Haider Film Analysis

Kapil Kanagal

COMPLIT 247

Haider Film Analysis

26 May 2015

The Color of Love

Vishal Bhardwaj’s film Haider serves as a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with an interesting twist. The film is set in the highly contentious region of Kashmir and revolves around the story of the titular character, Haider Meer. The story explores themes such as violence and love in Kashmir, while also serving to critique both the Indian and Pakistani governments for promoting violence and conflict throughout the area. It specifically chooses to focus on Haider’s character to explore the impact the conflict in Kashmir has had on everyday citizens. The film also explores and critiques the misuses of AFSPA by the Indian army in Kashmir, which led to the rise of insurgency forces in the area. Throughout the movie, Bhardwaj uses color to augment Haider’s catharsis from a curious boy into an insurgent.

In the beginning of the film Bhardwaj utilizes the color of Haider’s clothing to depict him as a curious and intellectual young man. When we are first introduced to the college-aged Haider, we see him wearing faded blue jeans, a purple shirt, and a green jacket. Additionally, Haider is also described to us as a curious young college boy, looking to explore the world. After learning of the destruction of his house, Haider is devastated and filled with disbelief. He tries to put together the broken pieces of his life, particularly by asking Arshia to hold his cricket bat while he attempts to shine his father’s shoes and clean up the broken remains of what used to be his house. His actions reveal his naïve nature and parallel the bright, vibrant colors he wears throughout the film.

Haider then goes looking for his father, searching through camps, graveyards, and offices for any trace of his father’s location. While searching for his father, Haider continues to sport a boyish look, with long hair, and colorful clothing. He relentlessly searches for his father and is adamant that his father is alive. After months of searching, he finally stumbles across a clue to his father’s whereabouts after having a telephone conversation with a man named Roodhar. Haider is quick to follow up on Roodhar’s lead and is soon taken into a secret location where many of Roodhar’s insurgency forces await him. When he meets with Roodhar, Haider is still sporting his boyish long hair, but has grown a beard and is wearing darker colored clothing. Haider’s beard and darker colored clothing reveal the catharsis he is about to go through, foreshadowing his eventual transition from a young man into an insurgent.

After meeting with Roodhar, Haider decides to act on information about his father’s whereabouts, only to find his father’s grave. Haider is extremely distraught after discovering that his father is dead, and his mind enters a state of insanity. We see Haider transition from the young boy with long hair, into a dangerous and mentally unstable militant. This transition serves as Haider’s catharsis in the film, the point where he permanently changes from the young innocent boy he is portrayed as in the beginning of the film to the mentally scarred militant he ends up becoming in the end of the film.

Haider then shaves his head and sports short hair and dark clothing throughout the rest of the film. This action directly shows his marked change into an insurgent with angst against both the Indian government and his uncle. Haider’s relationship with his mother becomes increasingly tempestuous, as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. Eventually, she marries her brother-in-law, but Haider views this notion with extreme contempt. Even the actress Tabu, who plays Haider’s mother, Ghazala, in the film explains, “Ghazala is torn between her idealistic husband, opportunistic brother-in-law and her innocent and passionate son. Somewhere she feels she has the responsibility to keep everything in control but obviously she can’t.” This divide between Haider and his mother leads to Ghazala’s own struggles as she tries to justify her actions to her son. The matured and changed Haider has no sympathy for his mother’s actions, and instead he finds himself increasingly isolated. He ends up joining insurgency forces led by Roohdar and plans to kill his uncle. After Haider kills Arshia’s brother and father, he finds himself entrapped in a shootout. During the fight, we see Haider wearing a dark jacket while firing against Indian armed forced, led by his uncle. Amidst all the violence, Ghazala arrives and tries to reason with Haider to surrender. After failing to do so, she walks out wearing all black clothing and a red scarf, but takes off her coat to reveal a vest filled with grenades. She eventually detonates them, killing everyone besides Haider and his uncle. Haider’s uncle is wounded severely, but Haider eventually chooses not to kill him.

The final frame of the film pans out to show the violence and destruction caused by the conflict. The scene reveals many dead bodies wearing black military gear amidst the backdrop of white snow and a raging red fire. It is no coincidence these colors match the exact colors Ghazala was wearing when she arrived at the scene. Bhardwaj purposefully does this to highlight the division and violence in Kashmir. By utilizing the contrasting colors of black and white, Bhardwaj is able to use these colors as a metaphor for the Indian and Pakistani governments. He then uses the color red to represent the blood that has been shed by both sides as they have fought over the Kashmir region. By focusing on three colors – black, white, and red – Bhardwaj is able to encapsulate the violence of the struggle in Kashmir, and he specifically chooses to end the film in this way to critique this violent struggle.