Haider Trailer Review - “Bhardwaj is back”

Anup Pandey

Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider is one of the most anticipated films of the year. With its trailer (released yesterday), the excitement just multiplied many times over. With Macbeth as Maqbool in 2004 and Othello as Omkara in 2006, Bhardwaj completes his Shakespearean Trilogy adapting the Bard’s Hamlet.

After exploring the Mumbai underbelly and badlands of Uttar Pradesh in the former two, he chose to set this one in the troubled valleys of Kashmir. He is not unfamiliar with this snowy landscape- parts of 7 Khoon Maaf and Blue Umbrella had the same backdrop. It provides remarkable setting to the imagery he wants to create - with a dark tone to the visuals. And to capture this terrain on camera, he has deployed Pankaj Kumar of Ship Of Theseus fame.

However, instead of the usual intense mellowness, the trailer is supported with good rock music. Knowing that there will be Vishal-Gulzar team at work for the music as usual, I can hardly wait for the songs to come out. 

Bhardwaj is known to bring the best out of our mainstream stars-by placing them on screen with competitive serious actors. And for this one, casting Director Mukesh Chhabra has thrown in a mixed bag of actors. Shahid Kapoor’s best yet has been his Kaminey; hopes are high from his second collaboration with the genius director. We will also get to see the other side of Shraddha Kapoor. 

This is Tabu’s second film with the director and she looks quintessential Vishal Bhardwaj heroine. Irrfan will be seen in a special guest appearance (his one second shot in the trailer gives the gist of the revenge saga- “Badla”); Kay Kay Menon will be seen on screen after a long time with hopefully meaty role.

Though it was Shakespeare who said “What’s in a name”, in this case, however, it is mainly the name that matters - The Vishal Bhardwaj; and it has his name written all over it, quite literally - count the number of times his name appears in the credits. It’s 5!