'Haider' movie is separatist propaganda officially endorsed by censor board

[ashdoc]

HAIDER is not about Shakespeare’s famed tragedy. It’s an official endorsement of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) of India of the cause of the Kashmiri separatists and wily and devious ISI sponsored terrorists. It’s an alibi for the Pakistani establishment and Hurriyat leaders who will use this film as a strong evidence of what they consider to be the reign of bloody oppression and terror unleashed on the good peace loving people of Kashmir by the Indian security forces using draconian laws and devious tactics.

 

It speaks a language similar to what the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief spoke at the UN General Assembly recently. With this film a noted filmmaker joins the crowd of those elements who instigate kids to throw stones on our security forces projecting them as villains of the Kashmir story. It almost brazenly advocates the separation of Kashmir from India and presents the state of Jammu & Kashmir as a territory under Indian occupation. The film probably will be granted entertainment tax exemption by the Omar Abdullah govt. to oblige separatists and militants. I have a feeling that it may even have free public screenings in Pakistan under instructions from the Pakistani government and military bosses. It serves their agenda of denigrating and demeaning our armed forces so effectively.  

 

The film subscribes to the Pakistani and separatist point of view and adopts their anti-India propagandist narrative. It does not care to present the Indian perspective. It has been granted U/A certification. The filmmaker reportedly accepted numerous cuts, as many as 41, to ensure the film gets viewed widely.

 

However, more than 150 minute long film still has graphic violence of extreme kind and its inspiration itself is a hard-core adult theme of ‘a son in love with his mother’. The CBFC has shown extra-ordinary generosity in certifying a film for universal viewing, making a mockery of its own guidelines. I don’t think they will be as generous with a film that showed the ugly murderous face of separatists.

 

Here is the story, set in Kashmir of 1995. Haidar’s (Shahid Kapoor) father (Narendra Jha) is a doctor and surgeon and his mother Ghazala (Tabu) an English teacher. Haidar is away, studying at Aligarh Muslim University. His father brings home an ailing terrorist to operate upon his appendicitis. Ghazala does not like it. The security forces get to know about it through an informant and raid the doctor’s house and arrest him. Haidar returns to find that his house is burnt and his mother is living with his uncle Khurram (Kay Kay Menon), a politician, who is an informant of the security forces, and his father is now among the missing people. Haidar is quite disturbed to see his mother and uncle together. He thinks they are not worried about his father’s disappearance. His childhood love Arshia (Shraddha Kapoor), who is a journalist, consoles him. One day a separatist called Roohdar (Irrfan Khan) approaches Arshia. He knows about the whereabouts of Haidar’s father. Haidar meets him and is informed that his father was dead, tortured and killed by the Indian security forces. His uncle Khurram was the one who betrayed his own brother. The last words of his father to Roohdar were that he should let his son know of the betrayal and tell him to seek revenge for his death and also the defilement of his mother by Khurram.

 

After the death of Haidar’s father is confirmed, Khurram and Ghazala decide to get married. This really makes Haidar go crazy. The ghost of his father keeps reminding him of the idea of revenge quite graphically, calling upon him to shoot in both the eyes of Khurram. Haidar trusts Roohdar now and joins him and is all set to go across the border but before that he has to extract his revenge prompted by his father’s ghost.

 

If the original story was more about a son’s obsession with his mother and his troubled mind over her marriage with his uncle, the killer of his father and usurper of his throne, this one does not dwell much on that. The politics of Kashmir overpowers everything else in the film. The stylized stagey drama comes across as a specious subterfuge to hide the film’s propagandist objectives. This kind of deviousness contaminates and compromises the film's artistic integrity. The film is obviously sympathetic to the cause of the separatists and the Pakistani establishment.

 

As I said earlier, it endorses the perspectives and propaganda of ISI, Nawaz Sharief, and Hurriyat. It also derides AFSPA, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. In doing so, it belittles and demeans Indian Army, making it look like an occupation force. It romanticizes terrorists as devout heros fighting for a just cause against the might of Indian army. And if we read between the lines and interpret the metaphors in the film, we can clearly sense that it’s a treacherous call by an Indian filmmaker for Kashmir’s ‘azaadi’, funded with Indian money, and endorsed by the CBFC.

