Vol 2 Issue 12 June 2015
ISSN No: 2321-5488
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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Volume - 2 | Issue - 12 | June - 2015
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL
SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S ADAPTATION OF
HAMLET IN HAIDER
Tanmoy Baghira
Assistant Professor in English, BCARE Institute of Management and Technology
& Research Scholar, Department of English, University of Kalyani.
Short Profile
Tanmoy Baghira is working as an Assistant Professor in English in the Department of
Humanities and Basic Sciences in BCARE Institute of Management and Technology. He is
also pursuing his Ph.D. in Masculinity Studies from the Department of English, University of
Kalyani.
ABSTRACT :
Vishal Bhardwaj as a director is
primarily
known
for
his
Shakespearean
adaptation
in
Indian Scenario. His most recent
adaptation Haider has been
adapted
from
Shakespeare’s
Hamlet. As Bhardwaj has said in
an interview Haider is as an
extension of what he had done in
Maqbool and Omkara. Haider is a
film which bears an overt political
connotation. I have tried to focus
on
several
aspect
of
this
adaptation; firstly, the political
aspects of the film where I have
dealt with how Haider has
incorporated armed insurgency in
Kashmir and have questioned
Armed Forces Special Power Act
(AFSPA). Secondly, the literary and cinematic aspect where I have positioned Haider as a
creative film adaptation and how it has successfully re-contextualizes the film irrespective of
intercultural barriers and huge time gap between the two texts. Finally, I have questioned the
scope of realistic cinema in Bollywood and freedom of expression in art.
KEYWORDS
Adaptation, Haider, political connotation, AFSPA, intercultural.
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S........
INTRODUCTION
Vishal Bhardwaj’s as a director has won his international acclaim through his adaptations
of Shakespearean trilogy in Indian setting. The film Haider is the third of the trilogy adapted from
Shakespeare’s Hamlet; the other two being Maqbool and Omkara respectably adapted from
Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Othello. Bhardwaj says in an interview “Haider is an extension of
what I have attempted in Maqbool and Omkara.” In both the films we have seen Bhardwaj’s
creativity in appropriating the films in a completely different cultural milieu. With Haider
Bhardwaj craftsmanship as a director, script writer and composer reaches its zenith. Haider comes
to be a film with overtly political connotation. When a political play like Hamlet is adapted into
film it leaves behind a trail of political interpretations; and Bhardwaj by setting Haider in Kashmir
has voiced the political unrest that prevailed during the last few decades. Taking Kashmiri
journalist, Basharat Peer as a co-writer of the screenplay this play tries to portray the history and
the socio-political condition of Kashmir throughout this film.
The plot of Haider can be summed up thus: The film starts portraying Kashmir during the
Kashmir conflict in 1995. Hilaal Meer (Haider’s father), a doctor agrees to perform an appendicitis
operation on the leader of a separatist group at his house. On the next morning, during a
crackdown he is accused of giving refuge to terrorists and is taken away by Indian army. Haider,
(Hamlet) a poet and research scholar who is pursuing his research in “The revolutionary poets of
British India” in Aligarh Muslim University comes home in Anantnag after getting the news of his
father’s disappearance and finds his house in ruins. He finds his mother, Ghazala (Gertrude)
having an affair with his uncle Khurram (Claudius). Being shocked at his mother’s infidelity he
begins the search for his father in various police stations and detention camps with the help of his
journalist fiancée, Arshia. When Haider was about to lose hope for not getting any clue of his
father Arshia encounters a stranger named Roohdaar who asks her to inform Haider that he will
provide information about Hilaal Meer. Roohdaar narrates the story of his imprisonment with
Hilaal in the same detention centres. He conveys the fact that his father is dead and it was his
father’s wish to avenge his brother Khurram for his betrayal and to leave Ghazala for god’s
justice. Being indecisive of what he should do, Haider re-enacts the show of his uncles’ betrayal
through the ‘mousetrap’ or the play within a play, here through the performance of the song
“Bismil” enacted in the Martand sun temple after the marriage of Ghazala and Khurram. Haider
gets caught while trying to murder Khurram who was in his prayers; and Arsiah’s father Pervez
Lone set Haider to be murdered by Salman and Salman (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) but
luckily he escapes. When Haider meets his mother, Ghazala she tells him that she had disclosed
about terrorists hiding in their house out of fear to Khurram unknowing that he was an informer
of the Indian army. Meanwhile Arsiah’s father traces them in their ruined house and tried to shoot
Haider but shooting at Pervez’s head he escapes.
