantly by
Shahid and Tabu.
Movie review: Haider is a film you should not miss
most complex and most discussed and
debated plays of Shakespeare. Director Vishal
Bhardwaj has already adapted Macbeth as
Maqbool and Othello as Omkara is his earlier
cinematic ventures. Going purely by his past
oeuvre, Bhardwaj had raised hopes amongst
his fans and admirers with regards to what he
would serve in Haider, an adaptation of
Hamlet.
To his credit, writer-director-producer-
composer-dialogue writer Bhardwaj comes out
with flying colours in the way he transforms
Hamlet into Haider, basing it in strife torn
Kashmir with militancy at its ugliest. How the
director and writer Basharat Peer juxtapose
the turmoil in the chief protagonist Hamlet's
mind against the tumoil witnessed by the state
of Kashmir is handled with remarkable design
and detailing. The Shaperean line, 'There is
something rotten in the state of Denmark' is
easily applicable to the chaos and conflict
caused by the militants in the valley and to
what is happening within Haider's family.
The story of Haider (Shahid Kapoor) wanting
to avenge his father's death (Narendra Jha),
after he discovers that his uncle Khurram (Kay
Kay Menon) plotted to kill his own brother
manifests itself into an uncontrollable, internal
rage for Haider. That rage is waiting to explode
when he finds that his own mother Ghazala
(deliciously played by Tabu) agreed to marry
her father's younger brother even before the
flowers on his graveyard had wilted. The stage
is set for an intense back and forth journey
where the major characters and the minor
ones are all pulled down one by one by the
flaws in their own character. Bharadwaj
achieves this with the dexterity of a
consummate painter where he strokes out all
details very delicately and at a leisurely place,
often giving the audience and the characters a
little too much time to ruminate over the
situation.
Even the Oedipal theme between Haider and
Ghazala is captured marvelously well by
Bhardwaj and portrayed equally brilliantly by
Shahid and Tabu.
Movie review: Haider is a film you should not miss
