Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Haddi Movie Review: Good, if you like the giggles of guns and the smell of blood

Language: Hindi

Director: Akshat Ajay Sharma

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Anurag Kashyap, Ila Arun, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Saurabh Sachdeva, Shridhar Dubey, Rajesh Kumar, Vipin Sharma, and Saharsh Shukla

Set against the background of Delhi- NCR, Haddi explores the crime that happens in the ruins of the place. Taking away lands of the poor, how politicians make big money. Haddi circles around the intoxicating world of vengeance, violence, and power, trying deep to understand the very essence of a criminal’s psyche.

Directed by the talented debutant Akshat Ajay Sharma, this hard-hitting noir revenge drama stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Anurag Kashyap in lead roles along with Ila Arun, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Saurabh Sachdeva, Shridhar Dubey, Rajesh Kumar, Vipin Sharma, and Saharsh Shukla in supporting roles. But Haddi fails majorly to understand the emotions of the LGBTQ community and the making of Haddi (Nawazuddin- Siddique).

Haddi, a transgender, portrayed beautifully by one of the most talented craftsmen, Siddiqui, who comes from Allahabad to Delhi to join a gang of transgenders and climbs up to the top of the criminal chain to avenge his family who was wronged by a mighty powerful gangster-turned-politician played by Anurag Kashyap. Too much violence and too many cuss words, which you obviously cannot avoid when you are trying hard to show a word that is so obnoxiously dangerous. But one thing is for sure that you cannot ignore the brilliant performances of both Siddique and Kashyap.

You will end up hating Kashyap’s character so much that you might end up throwing up after watching the film like I did. Everything about that man is so repulsive and annoying, that I will make your stomach turn. Haddi may not be my kind of film, but the depiction is gritty and it will take you to a world very unknown to regular people who have their regular lives. It shows how greed of power and money can change people.

The narrative is no doubt chaotic, but you cannot deny that it is thrilling. Haddi also highlights the power play within the transgender community which is true. You cannot stop hating each of the negative characters and at the same time you cannot stop thinking about the film even after you are done watching. The most important question that comes to our mind as to why is it called Haddi? Spoiler alert, the film talks about bone trafficking and how lucrative it can get.

 Rating: 3 out of 5