OVERVIEW- SPOILER ALERT, IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE MOVIE DO NOT READ
So first of all Haider is not a run of the mill movie. It has a very dark theme as evident from the trailer, the poster, the songs ( specially "Aao na" ). The movie starts with the theme of death and ends with death. The the theme of the movie is also revenge is is very prominent, however I think that the theme of internal conflict as in within a man and of paradox is something most people will miss.
The main character of the movie is Haider. Haider at first seems to be like any person trying to find his father. In this journey he finds that his mother and uncle are loving each other and I think that he also knows/feels that they are sleeping with each other and that disgusts him. He then gets to know that his father was killed by his uncle, he connects that to his uncles and mothers relation. The thought comes to his mind that his uncle killed his father just to marry his mother. The source from which he recieved the information also tells Haider that his father had asked Haider to kill his brother for laying eyes on his mother.
THE FIRST MYSTERY
So the first mystery is the messenger. It was clear in the movie that the messenger was a militant. now the question arises that was messenger taking advantage of the situation? Haider's Uncle had won the elections and as we know that Kashmir has been a very unstable place and elections are a mark of democracy and supremacy of India in Kashmir which the militants obviously did not want. So the militant makes the whole thing up about the revenge so that Haider kills his uncle and then the area gets unstable and the militants have a better chance of getting through in a weak administration ( I dont know what article 370 says in such a situation ). Another fact that supports this is that he says that Haider's father asked for revenge from Haider as he had "Laid eyes on his mother(Haider's)" Now we don't know whether Haider's father knew about this relation or not and then there is a greater chance that his father would have asked for revenge for what his brother had done to him right? I mean Haider's father is getting punished and suffering because of his brother, so he is angry at him for betraying him, even if he got to know that his brother married(later on) his wife it would only intensify the anger and not really become the main reason. Then Haider's father was a very peace loving man that is why he was helping a wounded militant in the first place right? When Tabu asked her husband which side is he on he replied " Zindigi ki taraf " on the side of life. Why would a man who is ready to heal a militant want his own brother to die even after all the foul things his brother did. Further the militant may have used the idea of " as he laid eyes upon your mother " so that Haider gets even more emotionally infuriated. It was said in the movie that Haider got angry even when his father touched his mother even though he knew that he was his father and had sex with her(obvio) and now his uncle was doing the same. Now Haider's emotion may be in a sexual context or in a context of overprotectiveness, as he also said in the movie that " As she is so beautiful he doesn't want to share her with anyone else " now this can be inferred sexually or just because of attachment. So we don't know if he was sexually attached to his mother(super weird) or not but it is clear that he loved her like anything and the idea that he is very attached to her and thatshe is spending time with someone else makes him angry or jealous.
MOVING ON
After gaining all this knowledge he return and makes a soliloquy, his uncle finds him an he brakes the news to his mother and uncle, at this time it is evident that he has changed, he shaves off his head and acts like a mad man
THE SECOND MYSTERY
Is he really mad? or his he just acting?(see what I did there) He seems very focused, oriented and clear with his thoughts. Perfect for a man pretending to be mad. The reason he might be doing this could be that there will be less hostility towards him and that he could also say whatever he felt. Or maybe he really got mad because of the trauma and tragedy which is perfectly plausible.
MOVING ON
I think that Haider also did not believe the messenger, he performs in a song ( Bulbul-e-Bismil) in which he enacts the whole story. I think he does this to see his uncles reaction, his uncle's reaction however did not clearly indicate anything. His uncle then proceeds to tell him his side of the story which is kinda "eh", not satisfying.
MOVING ON
Then Haider's mother marrys his Uncle and everything and while this is happening he also has a gun in his backpack which is to murder his uncle. Now Haider does not kill him then and there, why not we don't know most obvious reason maybe that he did not want to get caught, as simple as that or maybe the writer is just trying to keep the action going. Then again when he wakes up after being drugged he picks up the gun and proceeds to the next room where his uncle is praying. His uncle admits what he has done and asks the lord or Allah to do something about it at that time Haider is standing right behind him with a gun in his hand and even though he has the perfect chance he does not kill him as he feels that he will go straight to the heavens if he dies praying. During this time his girlfriend father who is a SSP comes from behind and disarms him. After capturing him he sends him to be killed by two comic characters who I think are in the movie to ease things a bit. Haider however kills both of them and is now a wanted criminal.
He then calls the person who sent the messenger, the person tells him where he has to come for training, Haider does not say anything. He then proceeds to call his mother and his mother asks him to meet him one more time. He meets her and her mother tells her the story that she did not know that his uncle was the informer of the army. Many people will feel that "Ma ne hi marva diya" I don't feel so, it may seem so but it is clearly not. Guilt ridden his mother asks haider to put the gun to her head and to pull the trigger. just then his girlfriend's sneaks back on him with a gun drawn out, makes a noise by mistake and gets shot in the head and then Haider runs away.
He takes refuge with some badass grave diggers. Then there is a fight and stuff and his mother kills herself while trying to kill others of which I could not make any sense. This maybe because she asked Haider to surrender and tried to blackmail him with her life and still Haider had refused to surrender. Still makes no sense why she tried to kill the others, maybe so that his son could run away as she would kill everyone and he would live?
Haider then after getting out of the house gets his uncle by the tail, he points a gun at his head and is about to pull the trigger. At this time two voices are going in his head over and over again. His father telling him to kill the uncle and his mother telling him that revenge will only continue the cycle. He then finally does not kill him. Many people will find this unsatisfying, I mean that is what the whole movie was all about right? This where internal conflict is shown, he had all the reasons to kill him, he even loved his father more but he did not.
THINGS I MISSED
There are a lot of things that I missed. His girlfriend and that because of revenge everyone around him, near and dear to him died. The no. of people killed in this movie was very high. There are a lot of other thing to and ONLY THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND AND COMPREHEND.
CONCLUSION
Do keep in mind that this is just a story, no moral no nothing, just a plain story. This story raised more questions than it answered. Even the main character of this movie was flawed making it more believable. Shakespeare did not make a overly good main character like in AS YOU LIKE IT, although it is a romantic comedy, if you see his other lead characters of his tragedys (e.g Macbeth, Othello) you will find the same thing, and that is kind of the whole point of a tragedy right? Vishal Bharadwaj however is the true hero here, he presented the movie wonderfully, I also like him because unlike other Indian directors he did not interfere with the main plot and the story retained its intricacy. Shakespeare's stories usually seem surreal and impossible or made up, whichever word you may prefer but Vishal did such a beautiful job of making it all look and feel real.
In the end I feel that the movie was very good, however I think it needs a little mature mind to appreciate it and this plate is not meant to be served to everyone
