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ANCIENT AESTHETICS AND CURRENT

CONFLICTS: INDIAN RASA THEORY AND
VISHAL BHARDWAJ’S HAIDER (2014)
MELISSA CROTEAU

The aim of art is not to discover the nature of reality but powerfully to express the suffering of the mainly
to secure for us the highest experience of life. Muslim population of the Kashmir Valley at the
(Mysore Hiriyanna, ‘Indian aesthetics 2’)1 hands of the occupying Indian military as well as
On many levels, Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play about Pakistani and home-grown militants.
acting. When considering styles of theatrical perfor- Though rasa theory has not been widely used to
mance, our eponymous Prince exhorts the players analyse film, a few scholars have noted that it is, in
to perform their parts ‘gently’, with ‘temperance’ fact, a vital shaping force in Indian popular cinema.4
and ‘smoothness’, ‘hold[ing] . . . a mirror up to The earliest claim to this effect that I could find is in
nature’ (3.2.5, 8, 22). This acting philosophy has an article entitled ‘What did Bharata mean by rasa?’
been theorized and realized in diverse ways on written by S. S. Barlingay, a professor of philosophy
stage and screen in the Eurocentric West, but it at Poona University, which digs deeply into the
stands in stark contrast to one of the foremost ancient founding text of Indian aesthetic theory, the
ancient aesthetic theories of India – that of rasa, Natyasastra (NS), believed to have been written by
which refers to the emotion an audience member a Brahmanic sage called Bharata some time between
experiences during a performance, be it drama,
dance, poetry or music. Simply put, rasa theory 1
posits that all the acting in a performed narrative Mysore Hiriyanna, ‘Indian aesthetics 2’ [1951], in Indian
Philosophy in English: From Renaissance to Independence, ed.
must focus on eliciting powerful emotion from the N. Bhushan and J. L. Garfield (Oxford, 2011), pp. 207–18;
audience; thus, ‘robustious’ acting is frequently p. 210.
found on stage and screen in India, as is often 2
‘Bollywood’ refers to Indian popular cinema that is made by
noted by critics of Bollywood, or, more accurately, the film industry based in Mumbai, and its films are predo-
Indian popular cinema, which is not restricted to minantly made in the Hindi language. While the majority of
the nearly 1,000 films produced in India annually are made by
film made by the Mumbai-based industry.2 the Mumbai-based industry, there are strong film industries in
Furthermore, rasa theory dictates that every theatri- other parts of the nation, such as a thriving Tamil-language
cal work should be governed by one primary rasa, industry in the South, and a unique Bengali industry based in
out of a group of eight designated emotions, which Kolkata in the North-east. The term ‘Bollywood’ is some-
may appear in the piece but must serve to support times used to describe all ‘popular’ – as opposed to ‘art’ – films
produced by India; however, this is a misrepresentation of the
the dominant rasa.3 In 2014, Indian director Vishal diverse cinema produced by this incredibly heterogeneous
Bhardwaj adapted Hamlet into the Hindi film country.
Haider, transforming Shakespeare’s ‘rotten’ state of 3
Patrick Colm Hogan, ‘Rasa theory and dharma theory: from
Denmark into the beleaguered, divided North The Home and the World to Bandit Queen’, Quarterly Review of
Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in the turbulent Film and Video 20 (2003), 37–52; p. 39.
4
See, for example, Vijay Mishra, Bollywood Cinema: Temples of
1990s. In Haider, Bhardwaj uses rasa aesthetics Desire (London, 2002), p. 50.

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200 BCE and 200 CE. The title of this article alludes Gupt, a current classicist and theatre theorist at the
to the fact that arguments about the meaning and University of Delhi, who both return to the Sanskrit
nuances of the lengthy and minutely detailed NS of the NS and find that rasa theory applies most
have been ongoing for about two millennia, as can specifically to performed media, and not, as a great
be seen in the 2016 compilation A Rasa Reader: many have claimed, to poetry on the page. The
Classical Indian Aesthetics, which, at nearly 500 folio- importance of this point lies in the relationship
sized pages, covers only the responses to Bharata’s between the rasas and the other elements of Natya,
concept of rasa and is limited from the time of the NS and their roles in the theatrical experience. Barlingay
to the year 1700.5 In the conclusion of his careful contends that the three main characteristics of rasa
analysis, Barlingay asserts: ‘[p]erhaps the nearest are: (a) it designates a staged or performed medium,
approach to “Rasa” would be a cinematographic (b) ‘it is composite in nature’, and (c) it essentially
film’, which includes both aural and visual ‘represents movement and is extended in time’.9
elements.6 Alisha Ibkar, of Alighar Muslim These characteristics, of course, are found in cinema.
University (coincidentally, the university attended It is helpful to understand that rasa more literally refers
by the character Haider in the film), strongly affirms to ‘juice and flavour’, and ‘flow’ is one of its ‘basic
that ‘Indian cinema is completely based on meanings’.10 Therefore, the theoretical definition of
Performance aesthetics. The depiction of rasa and rasa as an emotion experienced by the spectator of
channeling it to the audience is the quintessential a performance carries with it the idea that the feelings
aspect of Indian theatre and cinema. Rasa theory is evoked are a type of distillation, or ‘pure’ liquid
the very essence of what makes Bollywood unique essence, of one of the eight rasas. Plus, the ‘flowing’
and eternal and it constitutes but the very structure nature of these rasas underscores that the experience
and backbone of Indian cinema.’7 of a rasic emotion is always a part of an open, creative
In addition, scholar Patrick Colm Hogan has process that begins with the emotion and message of
used rasa theory in his cognitive theory-oriented the author/artist, which is communicated through
work on Indian cinema and culture.8 These scho- the various elements of stage language, and finally
lars concur that rasa theory has an integral impact received as rasa experienced by the spectator, who is
on Indian popular cinema; however, these aca- a co-creator of the rasa as she interprets the perfor-
demics, and scholars over the centuries, have not mance for herself but shares experience of the rasa
agreed on the basic definitions of a few key terms in collectively with the actors and other spectators.
the theory, to which we now turn.
