Haider (film)
Haider | |
---|---|
VB Pictures | |
Distributed by | UTV Motion Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 160 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Budget | ₹35 crore[1] |
Box office | ₹85 crore[1] |
Haider is a 2014 Indian
Set amidst the insurgency-hit Kashmir conflicts of 1995, Haider is a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. It is also based on Basharat Peer's memoir Curfewed Night.[2] Haider, a young student and a poet, returns to Kashmir at the peak of the conflict to seek answers about his father's disappearance and ends up being tugged into the politics of the state.[3] Haider is the third installment of Bhardwaj's Shakespearean trilogy after Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006).[4]
The film was screened at the 19th Busan International Film Festival,[5] and released worldwide on 2 October 2014 to widespread critical acclaim; it was a major commercial success at the box-office, garnering attention from the media due to its controversial subject matter.[3] The subject matter, direction, story, screenplay, film score, cinematography, editing, and performances of the ensemble cast received high critical praise and garnered several accolades.
Haider was the first Indian film to win the People's Choice Award at the Rome Film Festival.[3][6] At the 62nd National Film Awards, Haider won a leading 5 awards: Best Music Direction (Bhardwaj), Best Male Playback Singer (Sukhwinder Singh for "Bismil"), Best Dialogue (Bhardwaj), Best Choreography (Sudesh Adhana for "Bismil") and Best Costume Design (Dolly Ahluwalia). At the 60th Filmfare Awards, Haider received 9 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director (Bhardwaj), and won 5 awards including Best Actor (Shahid Kapoor), Best Supporting Actor (Menon) and Best Supporting Actress (Tabu).
Plot
During the insurgency in Kashmir, which continues through 1995, Hilaal Meer, a doctor based in Srinagar, agrees to perform an appendectomy on Ikhlaque, the leader of a terrorist group; to avoid detection, he performs the surgery at his house, much to the chagrin of his wife Ghazala, who questions his allegiance. The following day, during a military raid, Hilaal is accused of harboring terrorists. A shootout ensues at his home, during which Ikhlaque is killed and Hilaal is taken away for questioning. The doctor's house is subsequently bombed to kill any other terrorists hiding inside.
Sometime later, Ghazala's son Haider returns from Aligarh Muslim University to seek answers about his father's disappearance. Upon arrival, he is shocked to find his mother singing and laughing along with her brother-in-law, Khurram, Hilaal's younger brother. Unable to understand Ghazala's behavior, he begins searching for Hilaal in various police stations and detention camps with the help of his childhood sweetheart Arshia Lone, a journalist, whose father, Pervez, is a police officer.
Winter arrives in Kashmir. Saddened by the growing closeness between Ghazala and Khurram, and still unable to find any leads, Haider begins to lose hope. However, Arshia encounters a stranger, Roohdaar, who has Haider contact him to receive information regarding his missing father. Roohdaar, who is part of a pro-separatist group, explains that he and Hilaal were both imprisoned in a detention camp by a counterinsurgency militia formed by Khurram. The group had both Hilaal and Roohdaar executed, but Roohdaar survived and is meeting Haider to pass on Hilaal's final wish: for Haider to take revenge on Khurram for his betrayal.
Devastated and enraged, Haider begins behaving erratically, shaving his head and staging public demonstrations against the government and
The following morning, Haider prepares to kill Khurram, but morally abstains from it on seeing that Khurram is in prayer. He is captured by Pervez, who orders him executed. However, Haider escapes and brutally murders his two captors, the Salmans, former friends of his who became informants for Pervez while he was away. He contacts Roohdaar, who suggests that he travel to Pakistan to receive military training. Haider calls Ghazala to inform her that he is going across the border, but Ghazala meets with him before he leaves at the ruins of their family home. She admits informing Khurram about the presence of terrorists in her home on the day of Hilaal's arrest, but claims to have been unaware at the time that Khurram was Pervez's informant. Pervez receives word of Haider's whereabouts and arrives at the house to assassinate him, but Haider kills him first and escapes.
