From Maqbool To Haider, Vishal Bhardwaj Lights Up The Big Screen

Let’s celebrate Vishal Bhardwaj’s birthday with some of the best moments from his films.

Vishal Bhardwaj wears many hats. (Photo courtesy: Twitter/@yammag)

Vishal Bhardwaj is one of the most talented and multi-faceted personalities in Bollywood today - the kind you think of and thank the lord for. A fantastic writer and director, he is also a gifted music composer and singer and a conscientious producer, who is not afraid to support newcomers or potentially controversial subjects. And no one - absolutely no one - has managed to adapt Shakespeare so skilfully to a contemporary setting in Hindi cinema.

As he turns 51 on 4th August, here’s paying a tribute to Vishal Bhardwaj, the director, who has managed to bring out some of he finest performances we have seen in recent years. Even as you wait for his upcoming Rangoon with Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut, sit back and rewind to some of the best scenes from his films.

Haider (2014)

A masterful adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the context of the heartbreaking turbulence that is Kashmir, Haider is definitely one of Bhardwaj’s best films. Remember Shahid Kapoor (he seems to have become a Bhardwaj favourite), who in one of his best performances, plays a seemingly insane Haider who lashes out against the dreaded AFSPA?

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013)

Vishal Bhardwaj is also one of those filmmakers who work with realistically relevant subjects but ensure that his films are entertaining as well. Check out the inimitable Pankaj Kapur, with Imran Khan for company, play the drunk Harry Mandola in Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, who tries to cajole an unyielding barman to dispense alcohol on a dry day. Hilarious or what?

7 Khoon Maaf (2011)

While it’s not one of Bhardwaj’s best films, 7 Khoon Maaf did look at love through a twisted and definitely realistic prism - a far cry in itself in an industry where romance and marriage is idolised to the point of being sickeningly sweet. And it also had Irrfan Khan and Naseeruddin Shah. Remember the scene where Susanna takes her sixth husband Modhu Da to task at gunpoint?

Kaminey (2009)

The good writer as he is, Bhardwaj takes care to flesh out even the secondary characters in his films. And consequently, they are peppered with performances that remain with you for a long time. While Shahid Kapoor playing the twins in Kaminey was a revelation, the face-off between Amol Gupte as Bhope Bhau and Chandan Roy Sanyal as Mikhail, is one of the best executed sequences in the film that entertain and terrorise in equal measures.

Omkara (2006)

While Omkara obviously revolved around Omkara and Dolly, played by Ajay Devgn and Kareena Kapoor, it was Saif Ali Khan as Langda Tyagi who stole the show. In what remains his most memorable performance till date, Saif blended humour, cunning and plain evil to create Tyagi. Check out the magic he creates in the scene where he attempts to console a love-struck Deepak Dobriyal.

Maqbool (2003)

Maqbool was only Vishal Bhardwaj’s second film after Makdee, and it definitely helped Irrfan Khan showcase his immense talents. The first of the Shakespearean trilogy that he made, Maqbool implanted Macbeth in the Mumbai underworld - and how. The menacing, near-silent Abbaji (Pankaj Kapur), the love and power hungry Nimmi (Tabu), and the loyal soldier-turned-rival Maqbool (Irrfan Khan) brought to the screen a range of intense human emotions rarely seen in Hindi films. Rewind to the sequence where Nimmi and Maqbool realise that their world and their sanity are tearing apart. Unforgettable!