5
Sheldon Pollock, trans. and ed., A Rasa Reader: Classical
rasa theory: complexity and Indian Aesthetics (New York, 2016).
6
S. S. Barlingay, ‘What did Bharata mean by rasa?’ Indian
paradox Philosophical Quarterly 8 (1981), 433–56; p. 452.
7
Before engaging in a rasic reading of Bhardwaj’s Alisha Ibkar, ‘The Natyasastra and Indian cinema: a study of
the rasa theory as a cornerstone for Indian aesthetics’,
Haider, we must delve into some of the complexities International Journal of English Language and Translation
of rasa theory, as it is our specific approach that will Studies 3 (2015), 80–87; p. 87.
govern the analysis. It has been particularly helpful to 8
Hogan has used rasa theory effectively in his book
examine the work of philosophy, theatre history and Understanding Indian Movies: Culture, Cognition, and
aesthetics scholars to acquire an understanding of the Cinematic Imagination (Austin, TX, 2008), and journal article
‘Rasa theory and dharma theory’. Hogan also references
NS’s theory of rasa as a contested field in which the Darius Cooper’s book The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between
meaning of the Sanskrit in the NS has been inter- Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge, 2000), which applies
preted in various ways; then those readings were rasa theory to the work of the eminent Indian art cinema
taken up and understood differently, etc. This article director.
9
takes the perspective of S. S. Barlingay and Bharat Barlingay, ‘What did Bharata mean by rasa?’ p. 452.
10
Barlingay, ‘What did Bharata mean by rasa?’ p. 452.

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Eminent Indian scholar Kapil Vatsyayan asserts that conduit for rasa.16 This view centres on acting styles
the ‘worldview’ of the NS ‘proceeds through para- or approaches that express emotion, which are a vital
dox: impersonality and intensity; the specific and the part of rasa, but not the whole picture. Gupt states
universal; the inner and the outer; the bindu (point) clearly that ‘bhava is not to be taken simply as emo-
and its projection into infinite variety; stillness and tion, but as a psychological theory about the nature of
movement; the physical body and its emotions’, which opens up the complexity of the
transcendence’.11 Vatsyayan declares that ‘[t]he artis- term and leads us beyond the actor’s expression into
tic experience [of rasa] is acausal and whole, a state of the larger arena of the theatrical experience.17 Again,
beatitude and bliss in the mind of the experiencer, the Barlingay and Gupt offer the most complete and
creator . . . [Rasa is] the highly charged state of helpful view on the subject, as they both return
momentary freedom and emancipation which moti- directly to the sixth chapter of the NS, which focuses
vates, inspires creation . . . [and] this experience . . . on rasa theory, and lead us through the Sanskrit,
facilitates an abstraction of life into its primary emo- rather than oversimplifying for an Anglophone or
tions and sentiments’.12 European audience, or presenting readings filtered
In this sense, rasa is intensely personal, but for the through the NS interpretations of the highly influen-
experiencer of rasa, the emotions are a ‘meta- tial tenth-century Shiavite Abhinavagupta and his
experience’, detached and distanced from one’s successors.18 Moreover, it is crucial to comprehend
own life, as they are externally produced or chan- the larger significance of Natya, and how it partici-
nelled through a performance and shared with pates in the communication of bhavas, to perceive its
others.13 It is this meta-experience which creates substantial connection to the specific elements of
empathy in the spectator and allows her to experi- cinema. ‘Natya’ refers to a combination of media,
ence pleasure and freedom, even when experiencing namely ‘dance–theatre–music’, and Barlingay con-
rasic emotions of sorrow or disgust. This has led some cludes logically that Bharata’s aesthetic theory is
theorists to compare the rasic experience to Aristotle’s about the totality of ‘stage language’ and its effects
notion of catharsis, and, indeed, there is a ‘purgative’ (rasas). The rasic emotion is communicated to the
effect posited in the enjoyment of a ‘universalized’ experiencer/spectator by and through ‘[t]he set of
emotion.14 Finally, it is important to understand that actors and environment, and the acting and the bodily
one experiences rasa; it is not a mental or intellectual expression, the direction and the director – all these form
recognition, but rather is related to tasting the material of the Natya language’ (my emphasis).19
a wonderful meal, something with which the rasic Gupt also quotes the NS passage summarizing what is
experience is often compared, a tradition starting included in Natya, and contends that the word abhi-
with Bharata himself. Theatre practitioner and scho- naya in the list, usually translated simply as ‘acting’,
lar Richard Schechner declares: ‘[r]asa is flavor, taste,
the sensation one gets when food is perceived,
brought within reach, touched, taken into the 11
Quoted in Susan L. Schwartz, Rasa: Performing the Divine in
mouth, chewed, mixed, savored, and swallowed . . . India (New York, 2004), p. 14.
Rasa is sensuous, proximate, experiential.’15 In plain 12
Schwartz, Rasa, p. 14.
13
terms, rasa is visceral, not cerebral. See Barlingay, ‘What did Bharata mean by rasa?’ p. 444.