 

The tradition of Jai Chands and Mir Zafars continues to thrive in India irrespective of who rules in Delhi. Since the film is released on 2^ndOctober, on Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary, it reminds us of his approach to politics and life. He believed in tolerance and forgiveness. This is an India that is generously tolerant and forgiving to devious and wily enemies of our nation. We can even sing a prayer of praise to our killer and look at him in gratitude while he slowly severs our jugular vein, and bleeds us to death. That’s the kind of Gandhigiri we seem to be practicing.

 

Should I say kudos to the filmmakers, the CBFC, the I&B Minister, and those who will go gaga over the artistic merits of the film irrespective of the fact that it questions the nation’s territorial integrity, equips our enemies with potent propaganda ammunition and weapons, and portrays our men in uniform either as fools or monsters? I don’t think I can do that. Had the film tried to portray the actual reality of Kashmir and the devious ways our enemies adopt to bleed us and blackmail, discriminate, and browbeat Kashmiri Indians, it would have been valid art in my view since true art seeks the truth.  This is pure propaganda and thus worthless however good it looks.  

 

Rating: 0/5

http://www.bollywoodtrade.com/movie-reviews-news/haider-movie-review-its-separatist-propaganda-officially-endorsed-by-cbfc/7B142C25-9921-4E07-B2CD-B1DA627F6A90/index.htm

[ashdoc]

It might be interesting to note ( since this is a south indian forum ) that south indian army officers are contemptuously referred to as ' masala dosas ' in one scene in the film .

Hope that does rankle you....

[seven]

Hi ashdoc,

As much as I enjoy your reviews, smtimes more than the movie itself, I'm not reading this one. Yet. I want to watch it myself first n form my own opinion on the subject then read other peoples POVs.

We just got back from the movies. Bang bang. Was superb! We decided to go against everyone's advice n I liked the movie. The show was sold out n for a good reason. Did you watch it yet? Where's the review?

[ashdoc]

Hi ashdoc,

As much as I enjoy your reviews, smtimes more than the movie itself, I'm not reading this one. Yet. I want to watch it myself first n form my own opinion on the subject then read other peoples POVs.

We just got back from the movies. Bang bang. Was superb! We decided to go against everyone's advice n I liked the movie. The show was sold out n for a good reason. Did you watch it yet? Where's the review?

i have not heard great things about bang bang---said to be just a mediocre movie . so i dont know whether i will see it .

[Merlot Daruwala]

Hello Doc, it is indeed terrible that the people of Kashmir are not grateful for the noble Indian soldiers in their midst, protecting them from the evil terrorists across the borders. Everyone knows that Indian soldiers are very good at working with civilians, treating the women in particular with a lot of respect and only with the most brotherly of affection. One simply fails to understand why they object so much to the AFSPA...those traitors and their treacherous collaborators in Bollywood...

[ashdoc]

Hi ashdoc,

As much as I enjoy your reviews, smtimes more than the movie itself, I'm not reading this one. Yet. I want to watch it myself first n form my own opinion on the subject then read other peoples POVs.

We just got back from the movies. Bang bang. Was superb! We decided to go against everyone's advice n I liked the movie. The show was sold out n for a good reason. Did you watch it yet? Where's the review?

Watched it . Liked it .

Review later .

[MaxEntropy_Man]

It might be interesting to note ( since this is a south indian forum ) that south indian army officers are contemptuously referred to as ' masala dosas ' in one scene in the film .

Hope that does rankle you....

that says more about the folks using that term than anyone else. southern indian army chiefs of staff are disproportionately represented in the army compared to the general population. the people who have run the country have always known what's best for the army.

[southindian]

HAIDER is not about Shakespeare’s famed tragedy. It’s an official endorsement of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) of India of the cause of the Kashmiri separatists and wily and devious ISI sponsored terrorists. It’s an alibi for the Pakistani establishment and Hurriyat leaders who will use this film as a strong evidence of what they consider to be the reign of bloody oppression and terror unleashed on the good peace loving people of Kashmir by the Indian security forces using draconian laws and devious tactics.

 

It speaks a language similar to what the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief spoke at the UN General Assembly recently. With this film a noted filmmaker joins the crowd of those elements who instigate kids to throw stones on our security forces projecting them as villains of the Kashmir story. It almost brazenly advocates the separation of Kashmir from India and presents the state of Jammu & Kashmir as a territory under Indian occupation. The film probably will be granted entertainment tax exemption by the Omar Abdullah govt. to oblige separatists and militants. I have a feeling that it may even have free public screenings in Pakistan under instructions from the Pakistani government and military bosses. It serves their agenda of denigrating and demeaning our armed forces so effectively.  

