The following article was first published in Shakespeare Magazine, Launch Issue, 23rd April, 2014 http://issuu.com/shakespearemagazine/docs/shakespeare_magazine_01.
The relationship between Shakespeare and
Bollywood is much deeper than a few adaptations and appropriations. When we
think of Shakespeare in Bollywood we think of adaptations such as Angoor
[Grapes] (1982), Qayamat Se
Qayamat Tak [From Doom to
Doom] (1988), Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006). We
might include Shakespeare themed movies to the list such as Shakespeare
Wallah (1965) or The Last Lear (2007). The Bard, however,
is embedded in the very dialogue and imagery of Bollywood right from its
inception due to the roots of Hindi cinema in the Parsi theatre tradition which
freely borrowed from European, Persian and Sanskrit sources. After the 1950s, the
Bengali literary tradition resulted in several faithful translations and
adaptations of Shakespeare, which, in conjunction with the inspiration of
Hollywood Shakespeare films, has led to more complex adaptations of Shakespeare
in Bollywood in recent years.
1 1. Every big story in the Hindi film industry is from
Shakespeare.
Naseeruddin
Shah, a veteran Bollywood actor who has played Shakespeare on stage and on
screen claimed: ‘The roots may look lost but every big story in the Hindi film
industry is from Shakespeare.’ This may be an oversimplification of sources but
Bollywood not only abounds in sly and unexpected references to popular
Shakespeare dialogues and characters, but in common themes and devices such as
twins separated at birth, cross dressing characters, star-crossed lovers,
characters falling in love with messengers, the wise fool, the tamed Shrew and
the mousetrap device.
2 2. Bollywood Shakespearean films are heavily influenced
by Hollywood adaptations of Shakespeare.
Several early
Shakespearean adaptations in Bollywood were copies of Hollywood adaptations
such as Kishore Sahu's 1954 Hamlet, which was a shot-by-shot
imitation of Olivier's 1948 Hamlet. The 1947 Romeo and
Juliet starring Nargis as Juliet, was a copy of the Hollywood version
with Norma Shearer. In recent years,
the Rani Mukherjee starrer Dil Bole Hadippa! (2009) was a
loose copy of She's the Man (2006) based on Twelfth
Night. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela (2013) also owes
more to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996) than to
Shakespeare.
3 3. The most popular plays in Bollywood are Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice
and Hamlet.
To take the
example of just one play, there are three versions of Hamlet in the Parsi theatre tradition: Dada Athawale’s Hamlet or Khoon-e-Nahak [The Unjust Assassination] (1928), Sohrab Modi’s Khoon-ka-Khoon [Blood for Blood] or Hamlet (1935) and Kishore Sahu’s 1954 Hamlet. Eklavya (2007), the under-production untitled film by gay rights
activist film maker Onir, the under-production Haider by Vishal Bhardwaj, as well as another planned adaptation to
be directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia starring Hrithik Roshan, are also based on Hamlet.
4 4.The first
Shakespearean adaptation on the Hindi film screen was Savkari Pash (1925)
directed by Baburao Painter based on The
Merchant of Venice.
This film was a
social melodrama in the realist tradition and dealt with money lending, a
problem that ruined countless illiterate, poor farmers. The audience, more
accustomed to escapist mythological fantasies and historical love stories, did
not appreciate the strong dose of realism and the film did not do well.
However, the shot of a dreary hut photographed in low key accompanied by a
howling dog in this film is regarded as one of the most memorable moments of
Indian cinema to date.
5 5. Angoor (1982) is the best known adaptation of The Comedy of Errors on film in the
world.
The largest
number of adaptations of The Comedy of
Errors on film have been undertaken in India. There are three from Hong Kong, two from the United States and one each
from Russia and Mexico. In contrast, there are six known adaptations of this
play on film in India and three more under production. Of these, Angoor is the best known, both in India
and in the world. This is also one of the first Shakespearean adaptations in
India to be transposed on to a modern Indian setting.
6 6. Qayamat Se
Qayamat Tak (1988), now one
of the best known adaptation of Romeo and
Juliet in Bollywood, was originally scripted with a happy ending. Nasir Hussain,
who wrote the basic story of QSQT thought that audiences in Bollywood would not
accept sad endings, especially in a love story. Tragic endings for protagonists
are uncommon in Bollywood. However, Mansoor Khan, Nasir’s son and first-time
director, felt very strongly about an ending where the lovers die and thought
that giving them a happy ending would ruin the integrity of the story. He
managed to convince his father and an alternate tragic ending was shot. The
film ended up being a superhit.
7 7. Karz
(1980), and its remake Om Shanti Om
(2007), used the Mousetrap Device from Hamlet.
The Mousetrap
Device, or the play-within-the-play, helps Hamlet test the Ghost’s accusation
against Claudius. Karz and Om Shanti Om deal with a popular
Bollywood theme - rebirth. Instead of the ghost, it is the protagonist who is
killed in these two films, who later returns and uses the Mousetrap Device to
‘catch the conscience’ of the killer. The Shakespearean influence in these two
commercially popular films is completely unacknowledged but the Hamletian echoes are obvious to anyone
familiar with the play, or the several adaptations of Hamlet in Bollywood.
8 8.Vishal Bhardwaj
is the first Indian film maker to attempt a Shakespeare trilogy with Maqbool (Macbeth), Omkara (Othello) and
Haider (Hamlet).
There have been
several adaptations of Shakespeare on film in India. The most well-known ones
in recent times in Bollywood are Maqbool
(2004) and Omkara (2006) which have
achieved critical and commercial success across several countries. Vishal
Bhardwaj is the first director to attempt a Shakespearean Trilogy, following in
the footsteps of film makers such as Lawrence Olivier, Orson Welles, Kenneth
Branagh, Gregory Kozintsev and Akira Kurosawa. His Haider is in its final stages of production.
9 9.Amitabh Bachhan’s father, Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachhan
was the first to translate Macbeth
and Othello in verse in Hindi.
There were
several detailed translations of Shakespeare in Hindi prose since the first
adaptation of The Merchant of Venice
by Bharatendu Harishchandra in 1880 titled Durlabh
Bandhu. These adaptations, other than Indianising the names of people or
places, faithfully follow the original text and were meant for reading rather
than presentation on stage; they often lacked colour or rhythm. Dr. Bachchan’s Macbeth and Othello, published in 1956 and 1958 respectively, however, were the
first translations in verse and have been performed several times.
1 10. Many commercial Bollywood films which are not adaptations
of Shakespeare also ‘slip in’ Shakespeare references.
Shakespeare has
seeped into the very idiom of Bollywood and we can find reference to it in
unexpected places. In Deewar [The wall] (1975) for instance, the
mother disapproves of her son's nefarious doings and tells him that ‘all the
water in the world cannot wash your hands clean of your sins’. The popular
comedic villain Ajit has a nefarious way of getting rid of his victim in a
movie and tells his henchman: ‘Give him the Hamlet poison, he’ll continue to be
lost in a haze of to be or not to be!’