14
See Bharat Gupt, Dramatic Concepts: Greek and Indian:
In rasa theory, most pundits agree about the mean- A Study of the ‘Poetics’ and the ‘Natyasastra’ (Delhi, 1994),
ing of rasa and the idea that the bhavas (‘emotions’) pp. 271–3.
evoke the rasas in the audience/experiencer. 15
Richard Schechner, ‘Rasaesthetics’, The Drama Review 45
However, current scholars utilizing the theory, (2001), 27–50; p. 29.
16
whether as an analytical lens or a practical tool for See Hogan, Understanding, p. 107; and Schechner,
‘Rasaesthetics’, p. 29.
the theatre, tend to focus on the sthayi bhavas – usually 17
Gupt, Dramatic Concepts, p. 86.
translated as ‘standing or dominant emotions’ – as 18
See Schechner, ‘Rasaesthetics’, p. 28.
embodied by the actors, who then serve as the primary 19
Barlingay, ‘What did Bharata mean by rasa?’ p. 443.

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‘may be taken as acting in common parlance, but for establish mood, which are paramount in the main-
Bharata . . . it represents the whole gamut of visual and taining of one primary rasa throughout a film.
aural semiotics’ in the staging of a performance (my Editing, perhaps, has the least direct connection to
emphasis).20 It is also significant that three of the rasa theory, as it does not exist per se in the theatre.
eleven elements in the Natya description refer to Nonetheless, editing is a pivotal element of visual
music – song, instruments and svara (breathing, semiotics in film and, therefore, can be a potent
sound or musical notes) – which ‘cover[s] all the communicator of emotion, as Kuleshov’s and
literary and musical content of a performance text’; Eisenstein’s work proved in the first half of the twen-
the ‘theatre-house’ appears on the list as well.21 tieth century. Editing can be broken down into the
With the full meaning of Natya in mind, it is not three elements of collage (the placement of shots next
difficult to identify the analogues between the lan- to one another), tempo (shot length and transitions)
guage of the stage and the language of cinema. Much and timing (the coordination of cutting with other
has been theorized regarding the semiotics of film, aural and visual elements).23 As observed in techni-
and, with its focus on the spectator’s experience, ques such as juxtapositional editing, quick-cutting
apparatus theory lines up very well with rasa theory. (short shot lengths), lap dissolves, and cuts coinciding
This study will endeavour, however, to interact with major sound effects, editing frequently evokes
more directly with rasa theory, rather than to filter rasic effects in an audience.24
it through later Western concepts. Therefore, what As previously stated, Bharata identifies eight
are the visual and aural signifiers that communicate rasas in the Natyasastra, which are listed in Table 6
rasa? Clearly, this is done powerfully by all the ele- with their translations.
ments of mise-en-scène: setting, the human figure, As pointed out by Hogan and Jones, Indian films
lighting and frame composition.22 The use of the are most commonly dominated by the rasas of
term ‘mise-en-scène’, imported from the theatre romance (shringara) and sorrow/pathos (karuna).25
into film studies, illustrates film’s inheritance from
that ancient art and represents the move of this study, Table 6
among others, to apply theatrical aesthetic theory to
cinema. The ‘theatre-house’, a part of Natya, can be Rasa Emotion
compared meaningfully to frame composition, as it is Shringara Love in union and separation
analogous to the shape and boundaries of the stage, Hasya Humour
but it could also be expanded to refer to the material Karuna Pathos, sorrow, compassion, grief
conditions of spectatorship, i.e. where, when and Raudra Anger, wrath
how one is viewing the performed text. Sound is Vira Heroism
another element that is imperative to film and to Bhayanaka Fear/panic
Natya, with its emphasis on music as a storytelling Bibhatsa Distaste/recoil/disgust
Abdhuta Wonderment/surprise
device and interpreter and instigator of emotion. In
film, there are three types of sound to consider –
dialogue, sound effects and music – and these three
work together to evoke intense emotional responses. 20
Gupt, Dramatic Concepts, p. 86.
Indian popular cinema is known particularly, of 21
Gupt, Dramatic Concepts, p. 87.
course, for its vivid use of music that does not con- 22
Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis, Film: A Critical
form to the construction of ‘reality’ expected in most Introduction, 2nd edn (New York, 2008), p. 88.
23
Western film. Concomitant with music is cinemato- Pramaggiore and Wallis, Film, p. 199.
24
graphy, especially in Indian film. Camera movement Schwartz, Rasa, p. 15.
25
See Hogan, ‘Rasa theory’, p. 40; and Matthew Jones,
and the use of various lenses and filters create the ‘Bollywood, rasa and Indian cinema: misconceptions, mean-
perspective and tone of a shot, and patterns estab- ings and Millionaire’, Visual Anthropology 23 (2010), 33–43; p.
lished cinematographically help define characters and 39.