 

The film subscribes to the Pakistani and separatist point of view and adopts their anti-India propagandist narrative. It does not care to present the Indian perspective. It has been granted U/A certification. The filmmaker reportedly accepted numerous cuts, as many as 41, to ensure the film gets viewed widely.

 

However, more than 150 minute long film still has graphic violence of extreme kind and its inspiration itself is a hard-core adult theme of ‘a son in love with his mother’. The CBFC has shown extra-ordinary generosity in certifying a film for universal viewing, making a mockery of its own guidelines. I don’t think they will be as generous with a film that showed the ugly murderous face of separatists.

 

Here is the story, set in Kashmir of 1995. Haidar’s (Shahid Kapoor) father (Narendra Jha) is a doctor and surgeon and his mother Ghazala (Tabu) an English teacher. Haidar is away, studying at Aligarh Muslim University. His father brings home an ailing terrorist to operate upon his appendicitis. Ghazala does not like it. The security forces get to know about it through an informant and raid the doctor’s house and arrest him. Haidar returns to find that his house is burnt and his mother is living with his uncle Khurram (Kay Kay Menon), a politician, who is an informant of the security forces, and his father is now among the missing people. Haidar is quite disturbed to see his mother and uncle together. He thinks they are not worried about his father’s disappearance. His childhood love Arshia (Shraddha Kapoor), who is a journalist, consoles him. One day a separatist called Roohdar (Irrfan Khan) approaches Arshia. He knows about the whereabouts of Haidar’s father. Haidar meets him and is informed that his father was dead, tortured and killed by the Indian security forces. His uncle Khurram was the one who betrayed his own brother. The last words of his father to Roohdar were that he should let his son know of the betrayal and tell him to seek revenge for his death and also the defilement of his mother by Khurram.

 

After the death of Haidar’s father is confirmed, Khurram and Ghazala decide to get married. This really makes Haidar go crazy. The ghost of his father keeps reminding him of the idea of revenge quite graphically, calling upon him to shoot in both the eyes of Khurram. Haidar trusts Roohdar now and joins him and is all set to go across the border but before that he has to extract his revenge prompted by his father’s ghost.

 

If the original story was more about a son’s obsession with his mother and his troubled mind over her marriage with his uncle, the killer of his father and usurper of his throne, this one does not dwell much on that. The politics of Kashmir overpowers everything else in the film. The stylized stagey drama comes across as a specious subterfuge to hide the film’s propagandist objectives. This kind of deviousness contaminates and compromises the film's artistic integrity. The film is obviously sympathetic to the cause of the separatists and the Pakistani establishment.

 

As I said earlier, it endorses the perspectives and propaganda of ISI, Nawaz Sharief, and Hurriyat. It also derides AFSPA, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. In doing so, it belittles and demeans Indian Army, making it look like an occupation force. It romanticizes terrorists as devout heros fighting for a just cause against the might of Indian army. And if we read between the lines and interpret the metaphors in the film, we can clearly sense that it’s a treacherous call by an Indian filmmaker for Kashmir’s ‘azaadi’, funded with Indian money, and endorsed by the CBFC.

 

The tradition of Jai Chands and Mir Zafars continues to thrive in India irrespective of who rules in Delhi. Since the film is released on 2^ndOctober, on Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary, it reminds us of his approach to politics and life. He believed in tolerance and forgiveness. This is an India that is generously tolerant and forgiving to devious and wily enemies of our nation. We can even sing a prayer of praise to our killer and look at him in gratitude while he slowly severs our jugular vein, and bleeds us to death. That’s the kind of Gandhigiri we seem to be practicing.

 

Should I say kudos to the filmmakers, the CBFC, the I&B Minister, and those who will go gaga over the artistic merits of the film irrespective of the fact that it questions the nation’s territorial integrity, equips our enemies with potent propaganda ammunition and weapons, and portrays our men in uniform either as fools or monsters? I don’t think I can do that. Had the film tried to portray the actual reality of Kashmir and the devious ways our enemies adopt to bleed us and blackmail, discriminate, and browbeat Kashmiri Indians, it would have been valid art in my view since true art seeks the truth.  This is pure propaganda and thus worthless however good it looks.  

