ISSN No. 0974-035X An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education Towards Excellence UGC-ACADEMIC STAFF COLLEGE, GUJARAT UNIVERSITY, AHMEDABAD, INDIA

CINEMATIZING PLAYS IN INDIAN MOVIES: A STUDY OF SHAKESPEAREAN PRESENCE IN BOLLYWOOD

Pathik Dodiya

Abstract

Movie-making of plays of William Shakespeare has been a practice in Indian cinema for many years. The well-known characters of Shakespearean have universal characteristics which motivate viewers to utopian life, have insightful thought about behaviour. In Bollywood, the concept of Adaptation has been observed as blending of Eastern and the Western culture, which presents Shakespearean theme in local milieu. It leads to emergence of the term ‘glocal’ which signifies cinematizing the global theme in local setting. This research paper explores Indian melodramatic phenomenon, insisting the adaptation of Shakespearean plays in Indian cinema, the movies created by Bollywood.

Keywords : Glocalization (Glocal), Adaptation, Appropriation

Introduction

In the recent years, the term ‘Glocal’ has achieved a remarkable stand in India; among them cinematizing plays of William Shakespeare has been outstanding. The legendary characters of Shakespeare are galvanic, and a boundless source of motivation for innumerable individuals over the globe. At the point when Shakespeare’s composing sets it on fire, and exchanges the gathering of people to a true to utopian life. Indian adjustment of both Shakespearean tragedy and comic drama can be fathomed as a blending of ‘videsi’ and ‘desi’, an. amalgamation of East and West, and an Oriental and Occidental social trade. Shakespeare’s ‘androgynous’ mind, the convolution of his narration, music, description and aesthetic sensibility classifies him as a literary scholar.

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The connection between Indian silver screen - Bollywood and European dramas has achieved noticeable impact since the inception of movie in India. Though the first talking Indian film Alam Ara produced by Ardeshir Irani was released in 1931, the seeds were sown with the first full length silent Marathi movie, Raja Harishchandra in 1913 by Dadasaheb Phalke, also known as the father of Bollywood movies.

History of Bollywood reveals that Parsi theatre was the locus of gigantic dramatic movement. Western stories were presented in execution workmanship with the end goal of encouraging social agreement. Scholarly trade of this sort advanced into the Indian ethos, and pulled in a dominant part of Indian populace. Talking particularly of Shakespeare’s dramatization, it can be watched that his plays were presented in India with the end goal of advancing English dialect in India. Hence, English developed in India as a second dialect, a dialect that flourished in its Indianized form, and connected India to different nations of the world. Now I am helped to remember Toni Morrison’s Nobel Lecture (1993) in which she said that, “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Language assumes a vital part in developing scholarly resources, and in moulding general public.

Shakespearean Plays in Bollywood

Shakespeare’s oeuvre is presently some portion of world writing since national literary works are currently being quickly supplanted by World writings. In the contemporary situation transmission of writing is a ceaseless wonder. It is a result of far reaching globalization that abstract generation moves from local → regional → global = GLOCAL. The word, ‘Glocal’ comprised of two words, globalization and localization, and is derived from the portmanteau word ‘glocalization’. Glocal means "think global, act local". On one hand, the term ‘Glocalization’ signifies international standards, fulfilling local requirements on the other.

David Damrosch attests, in regards to the effect of globalization on writing:

The ongoing acceleration of economic and cultural globalization has brought the scope of world literature to a new level today. In the older imperial networks, literature usually flowed outward from the metropolitan center to the colonial periphery …but literature now circulates in multiple directions, and writers even in very small countries can aspire to reach a global readership. (106)

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It is clearly observed that worldwide readership has improved the extent of perusing and composing on a huge scale. The standard of world writing has opened new ways for interpretation and crosscultural studies.

Charming adjustments of abstract works of art and progressive celluloid headways have changed the experience of watching films. The visual faculties are quickly invigorated by impression of pictures on screen as opposed to through the traditional perusing process. In this way, the extent of silver screen, independent of geological or social differing qualities has earned gigantic fame, and has likewise amalgamated with the social fabric. E. Ann Kaplan in her article, "Fanon, injury and silver screen" avows that:

…cinema functions like night dreams and daytime fantasies to permit regression to infantile stages inadequately worked through. It functioned as temporary wish- fulfilment the better to enable people to carry on their physically burdened lives …. Cinema could function like Freud‟s mourning process― to accommodate people to loss of the object. (150)

The audience, while watching the adapted plays of Shakespeare as a film, are transferred to an artistic ideal world.

In India, movies play vital role as a religious division for the general population. William Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted by Indian moviemakers on a surprising scale. Namrata Joshi, a film commentator, noted in regards to Shakespeare that, " Shakespeare’s plays with their dramatic strength and superb portrayal of the universal truths of human nature, have always lent themselves well to adaptation to different times and places." The indigenized interpretation of Shakespearean drama in type of adapted format requires the audience to have attentive, thoughtful and sensible vision to stave off the deviation of the theme. Many a times, Indian movie producers wrap non-Indian theme in Indian concept to make it satisfactory for the Indian crowd.