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Not surprisingly, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider is governed romance’ in Indian cinema, and note that the ‘tradi-
by karuna – the rasa of sorrow, pity and grief – from tional paradise of Urdu literature is associated with
start to finish, an emotional landscape that is under- that of Kashmir’.27 Consequently, after the first use of
girded by the rasas of disgust (bibhatsa), as represented the region in Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat (Rain, 1949),
by the extreme, grisly violence in the film, and ‘Kashmir featured as a location for romance for sev-
romance, which, as in the case of Hamlet and eral decades, until the political situation made shoot-
Ophelia (here Haider and Arshia), increases the pathos ing there almost impossible’ in the late 1980s.28 One
of the narrative. In her book Rasa: Performing the element that has been highlighted particularly in the
Divine in India (2004), Schwartz lists the colours and romantic Kashmiri landscape is water (e.g. rivers and
deities associated with each of the eight rasas. waterfalls), which is frequently used as a symbol for
Importantly, karuna is associated with the colour of eroticism in Indian film, leading to the practice of
doves or pigeons, a hue ranging from dull white to using spring and the rainy season to express romantic
warm, pinkish grey, to deeper shades of grey; and it is love: ‘spring for love in union and the rainy season for
connected to Yama, the god of death, king of ghosts, love in separation’.29 Tellingly, Bhardwaj has chosen
and the ‘moral judge and punisher whose assistants the opposite seasons for Haider: autumn and winter,
[monsters and demons] torture the wicked in hell’.26 where snow serves as a substitute for rain in marking
Depictions of Yama are dominated by red and black the doomed love of Haider and Arshia, who, unlike
colours, and he is related to Rudra and Agni, the gods Hamlet and Ophelia, have one beautiful scene of
of terrifying wrath (bringing both disease and healing) union in the typical Bollywood ‘log cabin’ romantic
and fire, respectively. These colours and motifs appear chronotope.30 Bhardwaj’s choice to set Haider in the
prominently in Haider. Dove-colour is particularly heart of Indian cinema’s celebrated romantic land-
apposite for this tale of lost and betrayed familial and scape, following its decline into a terrifying police
romantic love; it is the colour of sadness and melan- state, highlights Bhardwaj’s message in Haider. Like
choly, of a muted world, and of twilight, that liminal Akira Kurosawa in his twentieth-century
moment between day and night, life and death, being Shakespeare adaptations, Bhardwaj makes a brave
and not being. The red and black colours that accom- statement in Haider condemning the appalling cor-
pany rage, bloodshed and destruction feature predo- ruption and gruesome violence perpetrated by offi-
minantly in the latter half of the film, in which Haider cial authorities in his own nation, as well as militants
seeks to kill his uncle, Khurram, who is responsible for from within and outside the country. After years of
his father’s death at the hands of pro-Indian govern- encroaching Indian government control over the
ment militia. Throughout Haider, karuna is evoked majority Muslim region, Kashmir erupted in vio-
vividly through mise-en-scène, particularly in the cold, lence after the blatant rigging of Kashmiri elections
harsh, awe-inspiring terrain of the valley of Kashmir, in 1987, after which ‘furious Kashmiri leaders went
nestled into the soaring Himalayas. It is a dramatic underground. Soon afterwards, the bombings,
landscape, to say the least, and the film opens in the strikes, assassinations and stone-throwings began.’31
dying season of fall and moves into a snowy winter.
A frosty grey mist blankets the valley throughout
Haider, which can be seen in nearly every exterior 26
Sukumari Battacharji, ‘Yama’, in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd
long-shot in the film. edn, ed. Lindsay Jones (Basingstoke, 2005), p. 9868.
27
Rachel Dwyer and Divia Patel, Cinema India: The Visual
Culture of Hindi Film (London, 2002), p. 61.
rotten/romantic kashmir 28
Dwyer and Patel, Cinema India, p. 61.
29
Kashmir typically has been used very differently in Dwyer and Patel, Cinema India, p. 60.
30
Dwyer and Patel, Cinema India, p. 70.
Hindi cinema, as a magnificent and exotic backdrop 31
William Dalrymple, ‘Curfewed Night by Basharat Peer’,
for romantic passion. Rachel Dwyer and Divia Patel 20 June 2010, www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jun/20/
identify Kashmir as a ‘specific chronotope of curfewed-night-basharat-peer-dalrymple.

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In response, the Indian government militarized the (2015), three Pakistani scholars aver that these
state of Jammu and Kashmir, and used its troops, Bollywood films kept ‘the rotten Kashmir pot
largely from outside the region, to perpetrate ‘sys- blazing’: ‘elements like war hysteria, fanatic
tematic torture’ on the state’s citizens, including ‘a patriotism and jingoism are thoroughly stimu-
series of horrific rapes and atrocities’ which ‘radica- lated in the name of commercial entertainment’.
lized a population who were vaguely pro-Pakistani’ Consequently, they praise Haider for not ignor-
but previously not energized to act against Indian ing this ‘shocking and terrible history, about
forces; however, the ‘massacres of the early 1990s which India knows slightly and cares even
changed Kashmir forever: militant groups sprung [less]’.37 The rasic process is highlighted in their
up in every village’.32 In Imagining Kashmir (2016), claim that the power of these Indian films lies in
Patrick Colm Hogan describes Muslim citizens of the their ability to ‘stimulate’ rasic emotions such as
area being compelled to leave their homes and heroism, fear and anger. Even in the most
‘forced to pass before concealed informants for pos- humanitarian of these films, Roja, the grotesque
sible denunciation’.33 If an individual was implicated and deadly human rights abuses perpetrated by
in terrorist plots, without any further proof, he or she the Indian government are almost entirely
would be ‘disappeared’ into a ‘camp’ or a prison, absent. Bhardwaj must have recognized that
tortured and, often, killed. Kashmir itself ‘has been ‘revenge turns up frequently as a personal
turned into a sort of prison, with a massive apparatus motive in Kashmir terrorist films’,38 and he
that dwarfs that of any actual prison’.34 As one Haider decided to turn the tables in his Kashmiri narra-
reviewer observes: ‘[p]acked with perfidy, passion tive, using the revenge tragedy of Hamlet as
and pathos, Hamlet is seemingly the perfect canvas a model for the revenge of the wronged
on which to project a fresh perspective of the reality Kashmiris.39 Haider, as with a great many didac-
of living in an open-air prison’ (my emphasis).35 tic performative works in India, employs the
Bhardwaj clearly saw in Hamlet a text that parallels pathetic rasa to impart its ethical meaning and
the disintegration of a family with that of a state, and to stir audiences to think, and perhaps act, dif-
pursued this project to make a statement about the ferently, by inspiring empathy towards the suf-
atrocities committed by the Indian government fering Kashmiris.
against the Muslim citizens in this region. To do
this, he invited Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer –
who wrote Curfewed Night (2010), a ‘searing memoir 32
Dalrymple, ‘Curfewed Night’.
about the bloody struggle for justice in Kashmir’ – to 33
Patrick Colm Hogan, Imagining Kashmir: Emplotment and
co-author the film’s screenplay with him, and it Colonialism (Lincoln, NE, 2016), p. 29.
