Shakespeare in Indian Cinema

With the arrival of the British Colonisers, many things came to India and Shakespeare was one of them. And since then he has been the source of inspiration for countless writers, scholars, artists and film producers in India. Naseeruddin Shah once said in an interview: “Every big story in Hindi films is inspired by Shakespeare in some way”.

It is believed that teachers liked Richardson were the first who created a literary taste for Shakespearean drama in the minds of the Indian audience and the students of Bangal at the beginning of the 19^th century. Richardson used to teach his students how to recite and act the scenes of Shakespearean plays. In 1837, the first time some students from Bangal performed The Merchant of Venice in the house of Governor. In 1853 students of Oriental Academy staged Othello.  The same group of students performed The Merchant of Venice in 1854 and Henry IV in 1855.

In 1868, Oriental Theatrical Company came into existence in Mumbai. After that, some Parsi companies took over the task to play Shakespeare’s dramas in various parts of India. Actually, these companies or theatrical groups paved the way for Shakespeare in Indian art and cinema.   These groups did a lot to popularise the bard in Indian society in the local language. King Lear as Haar jeet in 1902, Twelfth Night as Bhool Bhuliayan (1905) and Anthony and Cleopatra as Kali Nagin are some of the translations by Parsi companies. But later translations like Raja Lear in 1915 and Measure for Measure as Bagula Bhagat in 1923 are perhaps better translations than the earlier ones. Translation of Shakespearean plays were first published in a magazine named ‘Shakespeare’ brought out by Narayan Parsad ‘Betab’ (1872–1945)

In the early twentieth century, Sohrab Modi enacted the role of Hamlet in his movie called, Khoon Ka Khoon (1935). Naseem Bano played Ophelia, and Shamshad Bai played the role of Gertrude. The Indian adaptation was written by Mehdi Ahsan. In 1941, J. J. Madan followed Sohrab Modi and adapted The Merchant of Venice for his Hindi film titled, Zalim Saudagar. The Indian adaptation was written by Pandit Bhushan. Similarly in the latter half of the twentieth century, the trend of adaptation flourished with the release of the film

Angoor (1982), which was directed by Gulzar. Angoor based on one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays The Comedy of Errors a farcical comedy. It is the story of two pairs of identical twins and mistaken identities; the two pairs of identical twins are separated at birth and their lives go haywire when their paths cross in adulthood. The film stars Sanjeev Kumar, Maushumi Chatterjee, Deven Verma and Deepti Naval among others. Like the original play, the film is supremely hilarious.

Romeo and Juliet unarguably Shakespeare’s most popular play has been adapted million times by filmmakers all over and Bollywood too isn’t far behind, the play has been adapted into several movies like – Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Ek Duje Ke Liye Ishaqzaade, and the recent Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela.  A recent movie Dil Bole Hadippa is a pure Shakespearean comedy. It actually simplifies the original Shakespearean plot, and really just takes from it the basic elements: girl pretends to be a boy, meets another boy, and they eventually fall in love as in The Twelfth Night.

 The art of cinematic adaptation in Indian cinema has been redefined by the Shakespearean trilogy of Vishal Bhardwaj. He won big accolades in filmmaking specifically for his Shakespearean trilogy that consisted of three movies, Maqbool (2003) based on Macbath, Omkara (2006) based on Othello, and Haider (2014) on Hamlet. Bhardwaj does not indulge in rampant plagiarism, but on the contrary, in many of his interviews, he acknowledged his admiration of Shakespearean drama. He says: 'Shakespeare is the greatest storyteller ever. His stories have layers of spectacular human drama. I think they can be adapted anywhere and in any language. I can live my whole life on Shakespeare.'

In the words of T. S. Eliot, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” 'Classics are adapted because they have an evergreen quality. Through adaptation, we are just casting them into another mould and keeping them alive,' writer Saurabh Shukla is quoted as saying. Shakespeare captured human emotions like no other and that is why he has captured the imaginations of people worldwide through generations. Shakespearean Literature has definitely crossed the limits of time and space and has been reigning in the literary world and cinema of different countries and different languages for centuries.