Vishal Bhardwaj`s HAIDER - The Renaissance of Indian Cinema nouveau

In Guru Dutt`s Khagaz ke Phool indian cinema found a life-line, a sudden emergence in creative force (although discovered years later) that infused hope to a cinema that was in the 50`s dabbling in the same sentimentality of songs, hero heroine running around flowers, and good old family issues. In Haider, we now see a bold new pattern, the sudden appearance of a classic, a serious masterpiece from Vishal Bhardwaj, a shockingly beautiful rendition of the same 'grand art' previously lost to bollywood. Haider is the story of a kashmiri muslim boy who returns home to a space pulverized by the friction of two giant geopolitical forces, Pakistan and India. A line by Agha Shahid Ali relays the state of mind of Haider: I beg for haven: Prisons, let open your gates— Haider is distraught because his dearest father has dissappeared and he had to rush back from Delhi, and to make things worst, his mother warms the bed of his uncle. He falls into a search frency for his lost father supported by his beloved, and comes to know of the Shakespearean equation, that uncleji is a traitor working for the indian army, and mother is uncle`s bitch. Like Raj Kapoor, Bhardwaj has a knack to choose the right characters. Shraddha and Shahid Kapoor are absolutely scintillating and she (Shraddha) brings such an equisite repose to each scene that one cannot blink. The song scene is honorable, no chamak dhamak, and in its simplicity gives the audience a break from the stress of what we who are now blind see what Indian and Pakistan forces have both done to Kashmir. Shahid is simply not just a candy actor anymore and gave the role of his life. A speech on the maidan after he discovers the game that his uncle has played on all, is truly magistral and shows a deep character actor, actually Shakespearean actor par excellence. Tabu is grace personified at each step of the way. She is mother Kashmir in love with his children but incapable of leaving them in peace. The cinematography depicting the sadness of Kashmir are all long-lasting and stays with us much after we have left the cinema hall. There is a short debate in the movie between the grandfather of Haider and the leader of the insurgents, when they meet somewhere outside. The insurgent leader calls for war incessant war to gain 'our' independance, and the old man, a love of ghazal, poet, and life, tells him the following, 'sadho what has ever been solved with hate', 'what independance does one beget with hate' In brief, Vishal has made a long lasting classic, an ode to Kashmir, and Shahid has arrived !!