Haider- film reaction

This here is some fearless piece of filmmaking by Bhardwaj. I am pleasantly surprised as to how this ballsy adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy ‘Hamlet’ even made its way to the big screens despite the questions of identity and patriotism that it raises, which according to many is blasphemy.

I do not have knowledge of Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night and hence cannot discuss the resemblance that the story might share with the book. What I do have knowledge of and what I can and will mention as a comparable piece of art (ballsy art, to be more specific) is Rushdie’s Shalimar the Clown.

Rushdie’s tale of a tight rope walker from Srinagar who is forced to take up arms against those who wronged him had succeeded in putting a serious dent in my oh-so-righteous logic that my nation can never be wrong in anything that it does as a nation.

I want to urge any and every citizen of our loving democracy to watch this movie, if not for the mesmerizing portrayal of personal-level devastation which the characters undergo, then for the picturesque yet heartbreaking depiction of the real Kashmir which the plot lays bare- Kashmir as is, nature and men, beauty and beast moulded into one; and not the Kashmir that is imagined by the fascist patriots and the patriotic fascists of our country as a piece of land that must remain forever voiceless.