 

Rating: 0/5

http://www.bollywoodtrade.com/movie-reviews-news/haider-movie-review-its-separatist-propaganda-officially-endorsed-by-cbfc/7B142C25-9921-4E07-B2CD-B1DA627F6A90/index.htm

Its a nice movie, ending with a great message for characters (Indians, Separatists and Pakis) and for the audience (Indians). The messages celebrated the fact that the whole movie was shot in Jammu and Kashmir with support of people and the army.

I was skeptical at the beginning, a bit uneasy to see separatists walking around in the movie and occupying big frames in movie....but soon realized that was Kashmir, as it was in those days, so the movie aptly reflected that time. Good acting by all (Menon, Tabu, Shahid) and close adaptation to Hamlet. Shahid Kapoor looked brilliant in some scenes.

A movie that emphasized Srinagar is part of India and the movie is by an Indian for Indians, cannot be anti India. A huge disappointment for many here... just 1 steamy scene and no sex scenes.

Strangely enough, reference to southindians as 'masala dosa' WILL rankle shallow SuCH southindians and a few SuCH handles did cross my mind, who would jump like on hot coals.

4/5

[Seva Lamberdar]

Hello Doc, it is indeed terrible that the people of Kashmir are not grateful for the noble Indian soldiers in their midst, protecting them from the evil terrorists across the borders. Everyone knows that Indian soldiers are very good at working with civilians, treating the women in particular with a lot of respect and only with the most brotherly of affection. One simply fails to understand why they object so much to the AFSPA...those traitors and their treacherous collaborators in Bollywood...

who are the members of the censor board and do they also talk about saving India's secularism (religious laws) from Modi?

[southindian]

HAIDER is not about Shakespeare’s famed tragedy. It’s an official endorsement of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) of India of the cause of the Kashmiri separatists and wily and devious ISI sponsored terrorists. It’s an alibi for the Pakistani establishment and Hurriyat leaders who will use this film as a strong evidence of what they consider to be the reign of bloody oppression and terror unleashed on the good peace loving people of Kashmir by the Indian security forces using draconian laws and devious tactics.

 

It speaks a language similar to what the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief spoke at the UN General Assembly recently. With this film a noted filmmaker joins the crowd of those elements who instigate kids to throw stones on our security forces projecting them as villains of the Kashmir story. It almost brazenly advocates the separation of Kashmir from India and presents the state of Jammu & Kashmir as a territory under Indian occupation. The film probably will be granted entertainment tax exemption by the Omar Abdullah govt. to oblige separatists and militants. I have a feeling that it may even have free public screenings in Pakistan under instructions from the Pakistani government and military bosses. It serves their agenda of denigrating and demeaning our armed forces so effectively.  

 

The film subscribes to the Pakistani and separatist point of view and adopts their anti-India propagandist narrative. It does not care to present the Indian perspective. It has been granted U/A certification. The filmmaker reportedly accepted numerous cuts, as many as 41, to ensure the film gets viewed widely.

 

However, more than 150 minute long film still has graphic violence of extreme kind and its inspiration itself is a hard-core adult theme of ‘a son in love with his mother’. The CBFC has shown extra-ordinary generosity in certifying a film for universal viewing, making a mockery of its own guidelines. I don’t think they will be as generous with a film that showed the ugly murderous face of separatists.

 

Here is the story, set in Kashmir of 1995. Haidar’s (Shahid Kapoor) father (Narendra Jha) is a doctor and surgeon and his mother Ghazala (Tabu) an English teacher. Haidar is away, studying at Aligarh Muslim University. His father brings home an ailing terrorist to operate upon his appendicitis. Ghazala does not like it. The security forces get to know about it through an informant and raid the doctor’s house and arrest him. Haidar returns to find that his house is burnt and his mother is living with his uncle Khurram (Kay Kay Menon), a politician, who is an informant of the security forces, and his father is now among the missing people. Haidar is quite disturbed to see his mother and uncle together. He thinks they are not worried about his father’s disappearance. His childhood love Arshia (Shraddha Kapoor), who is a journalist, consoles him. One day a separatist called Roohdar (Irrfan Khan) approaches Arshia. He knows about the whereabouts of Haidar’s father. Haidar meets him and is informed that his father was dead, tortured and killed by the Indian security forces. His uncle Khurram was the one who betrayed his own brother. The last words of his father to Roohdar were that he should let his son know of the betrayal and tell him to seek revenge for his death and also the defilement of his mother by Khurram.

