I have a point to make. See, I love Heavy Metal [First time I’m reading this, really – Honest! :|] and whenever I was asked to mention my favorite Indian bands, I always was in a pickle. Despite knowing the odd Zygnema, Providence and Orion, there was barely anything I could explain about them because not only do I not listen to them more often, but I can’t love them until I can set them apart from their major influences. It is how you differentiate “American” bands and “European” bands, and such a distinction for an “Indian” band is very marginal. Similarly I can talk about the Indian band Avial a heck lot, like my soul depends on it because it strikes a chord within me and I can say that it is more Indian than it is Metal.

Secondly, the same can be said about movies. Unlike the odd South remakes which get swallowed by producers and directors and vomited with extra gloss nowadays, we rarely get good gems. Just recently I saw one and this topic will soon touch on that. Back to movies in general, though; that even the Marvel movies being taken from Comic books, still need a coherent script to adhere to the mass audiences. A lot of the characters and plot twists don’t add up gleefully and nor can they be directly shown on the big screen, page by page from the book or from the character itself. And that’s where the director can add his rendition and make it bordering on fictional and believable. So whether Jane Foster can call her estranged date from Svarthelfeim in it’s ridiculous form from Thor The Dark World or Arnim Zola can be immortalized as an artificial intelligence in the form of a beautiful tribute to the villain in Captain America The Winter Soldier, you can always see the influence of the director in that moment. Similarly, that is how Vishal Bharadwaj treated Hamlet. Not only did he “Indianize” it, [In a way to completely respect the base subject i.e. Hamlet], but he made it believable by the way he created a bunch of characters, placed them in a setting and let the political and personal tensions take care of the plot, even if he tweaked the third act a little.

Thank you, Vishal Bharadwaj.

And just like a playwright, I’ll bring forth to the second act of this Note. It was what the Note actually supposed to be on, but while I was descending the stairs of the theater and was making my way home, I thought of layering the post a bit. See, it needed to be lengthy so I could get a good night’s sleep.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni – Any follower of Cricket can speak for eons on this personality. You can’t criticize Indian cricket without him, nor can you hail it. At the end of the day, despite all other speculations and debates kept aside, He brought you the World Cup. Not just a fighting shot [1996] or a meek surrender [2003], but he actually helped earn it, with the innings in the final that too. As long as he has that distinction, he is a cynic’s nightmare.

Today, Shahid Kapoor attained that position. I saw his earlier movies and yes, fine – Chocolate Boy image in a growing film industry. That crossed his relationship and that was cashed in with Fanaa and Milenge Milenge. Then came Kismat Konnection. Which I watched on the big screen, by the way. Then arrived the safe and profound, traveling back-in-time Vivaah. Another supposed “relationship” with another co-actor. Recently, R …. Rajkumar, JUST so he could fit in with the other Southsters. [Note to self: Cool slang name alert for actors specifically appearing in remakes – Southsters. *Self 5*]

All of that kept aside, Haider is your World Cup. Of course, it last achieved India 28 years to lift the trophy again. OR, another chance at the World Cup won’t arrive until next year. See, that’s the thing with World Cups, if they arrive too often, they lose their sheen in comparisons to earlier recent-memory movies [Just like the IPL lost it’s sheen]. There has to be a considerable time period so you can have something to talk about among friends in a drunken stupor or to your kin during nighttime story sessions [Which, I know, are becoming a dying race of their own]. This, somehow in my mind, brings him at a crossroad. He can either continue being this off-beat, special, one-of-a-kind, getting-into-the-skin-and-teeth-of-the-character role-seeker; OR he can go back to that chocolate boy, playboy, don’t-care-a-damn-about-the-script so I won’t-certainly-give-a-damn-about-you Southster. And lets face it, despite the grandness of the World Cup, India still faces West Indies and Sri Lanka for useless tea sessions and bonding time. Oh, and while they’re at it, they play 6-10 matches among themselves as well.

And lets face it, Nawazuddin acted in Kick. Irfaan Khan was in a blink-and-miss Amazing Spider-Man role as well as the ugly-ass wannabe comedies with Arshad Warsi, also a cameo in ‘Xpose. To me, for the while, possibly until you wish to challenge yourself again, Shahid Kapoor. you’ll always remain Haider.

Thank you, Shahid Kapoor.

PS: You almost made me cry today. The kind of emotion I witness very rarely. The kind I witnessed when I saw The Dark Knight’s Joker and Watchmen’s Rorschach. The kind when watching a person portray an off-beat character with brilliance simply brings this awe-inspiring moment when you just have to punch yourself in the gut that you’re not him.