34
shows.36 Haider’s father, the surgeon Hilaal Meer, Hogan, Imagining, p. 29.
35
Nandini Ramnath, ‘Haider: desperately seeking Hamlet in
‘disappears’ in one of these ‘crackdowns’, in which the Valley of Kashmir’, 2 October 2014, http://scroll.in
a masked informer signals that Hilaal is involved in /article/681740/haider-desperately-seeking-hamlet-in-the-
terrorism against the Indian government. In this case, valley-of-kashmir.
36
the informer is Hilaal’s own brother, Khurram, who Dalrymple, ‘Curfewed Night’.
37
represents Muslims who aid and abet the Indian Gohar Ayaz, Zia Ahmed and Ali Ammar, ‘Hamlet–Haider:
from rotten Denmark to rotten Kashmir’, International Journal
forces in order to gain power and money. Since the of English and Education 4 (2015), 116–23; p. 117.
troubles began in Kashmir, the subject of Muslim 38
Hogan, Imagining, p. 26.
terrorism, by both Pakistani insurgents and local 39
In her insightful review of Haider, Ramnath notes that at least
militia, has appeared in several Indian films, most two films have offered views of the Kashmiri crisis that are
notably in Roja (Mani Ratnam, 1992), Mission sympathetic to those suffering under India’s police state:
Harud (2010), directed by Aamir Bashir, who plays Liyaqat,
Kashmir (Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 2000) and LOC: the Laertes character in Haider; and Valley of the Saints (Musa
Kargil (J. P. Dutta, 2003). In their article ‘Hamlet– Syeed, 2012), which also deals with environmental issues in
Haider: from rotten Denmark to rotten Kashmir’ Kashmir.

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haider through the lens of Gertrude role, as she is teaching school children
karuna about what family is: ‘brothers and sisters and fathers
and mothers. It is unselfish acts and kindly sharing.’
Indeed, Haider is set in a very specific milieu for This ironic introduction warns us of the explosive
a purpose, and, therefore, its thematic, stylistic and unravelling of her family as the narrative unfolds.
plot elements conform to the narrative of Kashmir A little later, at home, Ghazala is unhappy when she
in the 1990s, despite the fact that it is an adaptation of helps her husband prepare to operate on the terrorist
Hamlet. The commonalities mentioned above, who is now in their attic. She takes a telephone call
including the dominant rasa of karuna, connect during the procedure, which we will later learn is
these two texts; however, their differences have from her brother-in-law, the crooked lawyer
inspired some critics to complain that the film Khurram, who is complicit in the oppression of his
works better as a tragic tale about Kashmir than as Muslim neighbours. The next morning, there is
an adaptation of Hamlet, while others have griped a ‘crackdown’ in their village, and Hilaal is identified
that Bhardwaj ‘invoked the Bard’ too much and as a ‘threat’ to the Indian government by a masked
thus compromised what would have been a better man and whisked away roughly to an undisclosed
film without Shakespeare.40 The beauty or ugliness location. He is ‘disappeared’, and his house is
of the level of ‘Bardiness’ in Haider is surely in the bombed to smithereens with a rocket launcher as
eye of the beholder. Nevertheless, I believe Ghazala watches in horror. The couple’s son,
Bhardwaj and Peer’s screenplay weaves the elements Haider, then comes up from Aligarh Muslim
of Hamlet into Haider quite adroitly and to great University, where he is studying Indian revolution-
effect. Haider begins with white titles on a black ary poets of the colonial era, and begins to search for
screen announcing that we are in the Kashmiri city his father in camps and prisons. His search is emo-
of Srinagar in 1995, expecting the audience to know tionally presented to the audience through
that this was at the height of violence in the region. a montage of images of him going from camp to
The first image in the film is of Dr Hilaal Meer, camp, prison to prison, rendered extraordinarily
Haider’s father, being shoved through claustropho- poignant by the film’s first musical number,
bic grey stone alleys by Muslim terrorists with ‘Jhelum’ (after the river running through the valley),
machine guns. The mise-en-scène strongly evokes sung in plaintive, minor tones by the clear tenor of
the karuna rasa, as the shots are dominated by grey Arjit Singh. Along the way, we learn that many
tones, lacking any warm colours (perhaps through people are, like Haider, on arduous quests to find
use of a filter), and there is a pale, chilly grey light loved ones. At one point, as song lyrics declare
pervading these frames. We soon learn that Hilaal is ‘Blood, blood, blood, blood has become the colour
being taken to a terrorist leader suffering from an of time’ and ‘Blood is a molten ember’, we see shots
infected appendix, and he agrees to operate on the of bloody corpses heaped in the back of
man to prevent his death. Interstitial – one could say a government truck. For nearly four minutes of
lyrical – shots of the landscape around Srinagar this song, there is no diegetic sound, only the mel-
bridge between film sequences, starting here and ancholy voice of the singer narrating the region’s
running throughout the film, and these allow the tragedy. The montage ends with a shot of Haider in
audience to take a pause outside the narrative and the grey gloaming, throwing pictures of his father’s
soak in the atmosphere of sorrow and grief that face he used in the search into a blazing fire. Here
pervades the countryside in Kashmir. Long and we see sorrow and anger, shades of karuna, Rudra
extreme long shots reveal the cold, misty terrain, and Agni. The images are enough to tell the story,
marked by a muddy river and generally dreary
environs, which seem both hostile and entrapping.