Arshia is emotionally traumatized on learning of her father's death at the hands of her lover, and commits suicide. Meanwhile, Ghazala finds Roohdaar's contact number from Arshia's diary and calls him. Haider goes to his pickup point, the graveyard where Hilaal was buried. However, he spots a nearby funeral, which he realizes is for Arshia. He defies the advice of his handlers and interrupts the procession, leading to a fight with Arshia's brother Liyaqat, who dies in the scuffle. Khurram and his men arrive at the house, engaging in a gunfight that leaves most of Khurram's men dead. Ghazala is dropped off at the house by Roohdaar and begs Khurram for a chance to get Haider to surrender. Haider remains insistent on revenge, but Ghazala warns him that revenge merely begets revenge. She bids him farewell and returns to Khurram's men, where she detonates a suicide vest given to her by Roohdaar. Khurram is gravely injured and his men killed; Haider prepares to kill him, but remembers Ghazala's parting words discouraging revenge. He walks away from the site of the blast despite Khurram's pleas to end his life.
Cast
Actor | Role | Based on |
---|---|---|
Shahid Kapoor | Haider Meer | Prince Hamlet |
Tabu | Ghazala Meer (Haider's Mother) | Gertrude |
Kay Kay Menon | Khurram Meer (Haider's Paternal Uncle) | Claudius |
Shraddha Kapoor | Arshia Lone | Ophelia/Horatio
|
Irrfan Khan | Roohdaar | Ghost |
Narendra Jha | Dr. Hilaal Meer (Haider's Father) | King Hamlet
|
Kulbhushan Kharbanda | Hussain Meer | |
Lalit Parimoo | Pervez Lone | Polonius |
Ashish Vidyarthi | Brigadier T. S. Murthy | |
Aamir Bashir | Liyaqat Lone | Laertes |
Sumit Kaul | Salman 1, Courtier | Rosencrantz |
Rajat Bhagat | Salman 2, Courtier | Guildenstern |
Ashwath Bhatt | Zahoor Hussain | Fortinbras |
Mohammad Shah | Army Major | |
Anshuman Malhotra | Young Haider | |
Lankesh Bhardwaj
|
Interrogation officer | |
Saqib Sheikh | Chocolate boy |
Production
Development
Initially,
"It was the political turmoil and the 25 years of tragedy of
phiran, holding a Kalashnikov. Haider is the first film where we see Kashmir from the inside. I don't think we have made a mainstream film about the issue."— Bhardwaj on setting Haider in Kashmir (in an interview with The Indian Express)[10]
As per the story of Hamlet, an Oedipus complex exists that draws Hamlet (played by Shahid Kapoor) towards his mother Gertrude (played by Tabu) that could have been interpreted both at a physical and psychological level, however, Bhardwaj kept this reference subtle as the target audience was predominantly Indian and called it 'one of the aspects in this mother-son relationship.' In his previous outing of Othello's adaptation, Omkara (2006), he removed the last monologue due to the fact that it was more suited for a stage play sequence but retained that type of monologue for Haider. Shahid Kapoor learnt a 6-page monologue for the climactic scene where his character Haider turns mad. He put forth the delivery of that monologue in front of a crowd of 5000 listening. For filming the scene, which was done in 3–4 hours, Shahid Kapoor was made completely bald.[12]
Sumit Kaul, who played the character of one of the Salmans, was involved in training the Kashmiri accent of actress Tabu apart from lead actors Shahid and Shraddha. His portions of filming were canned in 15 days, however, he was with the team for 2-and-a-half months in Kashmir. He taught the nuances of how a native Kashmiri would speak in English or Hindi.
"I sat with both Shahid and Shraddha and tutored them to speak Hindi with a Kashmiri touch."
— Sumit Kaul reflecting on his role during the filming of Haider (in an interview with BollywoodLife.com)
Kaul also helped actress Tabu get the enunciation when she sang the folk song "Roshe Valle" that was a part of the film score.[13]
"Ghazala is torn between her idealistic husband, her opportunistic brother-in-law, and her innocent and passionate son. Somewhere, she feels she has the responsibility to keep everything in control, but obviously she can't. Her love for her son is crazy. She is always trying to protect him from being misled and misguided. He (Bhardwaj) cast me as Shahid's mother because he wanted the oddity of the relationship to come out which wouldn't have come across with a regular aged mother-and-son combination. Haider shares a love-hate relationship with Ghazala, but it's a very passionate emotion. You almost feel odd that these two are mom and son. Haider's predicament is that he doesn't know what to do with his mother—whether to love her, hate her, believe her or kill her."