 

After the death of Haidar’s father is confirmed, Khurram and Ghazala decide to get married. This really makes Haidar go crazy. The ghost of his father keeps reminding him of the idea of revenge quite graphically, calling upon him to shoot in both the eyes of Khurram. Haidar trusts Roohdar now and joins him and is all set to go across the border but before that he has to extract his revenge prompted by his father’s ghost.

 

If the original story was more about a son’s obsession with his mother and his troubled mind over her marriage with his uncle, the killer of his father and usurper of his throne, this one does not dwell much on that. The politics of Kashmir overpowers everything else in the film. The stylized stagey drama comes across as a specious subterfuge to hide the film’s propagandist objectives. This kind of deviousness contaminates and compromises the film's artistic integrity. The film is obviously sympathetic to the cause of the separatists and the Pakistani establishment.

 

As I said earlier, it endorses the perspectives and propaganda of ISI, Nawaz Sharief, and Hurriyat. It also derides AFSPA, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. In doing so, it belittles and demeans Indian Army, making it look like an occupation force. It romanticizes terrorists as devout heros fighting for a just cause against the might of Indian army. And if we read between the lines and interpret the metaphors in the film, we can clearly sense that it’s a treacherous call by an Indian filmmaker for Kashmir’s ‘azaadi’, funded with Indian money, and endorsed by the CBFC.

 

The tradition of Jai Chands and Mir Zafars continues to thrive in India irrespective of who rules in Delhi. Since the film is released on 2^ndOctober, on Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary, it reminds us of his approach to politics and life. He believed in tolerance and forgiveness. This is an India that is generously tolerant and forgiving to devious and wily enemies of our nation. We can even sing a prayer of praise to our killer and look at him in gratitude while he slowly severs our jugular vein, and bleeds us to death. That’s the kind of Gandhigiri we seem to be practicing.

 

Should I say kudos to the filmmakers, the CBFC, the I&B Minister, and those who will go gaga over the artistic merits of the film irrespective of the fact that it questions the nation’s territorial integrity, equips our enemies with potent propaganda ammunition and weapons, and portrays our men in uniform either as fools or monsters? I don’t think I can do that. Had the film tried to portray the actual reality of Kashmir and the devious ways our enemies adopt to bleed us and blackmail, discriminate, and browbeat Kashmiri Indians, it would have been valid art in my view since true art seeks the truth.  This is pure propaganda and thus worthless however good it looks.  

 

Rating: 0/5

http://www.bollywoodtrade.com/movie-reviews-news/haider-movie-review-its-separatist-propaganda-officially-endorsed-by-cbfc/7B142C25-9921-4E07-B2CD-B1DA627F6A90/index.htm

Its a nice movie, ending with a great message for characters (Indians, Separatists and Pakis) and for the audience (Indians). The messages celebrated the fact that the whole movie was shot in Jammu and Kashmir with support of people and the army.

I was skeptical at the beginning, a bit uneasy to see separatists walking around in the movie and occupying big frames in movie....but soon realized that was Kashmir, as it was in those days, so the movie aptly reflected that time. Good acting by all (Menon, Tabu, Shahid) and close adaptation to Hamlet. Shahid Kapoor looked brilliant in some scenes.

A movie that emphasized Srinagar is part of India and the movie is by an Indian for Indians, cannot be anti India. A huge disappointment for many here... just 1 steamy scene and no sex scenes.

Strangely enough, reference to southindians as 'masala dosa' WILL rankle shallow SuCH southindians and a few SuCH handles did cross my mind, who would jump like on hot coals.

4/5

I'll still put this movie behind 'A Wednesday'. 'A Wednesday' was a thriller, overall a brilliant movie.

Story of 'Haider' is known and the movie could only be carried through script, dialogues acting. I thought KK Memon was exceptional overall and Shahid Kapoor showed sparks of good acting. Tabu was the best in terms of portraying her character. A perplexed wife/woman/mother who finally takes a stand.

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