Depressed at her father’s death in the hands Haider, Arshia commits suicide. In the climax
when Haider goes to the graveyard where his father was buried, he contemplates about the
inevitability of death along with the grave diggers. In the meantime he saw Liyaqat, Arshia’s
brother in the graveyard and deducted that the dead body must be of Arshia’s and ran towards
her. A fight takes place between Haider and Liyaqat where the later dies. Meanwhile Khurram
arrives there with armed forces and a gunfight takes place. When Khurram was about to blow the
hideout, Ghazala intervenes and requests a chance to convince Haider to surrender. She tries to
convince Haider that revenge only begets revenge but he was determined in avenging his father’s
death. She kisses Haider and steps outside wearing a suicide vest. Before Khurram and Haider
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S........
reaches her suicide vest. Before Khurram and Haider reaches her she pull the pins of the hand
grenades causing her death and leaving Khurram heavily injured. Lamenting her mother’s
heath finally when Haider goes on to take revenge at his uncle by shooting him in his eyes he is
reminded of his mother’s last words and leaves him. Khurram being his legs amputated at the
blast begs Haider to kill him to set him free from the guilt and treachery but Haider leaves him.
Primarily through this paper I have tried to focus on three aspects of this adaptation;
firstly the political aspect of the film, secondly the literary and cinematic aspect and finally have
questioned the scope of realistic cinema in Bollywood and freedom of expression in art.
POLITICAL ASPECT OF THE FILM:
This film has clearly set an exception in portraying Kashmir from other popular
Bollywood films. In fact it is the first commercial Bollywood film which has tried to portray
Kashmir with its serious socio-political realities; therefore, the content of the film has been
widely criticised and has created much controversy. For the Kashmiri viewers Haider is far
more than a Shakespearean adaptation of Hamlet. Their primary concern was the political
aspect of the film; its artistic and cinematic aspects were secondary interest to them. They
wanted to know whether the film has succeeded in holding a mirror to Kashmir’s traumatic
history and politics. Their primary concern was to know if the film will have any impact on the
dominant Indian discourse or not. The political content of the film remained very strong. Being
set in Kashmir during 1995 it upholds a mirror to the armed insurgency in Kashmir. The
position of the Indian army has also been questioned here. When we see the army destroying
the house of the local, it certainly questions the power and brutality of the Indian Army that
they could practice on the locals. Throughout this film several Army concentration camps has
been shown where peoples are being detained and inhumanly tortured on the suspect of being
related with the pro-separatist group. Another important issue that has been questioned
through the film is the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The AFSPA is an Act of the
Parliament of India which was passed on 11 September 1958. It is a much debated law which
grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces. The powers that the army can practice
through this act are as follows:
Power to Declare Areas to be Disturbed Areas – If, in relation to any State or Union territory
of which the Act extends, the Governor of that State or the Administrator of that Union territory or
the Central Government, in either case, if of the opinion that the whole or any part of such State or
Union territory, as the case may be, is in such a disturbed or dangerous condition that the use of
armed forces in aid of the civil powers in necessary, the Governor of that State or the Administrator
of that Union territory or the Central Government, as the case may be, may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, declare the whole or such part of such State or Union territory to be a disturbed area.
Special Power of the Armed Forces – Any commissioned officer, warrant officer, non
commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces may, in a disturbed
area(a) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do for the maintenance of Public order, after giving
such due warning as he may consider necessary, fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the
causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time
being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S........
of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive
substances;
(b) if he is of opinion that it is necessary so to do, destroy any arms dump, prepared or fortified
position or shelter from which armed attacks are made or are likely to be made or are attempted to
be made, or any structure used as a training camp for armed volunteers or utilised as a hide-out by
armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence;
(c) arrest, without warrant, any person who has committed a cognisable offence or against whom a
reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognisable offence and
may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest;
(d) enter and search without warrant any premises to make any such arrest as aforesaid or to
recover any person believed to be wrongfully restrained or confined or any property reasonably
suspected to be stolen property or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances believed to be
unlawfully kept in such premises and may for that Purpose use such force as may be necessary.
5. Arrested Persons to be made over to the Police – Any person arrested and taken into custody under
this Act shall be made over to the officer-in-charge of the nearest police station with the least possible
delay, together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest.
6. Protection to Persons acting under Act – No persecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall
be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central Government, against any person in
respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.
(The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958)
In 1991 United Nations Human Rights Committee asked numerous questions about the
validity of the AFSPA. They questioned the constitutionality of this act (AFSPA) under Indian
law and asked how it could be justified in light of Article 4 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). On 31 March 2012, the UN asked India to revoke AFSPA
saying it had no place in Indian democracy. But despite the fact that this act has been severely
criticized on the ground that several sections of this act violates human rights, this draconian
law is still active in several territories of India.