Here at the beginning, we meet the true star of this
narrative, Ghazala Meer, played by Tabu in the 40
See Ayaz et al., ‘Hamlet–Haider’.

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and the song radiates the rasa into the soul of the Mission: Impossible film. He is thus coded as
spectator. a mysterious but not malevolent operative. With
Accompanying Haider on this journey is his dear a pronounced limp, dark sunglasses and dull white
childhood friend, Arshia, daughter of the head of robe draping his entire figure, he is, indeed, phan-
the Jammu and Kashmir police in Srinagar, Parvez tasmal, reminding us of Yama, king of ghosts. We
Lone. Arshia is a newspaper writer in the area and learn about his purpose after we see Haider kid-
uses her press pass to gain access for them into the napped by Muslim militants and taken to
facilities that house prisoners. In Haider, Arshia a graveyard. Here, Roohdaar tells Haider that he
evidently fills the role of the bosom confidant has a message from his father: ‘Revenge’. In a dark,
Horatio, as well as the thwarted love interest grey-toned flashback, Roohdaar then unfolds the
Ophelia. She is clearly in love with Haider, but dolorous tale of Hilaal’s incarceration, torture and
he seems oblivious to her charms as he is obsessed eventual murder by Khurram’s militia. Roohdaar
with finding his father. Meanwhile, Parvez has claims to have been Hilaal’s cellmate in prison,
been tasked with leading the efforts of the sharing in his sufferings, and announces to Haider
Indian government to further brutally subdue that he vowed to become Hilaal’s ‘soul’ and carry
Muslim militants – a project called ‘Operation his message to his son. In the end, Haider is told
Nightingale’ – and co-opts Khurram to conscript where his father is buried, and, in an icy, misty
his ‘terrorist’ clients into counter-insurgency mili- graveyard, he weeps over his father’s grave, driving
tia forces. Khurram also runs for local political the pathos home. It is at this point that Haider
office in order to consolidate his power, although begins to behave as if he were insane, but always
he tells Haider he is seeking office in order to find with a bit too much reason in his madness. His
his beloved brother Hilaal. A fast-paced montage change is marked graphically by appearing next
then rapidly shuttles the viewer between heated with a shaved head and a beard on his face in one
speeches at two Kashmiri political rallies, one fea- of the most memorable scenes in the film, his ‘to
turing Khurram, and a press conference in Srinigar be, or not to be’ analogue, in which he speaks to
led by Captain Murthy of the Indian Army, who a crowd at Laal Chowk, a prominent market where
arrogantly tells the crowd that India is fighting for politicians give stump speeches. He wears a rope
peace in the region against the ‘enslavement to around his neck tied in a noose and talks into its
Pakistan’, not against Kashmiris. Martial-sounding frayed end, beginning: ‘Do we exist or do we not?
music featuring prominent drums heightens the If we do, then who are we? If not, then where are
tension of this sequence, which is punctuated we?’ The speech is markedly aimed at the identity
with black-and-white footage of earlier revolts and situation of Kashmiris, who are colonized in
against Indian aggression. The rasa evoked by this the North by Pakistan and China, and by India
precisely choreographed collage of imagery is that everywhere else in the state. The scene is primarily
of disgust, primarily the disgust of the filmic narra- shot with a chaotic hand-held camera, often in
tor and the Kashmiris towards the deadly politics extreme close-ups where the bumping and canting
being played by the government and politicians; create a sickly vertigo. Haider chants with rap-style
however, one can also see the disgust of the mili- delivery: ‘There is no law; there is no order. Whose
tary industrial complex towards the Kashmiris, in laws? Whose order? Made on order, law and order.
the form of disrespect and dehumanization.41 India! Pakistan! A game on the border’. And here
As a bridging extreme long shot of the valley there is a cut to an extremely low-angle medium
reveals that it is now bleakly snow-covered and long shot of Haider, distorted by a wide-angle lens.
blanketed with pale blue-grey mist, we are intro- ‘India clings to us. Pakistan leeches on. What of us?
duced to the ‘ghost’, Roohdaar, played by the
ubiquitous Irrfan Khan, accompanied by pop-
style instrumentation reminiscent of a Bond or 41
See Hogan, Imagining, pp. 31–2.