Kapoor, along with Bhardwaj and UTV Motion Pictures, each have a 33.3% share in the film. The budget for the film is ₹390 million (US$4.9 million) taking into account ₹240 million (US$3.0 million)[15] spent into the production of the film and ₹150 million (US$1.9 million) for promotions.[16]
Filming
Haider was shot in 2 parts. The first schedule was in November–December 2013 and then next in January–February 2014. Keeping the weather conditions in consideration, the first part of the film is shot in autumn-winter and the second part featuring intense drama and action sequences in snowy weather. The entire filming was completed in 54 days.[18]
Certification
After 41 cuts, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) gave the film a U/A certificate.[35] The scenes that were censored were a truck load of corpses, wire being inserted inside a naked man, a shot of a bloody dead body and abusive words.[35] Apart from this, a shot of a bare back during the song "Khul Kabhi To" was also considered offensive and censored. The CBFC demanded deletion of a scene where Haider (played by Shahid Kapoor) cries on seeing flames.[35] A confusion arose when Rakesh Kumar, the CEO of CBFC along with an examining committee saw the film and prescribed the cuts. After the film was re-edited, instead of sending it to the revising committee for reviewing, Kumar himself watched the film again and gave it a U/A certificate.[35] Nandini Sardesai, a member of the revising committee told The Times of India that Kumar saw Haider twice and passed it with a U/A certificate. She stated that director of the film Vishal Bhardwaj had apparently agreed to the cuts. Later, Bhardwaj clarified that the CBFC only demanded 7 cuts but gave his film 35 extra cuts in order to make the script look more realistic.[35] Bhardwaj added that since the film is set in Kashmir and given the associated troubled politics of the state, he knew the film would land in controversies.[35]
The controversy over film's plot, analysts stated that India has become more open to sensitive subjects.[36] Dr. Zakir Hussain, a senior analyst at the Indian Council of World Affairs was quoted saying, "As democratic traditions strengthen in the country, more and more such movies will be made and people will be educated. Haider is the first step in that direction." Director Bhardwaj faced criticism over the depiction of the armed forces in an allegedly unfair way as the film also portrayed scenes of torture in Indian army camps and abuse of human rights by Indian officials.[3] To this portrayal, Indian Twitter users, filled with sentiments brought up hashtagging of words "#BoycottHaider" that generated estimate 75,000 tweets since the film release. In reply to this criticism, people on Twitter started trending #HaiderTrueCinema which trended for 2 days and this caused #BoycottHaider to be withdrawn from the list of trending topics on Twitter.[37]
It was also denied certification and banned by the Pakistan Central Board of Film Censors for depicting the sensitive issue of the Kashmir insurgency.[38]
Music
The original songs and
Reception
Critical response
Haider received widespread critical acclaim upon release for its subject matter, direction, story, screenplay, film score, cinematography, editing, and performances of the ensemble cast. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.62/10. [41]
India
Writing for
Raja Sen of
International
Mike McHill of
Box office
The film earned ₹850 million worldwide.[1]
Awards and nominations
At the 62nd National Film Awards, Haider won 5 awards, including Best Music Direction and Best Dialogue (both Bhardwaj). At the 60th Filmfare Awards, Haider received 9 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director (Bhardwaj), and won 5 awards including Best Actor (Shahid Kapoor), Best Supporting Actor (Menon) and Best Supporting Actress (Tabu).
References
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- ^ Bhattacharya, Roshmila. "Vishal Bhardwaj: I picked Hamlet for its sexual conflict". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- ^ Merani, Anil (8 October 2014). "Sumit Kaul: My inputs for Haider were properly developed and used in the film". BollywoodLife.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
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- ^ Haider review: Fails to fully keep you with it Archived 3 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine The Indian Express. Retrieved. 3 October 2014
- ^ Fails to fully keep you with it Archived 24 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian. Retrieved. 3 October 2014
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Further reading
- ISBN 9789351369875.
- Javed, Fatimah (2021). Geraghty, Lincoln (ed.). "Shakespeare's Hamlet and Vishal Bhardwaj's Haider: A comparative analysis". Cogent Arts & Humanities. 8 (1). S2CID 240085013.
External links
- Haider at IMDb
- Haider at Box Office Mojo
- Haider at Bollywood Hungama