Haider: The Hamlet of Kashmir
Tragedy
An ode to Vishal Bhardwaj’s timeless classic
Until we free ourselves from our revenge ...
till then no freedom can make us free….
(Haider, 2014)
It is often very rare for cinema to achieve its poetic justice with
bardolatry yet, our home grown director and composer Vishal
Bhardwaj taught us the most Indian way. His preening
Shakespearean trilogy of Omakara, Haider and Maqbool is a
stellar instance of his brilliance as a director. Bhardwaj chose
Hamlet in the most unexpected and parlous setting of Kashmir, a
land as thwarted to danger as it is to beauty.
In outset, Haider is a humanist primer with themes of existential,
political, familial and social crises which it inherited from its
mother story Hamlet. The unfortunate reality of contemporary
Kashmiri politics and its overly burlesque representation in
vintage cinema all the more adds a layer of realism.
Firstly, Pankaj Kumar’s stunning cinematography with long
continued and uncut shots of Jhelum and ice-sheeted houses of
Kashmir with a mystical camera work adds a visual punch to the
film. Secondly, the film’s riveting song sequences especially,
Vishal Dadlani’s “Aao na” and Gulzar’s penned and Sukhwinder’s
voiced “Bismil” is an auditory explosion of Haider’s
contemplative misery. Thirdly, the Mise en scene of Haider is
extremely realistic with constant tension and premonition which
the film achieves in the end tragically with a bloody gun fight. It
has the essence of kashmiriyat enhanced with motifs of Indian
pop culture like small wooden CD shops and cafes peppered with
music of Yesteryears and popstars.
Lastly, the movie is a successful string of echelon performances
by the cast. Tabu (Gertrude), KK Menon (Claudius), Shahid
Kapoor (Prince Hamlet), Shraddha Kapoor (Ophelia) and Irfaan
Khan (Ghost) and the subsidiary actors did justice to their roles
with an artistic intricacy that can only be unraveled with a
second watch. Particularly, Shahid Kapoor launched his magnum
opus in his career with this film and his monologue adapted from
Hamlet’s famous speech- “to be or not to be” shooted in Lal
Bazaar was one of the finest deliveries of this decade. The
monologue was itself a brief yet haunting rundown of Kashmir’s
history since independence including its banter of AFSPA with
chutzpa. Also, the movie boldly treated a risqué topic of “Oedipus
complex” with nuanced innocence through memorable
performances by Tabu and Shahid.
Philosophically, Kashmir itself serves as an allegorical reminder
of its Hamlet type fate with dubious loyalties and constant strife
for identity. Haider’s search for his father’s vengeance is a
relatable despondency with overall political condition of Kashmir
and its people. The movie essentially grapples with themes of
death, identity crisis, interpersonal conflicts and a myriad of
daily personal struggles of Kashmir’s population with armed
insurgency. In the iconic lines of grave scene where Haider
speaks- “Only after dying we come to know that, when we were
alive we were not living ... and we didn't escape even after
dying” is afterall a universal emotion.
In conclusion, Haider is a film of brevity which shouldn’t have
found its place in theaters if released today and that proves
Haider’s cinematic cogency which shall stay as ghostly reminder
of the Kashmir issue.
A classic indeed.
Yeh democracy nahi ... dum ghootne waali cracy hai
