Haddi (7 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Crime Drama

Channel: ZEE5 

Duration: 134 minutes

Writer: Adamya Bhalla, Akshat Ajay Sharma

Director: Akshat Ajay Sharma

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Anurag Kashyap, Saurabh Sachdeva, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ila Arun, Vipin Sharma

Till almost a decade and a half back, whatever representation of gay characters I saw in a Hindi movie was always comical and kind of ridiculous.

While everyone around guffawed at their scenes, I was always confused and not really comfortable because -

a. not much info was available on the subject.

b. I have always believed that all forms of existence have a serious and compassionate side. No one can be born to be just laughed at!

Fortunately, sometime around 2009, I watched Sean Penn starrer Milk on a movie channel on Tata Sky, wherein he brilliantly portrayed Harvey Milk, the groundbreaking gay politician. 

Later on, he also won an Oscar for Milk.

Merely watching his performance rested so many of my queries and I wondered when will Hindi movies produce something like this.

To everyone's surprise, it was the spate of the concerned webseries that attacked the Indian celluloid with full gutso around 2016, thanks to the absence of vigilant censor on the OTT platform.

They showed and continue to show much more direct, detailed and logical content encompassing the lives of LGBTQIA+ community. However, very few of them are Indian productions.

Haddi is one such rare Indian OTT movie that dares to go deep into the life and emotions of a transgender women, played amazingly by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

As and when required, he appears a weak & tender woman or an indifferent passerby or a cold blooded killing machine!!

He has handled all his scenes with adroit and poise.

However, the problem lies with the storyline which is based on underworld activity, revenge and retribution, which makes the movie quite grotesque to watch and confuses the identity of transgender people.

The movie does not provide any sort of distinction between transgenders, cross-dressers and others.

In short, the movie lacks the depth & layering required to handle such an unexplored subject amidst such a complex violent setting.

You can still watch Haddi for good attempt & toil, impactful make-up & styling and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.