The Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Plays in Indian Cinema

This paper focuses on a critical evaluation of how Shakespearean plays are translocated and adapted into the Indian setting along with aiming, rethinking, and repositioning Shakespeare in the twenty-first century Indian cinematic setting. I offer a nuanced understanding of the various approaches undertaken by Vishal Bhardwaj, the director of Haider (2014), which is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. I discuss the various elements employed by the filmmaker to indigenize Shakespeare’s play in the Indian setting, which is also my key research question: “How is Shakespeare adapted to the Indian setting?” A few of the ways this is achieved include transculturally adapting the play to a specific part of India ​—​ Bhardwaj alters the “rotten Denmark” to barbed-wire Kashmir, India, thereby giving the play a modern take. Bhardwaj also alters the ending of the play; in Haider we see that Khurram/Claudius and Haider/ Hamlet both are alive. The filmmaker also adds certain words that are very Indian audience specific such as “chutzpah,” which is a word that joins two words (one an abusive word and the other a law). Finally, the author resorts to staying close to a Bollywood trope of songs and dance sequence. The “Mousetrap scene” of Hamlet becomes a lavishly choreographed song, “Bismil,” in Haider. I throw light on all these aspects and analyze how Shakespeare is adapted in Hindi cinema.