The Bard in Hindi Cinema

1. The Bard in Hindi Cinema Shakespeare wrote, ‘All the world’s a stage…’ In the over four centuries since he wrote those lines, perhaps they can be modified to read, ‘All the world’s my stage.’ His plays have transcended barriers of geography and time, and have lent themselves to adaptations in different languages in different settings in different lands. What makes Shakespeare so popular, especially to Indian audiences? Is it merely, as some critics posit, an urge to be seen as ‘highbrow’? If so, there’s delicious irony in the fact that in his own time, Shakespeare wrote mostly for the layman. The beautiful wordplay and deep philosophies that he espoused mingled freely with farting jokes and puns. Both classes and masses would discover in these plays something that resonated with them. Cymbeline was first adapted for the stage by the National Theatre in Calcutta. The play, titled Kusum Kumari, was staged in 1874. Cymbeline also became the inspiration for another play titled Champraj Hado. Staged in 1884, this version would blend Shakespeare’s tale with elements of Rajput folklore, with the drama set in a Mughal court. Film adaptations followed. In 1923, Nanubhai Desai would transpose Champraj Hado to the silent screen, while a ‘talkie’ version named Sati Sone or Sona Rani, directed by Madanraj Vakil, released in 1932. These were not the only stage or screen adaptations of this play. The Parsi Theatre in Bombay adapted Cymbeline as Meetha Zahar in 1900. In 1930, this play would be adapted into a silent movie of the same name. Similarly, The Merchant of Venice was adapted for stage as Dil Farosh by Mehdi Hassan ‘Ahsaan’ in 1900, a direct adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. While Shylock is transposed as an Indian moneylender, the playwright did not really stress the anti-Semitism much since

2. there wasn’t an acceptable equivalent in the Indian context. Baburao Painter adapted the play for the silent screen as Savkari Pash or The Indian Shylock in 1925, which witnessed the debut of Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre, better known as V. Shantaram. The Merchant of Venice had several other screen adaptations – Dil Farosh, based on Ahsaan’s play, released as a silent movie in 1927; Baburao Painter remade his silent film as a talkie in 1936; and in 1941, Radha Film Company of Kolkata released their version titled Zaalim Saudagar, directed by J.J. Madan, who had earlier directed an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, titled Hathili Dulhan (1932) starring Khurshid, Patience Cooper, Abbas and Mukhtar Begum. Among the Bard’s comedies, The Comedy of Errors was a particular favourite of Indian film-makers. Identical twins and mistaken identities provided ample scope for laughter. In 1869, Bengali educationist and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar translated the play into Bengali. Titled Bhranti Bhilas, the plot closely followed the original though the structure of the play was altered into a novel. Interestingly, Bhranti Bhilas was [re]adapted into a play in 1888. The first known screen adaptation of The Comedy of Errors was Bhool Bhulaiyan (or Hanste Rehna), made in 1933. It just shows that Shakespeare isn’t going anywhere soon. As long as there’s an audience for audio-visual entertainment, there will always be a demand for the Bard of Avon. For, as Ben Johnson wrote: ‘He was not of an age, but for all time.’