Haider - Hindi Movie Review

Film: Haider

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Shraddha Kapoor

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Marks: 6 out of 10

One line story: 

Director of this movie Vishal Bhardwaj tries to expose the ground situation in Kashmir issue. Haider searches for his missing father and comes to know there is a link between the missing father with his mother and uncle. The movie ends with blood, blasting, firing and so on.

Plot: 

Haider (Shahid Kapoor) is a son of a doctor, who is arrested by the Indian Army for assisting militants in Jammu &  Kashmir. He studies poetry in a college in Aligarh, Pakistan. He returns to his home town and searches for his missing father. In the course of his search, he comes to know that his mother (Tabu) and uncle - father's brother conspire against his dad. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a journalist (Shraddha Kapoor). He decides to take revenge on his uncle, but his mother formally married his uncle. In the climax, how Haider kills his uncle in sad ‘poetry’ note.

Bharadwaj had already taken up the core story from the Shakespeare’s plays and applied in his earlier movies Maqbool and Omkara and succeeded. Normally most of the romance scenes are being taken in the snow land in Kashmir, but in this movie revolves around the character ‘Haider’ – who expects love and peace, as he spent his valuable youth period in hostel in an ‘alien’ country.

‘Curfewed night’ novelist Bhasharat Peer is also a co-screenplay writer of this movie and he has acted a few scenes as a ‘drunkard’ in the movie.

Flaws:

1.       Haider, who has been portrayed as a very emotional character, fails to react even after knowing the brutal death of his father, instead he engaged himself into mono-acting to distract his thoughts. Why he prefers to take up this – there is lack of clarity in it.

2.       Haider comes to know about his father’s death through a doctor, who also stays with his father in the army prison. The doctor is also a double agent, as per the story. The doctor may be lying to Haider about his father’s death, as there is no substantiate evidence shown in the movie.

3.       Doctor survives, while Haider’s father dies in the army ‘encounter’ at close range can be modified in the screenplay.

4.       There is no strong reason to project Haider’s father as a supporter of the militants and that is conspired by Haider’s mother (Tabu) for adultery. The arrest of Haider’s father by the Indian army and subsequently they are bombing their house creates the more expectation among the audience. But it vanishes later.

Positives:

1.       Though there are least flaws in the movie, several touching scenes keep the audience teary-eyed in many scenes.

2.       Haider goes beyond Bollywood's Pakistan bashing for Kashmir's troubles and speaks about the alleged atrocities of the Indian Army on Kashmiris.

3.       Even the smallest of characters, faces that appear just for a shot, impress you as much as the actors with full-fledged roles.

4.       In one scene, Haider meets an old woman at a government office where they have both come searching for their missing family members. The woman shows the picture of a young man and Haider shows his father's picture. It’s very touching.

5.       Several pluses dump all the minor minuses in the movie and the makes the audience to feel heavy-hearted coming out of the cinema hall.