Haider

There are perhaps not many adaptations based off Shakespeare’s works that go beyond simply adapting and truly elevate what they are based upon. Haider takes it up a notch and, in my humble opinion, manages to supersede something as legendary as Hamlet. Add to that the decision to contextualize it within something as complex and disturbed as Kashmir, and it becomes even more remarkable. I read my first Shakespeare story in my Grade 6 English textbook, As You Like It. I liked it so much that I got ten of his original plays and read them on a vacation, quite literally skipping the beach to do so. Before Haider, I had watched Maqbool and Omkara. Both are excellent films, but to me, they remain shadows of their original works. well made and compelling, but not groundbreaking in the sense that they transform the material into something that feels greater than what inspired them. Again, in my humble opinion, it is probably the best commercial film to come out of Bombay in the last twenty years.