The actor impressed the critics as well as the audiences with his powerful performance in Vishal Bhardwaj’s desi adaptation of of Hamlet
It won’t be a surprise if Shahid Kapoor walks away with the maximum Best Actor trophies, come award season next year. Why shouldn’t he ? Shahid’s risk of taking on one of literature’s most daunting characters paid off big time! I still remember the chatter in trade circles when Shahid signed Haider. “Risk le raha hai!”, “Who will want to watch a Shakespeare adaptation”, “Is he crazy to come on the same day as Hrithik?”, these were some of PG-13 comments I can share. Not everyone was happy or convinced that Shahid could pull this off. In fact I remember during my interview with an A-list star asking me, “Ye Haider kya hai?“, when we were discussing forthcoming releases. His producer turned director friend who sat next to me chimed in, “Yeh mat likhna interview mein!” Of course I censored that bit, but what struck me was the fact how the situation had suddenly turned to Shahid v/s Rest of the industry. It was as if every trade expert had already made a coffin (pun intended) for the film to it’s own tune of the Aao na!
Shahid wasn’t the sorts to succumb to peer pressure and throw the towel in so easily. He ferociously promoted Haider, without overselling the film but never ever underplaying the sharpness of his character. Shahid had become Haider, and I don’t mean the physical attribute of just shaving his head off, he was living that part. Those close to him would tell stories of his obsession with this film and how much he wanted people to spend their money and watch it. Despite Bang Bang being the safe bet that weekend, Haider emerged as the dark horse of 2014.
Not everyone liked the film, there were politicial hues given to the film post release and debates on prime time about how the film is anti-Indian, everyone wanted to discuss Haider, talk about that climax, describe their favourite scene, do their own rendition of Bismil, it had become the cool film to talk about in colleges, review it in those cigarette breaks, share on Facebook statuses and Twitter. “Kya tune Haider dekhi?” suddenly became the question of the moment.
What Shahid needs to take home from the success of Haider is the fact that its time for him to take risks, not the ones where he rescues Sonakshi Sinha from the clutches of a lecherous Sonu Sood in R…Rajkumar, but the kind of gamble where he works with directors and a cast who will challenge him each day. He should still continue doing this Dhating gravity defying pelvic thrusts and play the quintessential lover boy, but we want more Haiders from Shahid. We prefer the mad Shahid in the mike test 1..2..3..scene to the one who rescues his lady love from a Sonu Sood!
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