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What do we want?’ The crowd chants, the flamboyant spectacle of Haider’s ‘Nightingale’
‘Freedom!’ Underscoring the complexity of that song and dance sequence, the equivalent of the
concept in Kashmir, Haider responds: ‘Freedom Mousetrap play. Haider’s donning of a large, red
from this side; freedom from that side. We will be bird-beak-shaped hat throughout the festivities
free!’ As he sings ironically, ‘A world better than leading up to the performance reveals that he
the world, our India / We are her children’, knows his uncle is collaborating with Operation
Khurram, who is in the crowd, calls out to him Nightingale. In the elaborate performance, featur-
‘Mother!’ trying to communicate that his mother ing a group of male dancers wearing light grey and
is there and wishes to speak to him; however, the red-clothed puppets representing Ghazala,
syntax of this exchange firmly establishes that Khurram and Hilaal, Haider sings an allegorical
Ghazala embodies the riven relationship between song about two birds – his mother (a nightingale)
India and the Kashmiris. Pathos, disgust and anger and father. The male was poisoned by ‘a falcon of
are evoked in this scene as Haider rails against the bad intention’, who then imprisoned and killed the
system that has caught them all in an inescapable, male bird. In the dramatic finale of the song, a giant
mortiferous trap. black puppet representing the falcon emerges onto
It is at this juncture, perhaps surprisingly, that the ‘stage’ of the Martrand Sun Temple, where the
Bhardwaj treats us to that ineluctable Bollywood performance is taking place, and when he turns
romance montage, as Arshia is the only one with around, we see the falcon is truly a satanic red
whom Haider can share Roohdaar’s message and demon. Haider is visibly seething with anger as he
his own confusion, though he does confront his sings of his father’s demise, and ends the song by
mother with a photo of the dead Hilaal, leading pointing at Ghazala and Khurram in a full shot from
swiftly to the announcement of Ghazala and Haider’s perspective, shifting focus from his hand
Khurram’s wedding. Bhardwaj falls back on the to the perpetrators’ faces, so the blame lands where
romantic Kashmiri ‘log cabin’ trope long used in our eyes do. The cinematography in this impress-
Indian popular cinema, which ‘features as a space ive Bollywood number is characteristically elabo-
offering . . . privacy, allowing the audience the rate, but even more baroque than most, featuring
pleasure of imagining complete solitude and sweeping crane shots, bird’s-eye long shots from
remoteness’.42 Finally, the shringara (romantic above, and extreme low angles leading to exagger-
love) rasa is the focus, and this montage, with its ated wide-angle shots with Haider’s angry face and
beautiful love song ‘Khul Kabhi Toh’, sung by the movements in the foreground and distorted back-
dulcet voice of Arjit Singh, depicts the union of grounds. The giant black and red falcon/demon
these lovers remarkably graphically for an Indian puppet is a coup de théâtre, and Haider wipes pro-
film. The montage begins with the two playing in minent red and black paint in stripes on his face
heavily falling snow, then moves into the dark during the performance; these colours connect
interior of a log cabin with only the golden light with both the imagery of Yama and the rasa of
of the fire illuminating parts of their entwined raudra (anger).
bodies. This overwhelming moment of warmth This act of aggression is the climax that sets the
and intimacy ends with Haider weeping in sorrow falling action in motion. Haider, like Hamlet, balks
and holding a gun to his head (see Michael from shooting Khurram when he is at prayer. He is
Almereyda’s Hamlet, 2000). We are swiftly ushered caught by Parvez, who gives Haider to his idiot sons,
back into the cold world of karuna, which is all the Salman and Salman (after the action star Salman
more jolting following our romantic escape. Khan), to kill. Salman and Salman, our Rosencrantz
At Ghazala and Khurram’s wedding, Haider and Guildenstern, end up being brutally murdered by
plans a special finale: he will shoot the groom.
We see him hiding the pistol he will use, creating
suspense. However, it is also here that we are given 42
Dwyer and Patel, Cinema India, p. 70.

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Haider, who savagely bashes each of their heads in can see this in his other Shakespeare adaptations,
with rocks in the open snowy, mist-bound landscape. Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006), as well as his
Haider, at this point, believes he has no choice but to non-Bardic work, such as Kaminey (2009) and
join the insurgency and cross over to Pakistan, so he Rangoon (2017). Bhardwaj chose Shakespeare’s
plans to meet Roohdaar’s men in the graveyard gravedigger scene to launch into a flight of
where he first met his father’s ‘soul’. On the way, fancy, and it does bring humour, strangely, while
he cannot resist stopping one last time in the dark, maintaining the karuna rasa in its mise-en-scène and
shadowy ruins of his home, where he encounters his its lyrics. When the song concludes, there is
mother and they play out a version of the ‘closet a rather interesting on-the-nose translation of
scene’, in which Haider confronts his mother with Shakespeare’s gravedigger scene between the men
her guilt, but she explains that she had no idea that and Haider, but it is the ‘So Jao’ gravedigger
Khurram was a government informant when she told number that dazzles, even if as a guilty pleasure
him of the terrorist in their attic. Haider insists he in this karunic (my word) environment.
must leave but she begs for him to shoot her, ending From this point on, the tragedy escalates apace.
her ‘agony’; at that moment, Parvez arrives to kill Haider, hiding in the dark house adjacent to the
Haider, but Haider is quicker on the draw. Arshia graveyard, spots Arshia’s funeral procession, and
falls apart emotionally after her father’s death, as we he and her brother Liyaqat fight, resulting in the
see her, in a dull white gown, unravelling the yarn of latter’s death. Khurram and his militia arrive,
a blood-red scarf she had given to her father and coming at the house armed to the teeth with
wrapping herself in it. She is trapped in this inescap- machine guns, grenades and a rocket launcher.
able web of violence and finally shoots herself in the The full-scale battle that erupts in the snowy
head. Haider flees to the graveyard, and there graveyard is shot in a stylistic combination of
encounters Roohdaar’s men cheerfully digging a 1980s Hollywood action movie and a shoot-
graves in the snowy ground, enclosed by misty forest out in a classic Western: quick cutting between
and grey skies. What follows is the most excessive and jerky hand-held shots of individual fighters, inter-
delightful version of the grave-digging scene ever mittent slow-motion shots to dramatize action
filmed; it is a Bollywood tour de force, with the three and gore, high-angle extreme long shots over
diggers singing jovially of life and death in a rock- the bloody, body-strewn graveyard, and occa-
style song rhythmically matched to the striking of sional silent pauses to ratchet up the tension.
