Haider Review
A well-acted, well-written and beautifully directed movie with a top supporting cast.
Being the last of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean trilogy, Haider is turning out to be a good fortune not only for the director but also for the entire crew. Maqbool (Macbeth) and Omkara (Othello) are the other two stunning Shakespearean adaptation crated by Vishal. Shahid Kapur already claimed that this film is the best film of his career. As an adaptation of Hamlet, it seems that Vishal Bhardwaj had done justice both to his and Shakespeare’s works.
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, often shortened to Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge of Prince Hamlet who is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother, Hamlet’s father King Hamlet, and subsequently seized the throne, marrying his deceased brother’s widow, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature.
The film traces back to 1995, a time of fire and brimstone where any man wearing a long ‘phiran’ is either hiding a pot of hot coals o a hand grenade. But Haider is indeed a film that carries both in the most unique way.
Paged by the destruction of the family and his father’s disappearance, Haider is a kashmiri boy who plays the role of Hamlet. The tragic drama revolves around the trouble faced by Haider in avenging his father’s disappearance or even supposed dead. Shahid Kapur has given the best of all he has to get along with the character Haider. Dealing with one of most challenging heros of Shakespear, Shahid has managed the character with an impressive sincerity. Underscoring the narrative, the music is amazingly composed increasing the overall depth of the movie.
At the heart of the film stands Tabu who plays the role of Haider’s mother, Ghazala. Shraddha as Arshia plays a luminous role, though half a scene she had much to do than the original Ophelia ever got. The character Claudius played by Kay Kay Menon as Khurram gives character his own terrific edge, twitchy and tentative and surprisingly warm. Like Pankaj Kumar’s stunning cinematography and Rekha Bhardwaj’s haunting voice, Haider’s actors excel.
Haider is a well-acted, well-written and beautifully directed movie with a top supporting cast. But it is Shahid Kapoor and Tabu that stun you with the ease with which they handle the complexities and layers of their characters.
Haider review
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