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.
.JPG)
