Haider - 2014 Hindi Movie Blu-Ray Special Edition / Region Free / English Subtitles / Shahid Kapoor, Shradha Kapoor

Haider was the most well done adaptation of Hamlet and Vishal Bhardwaj yet again has proven his creative skills in bringing to life such a daunting tale that leaves chills even days after viewing the film. Shahid was superb and deserved all the awards received for his amazing performance.

Vishal Bharadwaj's third and final entry in his Shakespearean trilogy is quite an excellent, though quite divisive film, which in addition to doing a contemporary retelling of the Bard's Hamlet, paints a raw and disturbing picture of the insurgency-era Kashmir set in 1995. The film doesn't take any sides when it comes to discussing the border politics, and does push and almost breaks the boundaries of its alloted U/A rating (by Central Board of Film Certification, India) with the depiction of certain heinous acts of violence. If MPAA ratings are to be considered, then the content here comes pretty close to Hard-R.The video, for the most part - 99% - is fantastic. Could see moderate banding during the VB pictures logo animation, and a few shots looked a bit muted in comparison to the rest, but I guess that's attributable to the source elements (judging from the quality of these shots, it seems GoPro and/or DSLRs were used in addition to the primary filming equipment).The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track too is very good, except that it seems to have been mixed at a much lower volume when compared to other (obviously, loud) Bollywood films. However, after hearing the whole thing, I think this is intentional, as the LFE here is so strong, that the sudden gunfires may throw you off the couch (Think 'Inglourious Basterds')...Extras include a 25-mins making-of documentary and 6-7 deleted scenes (6 mins), all in HD. Not bad for a Bollywood BD release.Highly Recommended.