Though the film has successfully portrayed the political unrest of Kashmir through the
diegesis of the film but has failed to portray the history behind this socio-political unrest. It has
merely set the film in a predefined setting and developed the plot within it. From the point of
view of looking Haider as an adaptation it is certainly not necessary to include history of
Kashmir but from the perspective of looking it as an individual work of art, it has certain
liability to incorporate the history within it.
b)Literary and Cinematic Aspects:
It is hard to tell what the director’s primary concern was in making Haider. Considering
Haider from the perspective of Shakespearean adaptation of Hamlet, it can certainly be said that
this film has successfully narrated the story of its original counterpart from political, physical
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S........
and psychological level. The political re-contextualization has been done tactfully in this film
where Danish political turmoil and conspiracy has been relocated through the socio-political
unrest in Kashmir during late twentieth century. In an interview with The Indian Express
Bhardwaj has stated:
It was the political turmoil and the 25 years of tragedy of Kashmir that compelled me. Our
way of looking at Kashmir has either been cosmetic – only for shooting songs – or rhetoric, where we
show a man in a phiran, holding a Kalashnikov. Haider is the first film where we see Kashmir from
the inside. I don't think we have made a mainstream film about the issue.
(Bhardwaj in an interview with Harneet Singh in The Indian Express on October 5, 2014)
From Bhardwaj’s comments it is certain that he found an appropriate political situation
in Kashmir that could be redressed through Hamlet. Previously Bhardwaj was about to make
Haider completely on other setting but after having acquaintance with Kashmiri writer and
journalist Basharat Peer’s novel Curfewed Night: A Frontline Memoir of Life, Love and War in
Kashmir he reconstructed the screenplay along with Peer. Therefore, the political narrative in
this film has reached another level due to its dealing with Kashmir issue on realistic grounds.
But this overt political scenario of the whole film has never been compromised with its literary
and artistic flavor. The artistic and cinematic aspects of this film are cleverly constructed
irrespective of the intercultural barriers and huge time gap between the two texts.
Any creative film adaptation cannot or should not be judged examining only its fidelity
or faithfulness to the source text; as André Bazin in his essay Adaptation or Cinema as Digest
points that in an adaptation what matters is not faithfulness to form but rather “the equivalence
in meaning of the forms”. Geoffrey Wagner has divided adaptations primarily into three
categories: transposition, commentary, and analogy. A "transposition" follows the novel closely;
a "commentary" alters the novel slightly, with a new emphasis or new structure; an "analogy"
uses the novel as a point of departure (222- 226). Though Wagner has stated it in relation to
adaptation from novel but this division is applicable for any type of text in question. Therefore,
considering from the Wagner’s model of adaptation it can be said that Bhardwaj’s Haider is
somewhat caught between ‘commentary’ and ‘analogy’. Throughout the film Haider the theme
and the plot has been kept intact with its Shakespearean counterpart, though the time, place
and situation has been re-contextualized.
One of the important motifs in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is undoubtedly the ‘Oedipus
Complex’. Sigmund Freud's colleague and biographer Ernest Jones in his investigation The
Œdipus-complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive has explained Hamlet's
postponement and delay in revenge as a consequence of this ‘Oedipus Complex’. Therefore,
Hamlet’s inability to avenge the crime is none but the feeling of himself being guilty of wanting
to commit the same crime himself. In the film Haider the relationship between Haider and
Ghazala indicates an implicit sexual undertone. Though the soliloquies of the source text are
missing in the film but it has been supplanted by various narrative devices. Moreover if we
consider the richness of this adaptation in the perspective of intercultural translation, than the
experimentation with the Kashmiri dialect and regional tone that are been used in the language
of the film can be understood. The ghost of senior hamlet has been supplanted by Roohdaar
who speaks of him as the soul of doctor (Haider’ father Hilaal Meer was a doctor). Even the
word ‘rooh’ in the name Roohdaar means soul in Urdu. It has been said of him that he
possesses several false identities; therefore, the ghost of the original text has been translated
into a person with ghost identities. The dilemma in the character of hamlet has also been
developed subsequently into Haider when we find him confused between the narrative of
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S........
