Haider – The Review

I went to the theatre to watch this film as I heard that it was critically highly rated. Even IMDB rates it to 9/10 with 5,664 votes(and counting).

I literally had to sit through it for 3 hours since i had paid. The only beauty in the movie is the snow clad Kashmir. I may be wrong since this is my personal opinion(and also the opinion of my friends, total 5 others who accompanied me for this film)

I read somewhere that the movie was a poignant love story in the disputed Kashmir. I assumed that it was about Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor. Later I realised that it was about Tabu and Kay Kay Menon.Though the actors were at their best, it was a waste of their talent(I speak of Tabu, Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay Menon).

The storyline may be based on Hamlet but the the director is confused whether to stick more towards Hamlet or towards the Kashmir dispute. Here again I would hope that the production house has done enough research into the truth of what has been depicted. Lots of messages are circling the social media asking people to abandon this movie since it has shown the Indian army in bad light. People have questioned the censor board why this movie was  passed at their end. I actually went to see the movie after I read one such message. I would say that I didn’t find the controversy. I just ask censor board why they didn’t stop the movie so that people like me wouldn’t have been tortured.

At times, the film feels more of a comedy genre and not drama. I remember couple of decades back when comedy, unrelated to the plot of the film, used to be the essence of a bollywood film. Since then I’ve felt that bollywood has come of age. But the makers of these movie chose to stay in early 90s. What’s with the Salman, Salman and Salman, or the word Chutzpah, or even Shraddha Kapoor unable to pronounce “Loved”, or for that matter any verb in past tense, in a proper way?

I would have been more happy if Kulbhushan Kharbanda was given few more dialogues.

Too much of unwanted suspense since the storyline had been tilted onto one side from mid-film itself. The songs were nothing to speak about(I remember Maniratnam making good use of the locations in Roja).

In the end I would say, I was happy when I saw the theatre staff opening the exit gates. The time I spent on this movie in a theatre felt longer than the time I spent watching Titanic(At the least I am much wiser about Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity”)

My Rating 2.5/5(2 for the scenic locations and 0.5 for the trio of Irrfan, Kay Kay and Tabu)