Vishal Bhardwaj, far famed for his esoteric body of work, brings another adaption of the same author. Thanks to William Shakespeare and Ruskin Bond for leaving a bequest of writing.
William Shakespeare's Hamlet alias Haider (Shahid Kapoor) in congruent, travels to Jammu and Kashmir in 1995 when the state is blazed out by insurgency and militancy marches in the valley. Haider wants to avenge his father's murder at the hands of his uncle. Haider’s mother Ghazala (Tabu) whom Haider considers pharisaical marries her brother-in-law Khurram (Kay Kay Menon) after her husband mysteriously disappears. His love for Ashirya (Shraddha Kapoor) takes the back seat and Haider decides to unfold the mystery of his father’s disappearance. He unfolds the layers of betrayals and human greed for power and freedom in the process.
Vishal Bhardwaj chooses to fecund strong human emotion and drama with an extreme guardianship in the medium of cinema and art. His narrative is straight yet mattering to deep interest. Pankaj Kumar’s cinematographic result is generally wonderful to the untrained eye because he has made an astounding accomplishment in his work. A full appreciation of cinematography requires some knowledge of the circumstances in which a difficult shot is made. Editing belongs to cutting edge technology and blends with the background music without causing any lump and blobs.
Not the movie demands any song to support the story telling but Vishal’s main score does not infuse any value to it. Gulzar got no opportunity to use his pen.
Actors Tabu essays mother’s role with a great degree of excellence. Shahid Kapoor knows the breadth of human possibility and the depths of his possibilities. He manages to surprise us. Shraddha Kapoor and Irfan Khan don’t have much to play.
Dialogues by Vishal are little vague and his Salman Khan Comedy sequences are felonious to Khan Lovers. When a producer agrees to infuse a fortune he knows where then cast and crew is leading to. For the people doting to splatter and shrill Haider is not recommended.
Reviewed by Sanjeev Sharma