their shovels in the cold graves. As they cry, ‘Not When the scene abruptly shifts to a quiet shot of
twilight or sunset / Just darkness, only darkness’ in the back of a white SUV stopping on a road, we
the dove-coloured setting, the smooth crane shot are startled to see Roohdaar and Ghazala in the
flies fluidly above the men then pulls closer to them vehicle. Wearing a red hijab, a long black wrap,
at an odd, slightly canted eye-level shot in which the and no make-up, she looks in the depths of despair
skeletal, black branches of the trees in the back- as she exits the SUV and walks silently up to
ground finally come into focus behind them. It is Khurram directly after he has launched a rocket
a masterful song and ‘dance’ number that provides into the now-collapsed and smouldering house
some much-needed levity before the horror that is where Haider remains. Khurram begrudgingly
to come. Despite its drab colour, this is the most self- grants her a chance to bring Haider around, so
conscious, over-the-top use of music and choreo- she enters the half-incinerated, gloomy house as
graphy in the film, because there is no excuse for it her bloody son stumbles down the stairs to meet
in the narrative, as there is in the wedding scene; her and they clasp on to each other for dear life.
thus, it is not characteristic of Bhardwaj’s work, Needless to say, this is the most heart-breaking,
which tends to avoid flashy Bollywood numbers in pathos-inducing moment in the film, intensified
general and any musical interludes that are not by the dark shadows surrounding them and the
seamlessly integrated into the narrative fabric. One flashes of deep scarlet in his blood and her hijab,

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captured so poignantly by a shot/reverse-shot ser- jerky canted-angle close-ups, which move
ies of hand-held extreme close-ups, each shot between him and Khurram’s blackened face;
containing both heads so we sense their intimacy Haider hears his father’s voice in his head telling
as we feel their grief. There is no music on the him to avenge Hilaal’s murder, and then his
soundtrack as they exchange their final words; the mother’s voice layered on top of that saying that
silence between the dialogue augments the ‘freedom lies beyond revenge’. This cacophony is
despondence. As Haider tells her of his drive for accompanied by the same three quickly ascending
vengeance, a tearful Ghazala expresses what we violin notes in a loop, rising in volume with the
know to be true: ‘Revenge begets revenge. tension. This is the most melodramatic moment in
Revenge does not set us free.’ As Haider still an unapologetic melodrama, and, in my opinion,
refuses to surrender, Ghazala walks slowly out of Bhardwaj has earned it. Haider suddenly throws
the dark house into the grey, snowy graveyard, the gun away, cueing the abrupt cessation of the
stopping at its edge, just in front of Khurram and ascending notes, leaving one quietly sustained
what is left of his soldiers. Music creeps back into high pitch. Haider rises and limps off, crazed and
the scene here in deep, weeping cello notes, as blood-stained, moving away from the graveyard
Ghazala, in super-slow motion, calmly throws off as his uncle begs for a mercy killing. The final shot
her long black wrap in a medium long shot from of the film is a high-angle extreme long shot
behind her. Diegetic sound has disappeared as revealing the chilling carnage of the scene: bro-
there is a cut to a high-angle long shot above ken, bloody bodies strewn everywhere, smoke
her, showing the soldiers turning to run from and fire, a true hellscape. This image strikingly
her in slow motion, then a shot of Khurram yell- reflects the gods of Yama, Rudra and Agni, and
ing and running towards her. The music is now the overwhelming grief and loss of the karuna rasa
moving in a quick pattern of three ascending notes is palpable. Haider passes through the gate and
repeating over and over, building the suspense as back into the world as the screen fades to black.
we finally see the source of the response: Ghazala Hamlet lives to die another day.
is wearing a suicide vest containing eight grenades Outside the diegetic world, Bhardwaj ends the
and her hand is on the pull trigger. The close-up film with white titles on black screens announcing
on the vest moves up her body into a bird’s-eye that there is now ‘relative peace’ in Kashmir and
crane shot looking down on her as she raises her that the Indian Army saved thousands of civilian
head to gaze at the grey sky as if in silent prayer, lives there during the disastrous floods in 2014,
the camera mimicking the movement of a soul but a melancholy song sung by a plaintive female
rising after death. A high-pitched violin note is voice haunts us in the soundtrack, intensifying the
sustained as she pulls the trigger in an extreme feelings of grief and sorrow even as we are told
close-up on her hand, which still bears the red that there is hope. Savouring this mix of sorrow
circle of her wedding paint. In a moment, it is and pleasure is at the core of rasa theory; we
over. Diegetic sound returns, cruelly, with the experience the pure pathos of the rasa while tak-
tinkling sounds of the pins leaving the grenades ing joy in the aural and visual artistry of the film
and the massive explosion. Chaotic hand-held (and, for Shakespearians, taking delight in the
shots show Haider stumbling through the black departures from and translations of our beloved
smoke towards a pile of dark grey ashes and body Hamlet). This article has attempted to demonstrate
parts, crying ‘Mother!’ When Haider spots that the most significant concept in Indian aes-
Khurram crawling on the ground, his legs having thetics, rasa theory, can be a fruitful and revelatory
been blown off below the knee, Haider lurches tool for analysing cinematic texts. Bhardwaj’s
towards his uncle with a crazed look. As he hovers Haider provides a lucid and stimulating illustration
over Khurram holding a pistol to his uncle’s head, of this as it compellingly evokes empathy and
the camera captures him in a series of chaotic, introspection through rasas, in true paradoxical

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fashion. As for the message of the film, tragically, people who call that beautiful, violence-plagued
violence in Kashmir continues on all sides of the valley of Kashmir home.
conflict. A New York Times article in late 2016
declared that Kashmir was ‘paralyzed by an
“adored” band of militants’,43 and so the tragedy 43
Geeta Anand and Hari Kumar, ‘Kashmir is paralyzed by an
continues, but now it also affects those of us who “adored” band of militants’, 14 November 2016, www
have been moved by our experience of the karuna .nytimes.com/2016/11/15/world/asia/kashmir-india-
rasa through Bhardwaj’s film to care about the pakistan-militants.html.

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