Haider

Source: Naturallyblabby

Sometimes in a movie, you love what the mind likes and at other times, you like what the heart loves. If your movie watching does not fall into any of these criteria, then this review is not for you.

With all due regard to people who appreciated this movie, for me it was a below average flick and should not have garnered the sort of acclaim and appeal that it did.

I haven't read Hamlet, which although should have facilitated my viewing of this film for as they say, "The Book was better". Still, seeing Haider (Shahid Kapoor) as the Kashmiri boy fighting to avenge his father's killing and what he does with this rage of his just doesn't get things going for me at any point of time. And I consider Shahid a good actor but Haider is not a good enough role. There are just too many 'topics' that are supposed to mould Haider in the movie but none of them gets the screen-time enough to show any impact on his character. Haider ends up, in a way, a by-product of everything that goes on in the movie instead of the supreme protagonist he is supposed to be.

Vishal Bhardwaj as a director does bring those dark shades into his characters but here they are just slow but not dark. Even the dialogues given to actors of the caliber of Irfan Khan, Tabu and Kay Kay Menon do not sink in enough to let the audiences feel connected with the theme. Tabu plays Haider's mother Ghazala, who seems to have moved on after his father's demise finding solace with her brother-in-law Khurram (Menon) but even an important role like this has been sidelined to show I don't know what. The only believable character in the movie is, surprisingly, that of Shraddha Kapoor who plays Haider's love interest Arshia.

The technical fields are also not anything to talk about. The shady cinematography and lukewarm choreography leave much to be asked. The fight sequences are plain and do not invoke any emotions whatsoever. Haider's makeover is classy though and full points where they are deserved. The tragedies don't get enough frames to make the viewer care for the people in the film. The movie is a letdown on multiple levels.

To add to all this, there is some unusual physical tension between the characters of Ghazala and Haider which is crude and irresponsible film-making to say the least.

Bandwidth Verdict: The Bandwidth Review 'slams' this movie. It is not worth the effective three hours time of anyone, however free he/she might be.