Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Spoiler-free premise
A young man returns to Kashmir after his father disappears and finds his family transformed by suspicion and conflict.
Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free+
Student Haider Meer returns to Kashmir during the 1995 insurgency after his doctor father disappears in military custody. He finds mother Ghazala close to uncle Khurram and receives a message from militant Roohdar that redirects his search toward revenge.
Why it belongs
Haider relocates Hamlet into Kashmir's disappearances through snow, music, political detail, and Shahid Kapoor's increasingly fractured physicality.
Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case+
Tabu's Ghazala and Shahid Kapoor's Haider transform kinship into the film's most unstable territory. Snowbound ruins, checkpoints, family homes, gravediggers, radio speeches, and Vishal Bhardwaj's songs make Shakespearean conflict locally concrete.
Major award wins
No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.
Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Institutional reference ranks
Sight & Sound—IMDb Top 250—AFI 100—
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score
Great Cinema Master List scores
Greatness8.4
Engagement9.0
Ease8.3
Hindi · Not Rated Narrative Feature Mood: Exhilarating & Gripping