Roohdaar and Khurram. He was even perplexed to the point of suffering from an existential
crisis. Haider was caught between sanity and insanity when he was talking to Arshia; there
came the central confusion of this film, the English subtitle goes thus: “To trust the surging
beats of the heart / Or to heed the caution of sober mind / To kill or to die / To be or not to
be.” Another important aspect of the play Hamlet is ‘the play within a play’ i.e. "The Mousetrap"
where hamlet presents a play of murder and treachery just to record the reaction and
uneasiness of Claudius to confirm his treachery. In the same way the text of Haider brings forth
this play within a play to confirm his suspicion of his father’s murder by his uncle Khurram. It
has been done in the movie through the song ‘Bismil’ where through the metonymic
representation of nightingale and falcon the conspiracy has been presented before Khurram.
The most difficult part of this inter-semiotic translation was to keep the poetic fervor which has
been kept intact throughout the film. Therefore, the film as an independent work of art has
effectively made its way in Bollywood.
Journalistic Realism and Freedom of Expression in Art:
Another important aspect of this film is the realism that has been attempted throughout
this film. A keen sense of journalistic realism can be observed throughout the narrative of the
film. This film therefore engages itself into contemporary socio-political condition of Kashmir.
Taking Basharat Peer as a co-script writer, this film attempts to portray Kashmir in such a way
that it has never been attempted before in mainstream Bollywood. In this respect Bhardwaj has
said in an interview: “If Basharat was not a part of the film, Haider wouldn't be made or it
wouldn't be made this way.” (The Indian Express, October 5, 2014)
This film also lifts the question of the possibility of making realistic cinema in India. As
we know that India has a film sensor board (Central Board of Film Certification) which
provides certification to screen the films in theatre. Haider has been given certification of U/A
i.e. ‘parental guidance video’ after asking for 41 cuts, therefore, the freedom of the film director
to direct realistic films in India are also in question. It is intriguing to note that the film radically
contrasts itself in giving the position of Indian army in Kashmir. Primarily it can be observed
that the film portrays Indian army as an antagonistic force when we see them destroying the
house of Haider inside of which a pro-separatist leader had taken refuge and also through the
disappearance of the suspects in Kashmir; but at the end credits this film present Indian Army
from totally opposite point of view. What does it really mean? Is it a way to pacify what has
been narrated throughout the movie about Indian Army or just a way to promote the film so
that the dominant ideology of the state won’t ban the film from coming into theatres?
Therefore, a repression of the freedom of expression can be observed through this film
which certainly reminds us of structuralist Marxist Louis Althusser’s concept of Repressive and
Ideological State Apparatuses and how state functions in reinforcing the rule of the dominant
class through controlling these artifacts repressively as well as ideologically.
WORKS CITED
1. Bazin, André. “Adaptation or Cinema as Digest” In Film Adaptation. Ed. James Naremore. New
Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Print.
2. Bhardwaj, Vishal. Interview. The Indian Express. 5 Oct. 2014.
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SHAKESPEARE IN KASHMIR: RE-READING THE SOCIO-POLITICAL SITUATION OF KASHMIR THROUGH BHARDWAJ’S........
3. Haider. Dir. Vishal Bhardwaj. Screenplay by Basharat Peer & Vishal Bhardwaj. Perf. Shahid Kapoor,
Tabu, Kay Kay Menon, Shraddha Kapoor, Narendra Jha and Irrfan Khan. UTV Motion Pictures, 2014. Film.
4. Jones, Ernest. “The Œdipus-Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive” In
The American Journal of Psychology Vol. 21, No. 1 (Jan. 1910), pp. 72-113
5. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 Act 28 of 1958, 11Sept. 1958. PDF file.
6. Wagner, Geoffrey. The Novel and Cinema. London: Tantivy Press, 1975.
BOOKS CONSULTED:
1. McFarlane, Brian. Novel to Film: An Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation. Oxford New York:
Clarendon Press Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
2. Parrill, Sue. Jane Austen on Film and Television: A Critical Study of the Adaptations. Jefferson, N.C:
McFarland & Co, 2002. Print.
3. Sanders, Julie. Adaptation and Appropriation. London New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
4. Slethaug, Gordon. Adaptation Theory and Criticism: Postmodern Literature and Cinema in the USA /
Gordon E. Slethaug. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014. Print.
5. Stam, Robert, and Alessandra Raengo. Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film
Adaptation. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. Print.
6. Zatlin, Phyllis. Theatrical Translation and Film Adaptation A Practitioner's View. Clevedon England
Buffalo N.Y: Multilingual Matters, 2005. Print.
WEB LINKS:
1. https://www.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl-nat.nsf/0/23fb81e4ad23e2 b3c1257682002cfdfd/$FILE/
The%20Armed%20Forces%20(Special%20Powers)%20Act.pdf
2. http://www.mha.nic.in/hindi/sites/upload_files/mhahindi/files/pdf/Armedforces_J&K_Spl.powers
act1990.pdf
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