When asked to adapt a Shakespearean play to a film set in Jammu and Kashmir, “Hamlet” was Basharat Peer’s first choice. Journalist and author Mr. Peer, who hails from the State, feels that Hamlet’s central idea — of a young man’s life being destroyed by fate — resonates in insurgency-hit Kashmir.
Mr. Peer has written the script of Vishal Bhardwaj’s latest film “Haider” which is based on “Hamlet” and is set in Kashmir in the mid-1990s. After “Omkara” and “Maqbool,” this is the third of Mr. Bhardwaj’s films that are based on Shakespearean dramas.
“In the Arab world — countries with serious political conflicts — “Hamlet” had been looked at seriously and adapted several times. I did not want it in a depoliticised setting with an imaginary princely state and palace intrigue. I wanted it in a real situation of political conflict which was at its peak in Kashmir in 1995-1996,” says Mr. Peer.
Mr. Peer had read Margaret Litvin’s Hamlet’s Arab Journey: Shakespeare’s Prince and Nasser’s Ghost . Before writing the script, he studied the scripts of “The Battle of Algiers”, “Welcome to Sarajevo”, “No Man’s Land”, “Milk”, “Syriana” and other films.
“It was my first time writing fiction although it is informed by reality. I have tried to add a reporter’s sense of realism to it. By writing a film script, I was breaking the glass mould of reportage and non-fiction that I could not come out of earlier,” he explains.
Pushing the boundariesThe challenge for Mr. Bhardwaj and Mr. Peer was to go where other filmmakers fear to tread. “Most films made on Kashmir veer towards state propaganda. Bombay filmmakers have failed to truthfully represent difficult political and social stories in India. Producers are shackled for political and commercial reasons and there is a lot of self-censorship,” says Mr. Peer. “It is a difficulty faced in both cinema and the press.”
King Hamlet in the film is a physician played by Narendra Jha who treats victims of violence. His son, the protagonist Haider played by Shahid Kapoor, a student of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), searches for him. This brings him in conflict with his uncle, a lawyer (K.K. Menon), who is linked to Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen paramilitaries.
Haider holds Mr. Menon’s character, which is based on Claudius, responsible for his father’s disappearance. He suspects his mother (Tabu) of conniving with his uncle. Tabu was reportedly Mr. Bhardwaj’s only choice for the film, as he had worked with her in “Maqbool.”
“For me the good doctors who ignored their personal lives and families to save common people are the greatest heroes of the conflict. Those were the years when Kashmir turned upon itself and the government-backed Ikhwan, a notorious counter-insurgency militia, committed indiscriminate atrocities that are hard to describe,” Mr. Peer says.
King Hamlet’s Ghost’s (Irrfan Khan) lines in the play —“Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange and unnatural” — instantly reminded him of Ikhwan’s actions. These are described in Mr. Peer’s award-winning book Curfewed Night . Like the character Haider, Mr. Peer too studied at AMU in the 90s when guns blazed in the valley and affluent families sent their children to residential schools in safer places.
“When I was a student at AMU, the most popular film for Kashmiris was “Maachis.” This was one Bollywood film we could relate to as it depicted the emotional conflict and the dilemma youth faced in places with insurgencies,” he says. Gulzar’s 1996 cult film “Maachis” depicted the transformation of boys into terrorists during the Punjab unrest in the 80s. Mr. Bhardwaj had composed the music for the film; the soundtrack became an anthem for the politically restive college youth of the day.
Mr. Peer admits that the process of production was a “give and take” between him and Mr. Bhardwaj, but coming this far for the latter is a big step for mainstream Bollywood cinema.
“We have to work within the limits of the system. India does not seem ready to deal with realist and political cinema the way audiences in West Asia or Europe do. We have a lot to learn from Iranian, Palestinian and Bosnian cinema,” he explains. Mr. Peer adds that it is the moral duty of artistes — whom he calls “a privileged minority” — to speak up despite prejudices in society.
Forty one scenes in the movie have been cut including those on custodial torture and showing corpses. Of these, 35 were made by Mr. Bhardwaj to reduce the length of the film and the rest were ordered by the Central Board of Film Certification in order to grant a UA (Unrestricted Public Exhibition, but with Parental Guidance) certificate.
Although apprehensive of negative repercussions of making a political critique so close to home, especially when “right wing forces are on the ascent,” Mr. Peer hopes that the common man will be able to connect with the portrayal of the vulnerability of citizens from the state.
“The power of a beautiful story is that at times it forces you to step into a world that is not your own. Even if three people come out from the cinema hall thinking that may be the world is more complex than they assumed it was, then the film is a success,” he opines.
Most of Kashmir, however, may not be able to see the film in the first week as floods have ravaged the State.
Mr. Peer is currently working on a non-fiction title on religion and politics in South Asia. He is keen to try his hand at scriptwriting again to adapt his favourite Shakespearean play “The Merchant of Venice” to a film.
pheroze.vincent@thehindu.co.in