The Indian adaptations of Shakespearean plays demands thoughtful talk and should be discussed at a stretch. In the mid twentieth century, in the movie Khoon Ka Khoon (1935), Sohrab Modi played the role of Hamlet. Naseem Bano played Ophelia, and Shamshad Bai assumed the part of Gertrude. The Indian adaptation was composed by Mehdi Ahsan. In 1941, following Sohrab Modi, the film entitled Zalim Saudagar based on The Merchant of Venice produced by J. J. Madan which was composed by Pandit Bhushan. After the mid of twentieth

July, 2016. VOL.8. ISSUE NO. 2 www.ascgujarat.org Page | 28 Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Pathik Dodiya / Page 26-32 century, with the arrival of the film Angoor (1982) which was coordinated by Sampooran Singh Kalra (Gulzar), the pattern of adaptation drastically revised. Angoor was a remake of Bhrantibilas (1963), a Bengali drama film which was derived from The Comedy of Errors and that depended on a Bengali play of the same name composed by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. A late revamp of Angoor coordinated by Sajid Khan is titled, Hamshakals. Romeo and Juliet was represented recently by Sanjay Leela Bhansali as Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ramleela (2013) in a Gujarati milieu. The Montague-Capulet family enmity was reflected in the Rajadi-Sanera family struggle which ended with bloodshed and passing of Ram (Romeo) and his dearest Leela (Juliet) at long last finished.

Film Adaptaion

The art of adaptation in the history of Indian cinema is re-imagined by the Shakespearean trilogy of Maqbool (2003), Omkara (2006), and Haider (2014) which brought fame in filmmaking for producer Vishal Bhardwaj. Bhardwaj does not enjoy wild written falsification, but rather despite what might be expected in a hefty portion of his meetings he recognized his profound respect of Shakespearean dramatization. The initial movie of trilogy, Maqbool was a real adjustment of Macbeth, and it is in such manner that film pundit, Madhu Jain, watches that, “Shakespeare hasn‟t got lost in translation here. Macbeth, a study in ambition and guilt, is perhaps one of the more accessible of the bards plays.” In a discussion with Roshmila Bhattacharya, Bhardwaj conceded that he adjusted Othello for the second motion picture of his set of three, Omkara, on account of the ‘sexual conflict’ in the play. In an another discussion, Bhardwaj commented that he adjusted Hamlet as Haider to round off his set of three since this play too had the component of ‘sexual conflict’ like the two prior plays in his trio. Haider (2014) was composed in a joint effort with creator, Basharat Peer. In a discussion with Deepanjana Pal, Basharat Peer talked about how the speeches of the play Hamlet were meant Hindi, and how some praised lines must be precluded as a result of the scarcity of time. As to Peer attested that, "… what helps in silver screen is that music and visuals do replace a lot of words."

‘Adaptation’, here used as adjustment and ‘Appropriation’ here used as allocation are two fundamental aspects of adapting texts from other sources for the purpose of moviemaking. The term, ‘adapt’ is derived from the Latin root ‘adaptare' which implies ‘to make fit’. Subsequently, the adjustment of Shakespearean plays makes his written work fit for contemporary social and political circumstance. These adjustments don't mess with the first

July, 2016. VOL.8. ISSUE NO. 2 www.ascgujarat.org Page | 29 Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Pathik Dodiya / Page 26-32 content, and attempt to keep up the fundamental disposition of the composed content. In any case, a few changes are obligatory, for example, those of dialect interpretation, neighborhood setting, and certain other realistic essentials. Margaret Jane Kidnie in her original work, Shakespeare and the Problem of Adaptation (2009), battles that, " Cultural, geographical or ideological differences between work and adaptation are rooted in a perceived temporal gap between work and adaptation enabled by an idea of the work not as process, but as something readily identifiable instead as an object” (68-69). This makes it clear that specific contrasts are unavoidable and that adjustments do prompt certain issues. At the point when the content is adjusted for a film, it is trimmed to counter the issue of time and space. This shortening may prompt a quality bargain. The author’s real goal is ignored in such community oriented endeavor of moviemaking, and regularly the interest of the viewer is entirely constrained, in opposition to the way toward perusing where a pursuer has the freedom to take an interest in forming the significance of the content. ‘Generic hybridity’ or the ‘instability of genres’, is additionally an essential part of adjustment procedure in light of the fact that the medium of communication is changed, and there is an interchange between the class to improve the true to life charm. As characterized by Julie Sanders, adaptation is “…transpositional practice, casting a specific genre into another generic mood, an act of re-vision in itself" (18).

The procedure of adaptation is elaborated by Linda Hutcheon in her book, A Theory of Adaptation (2006) in which she recommends that adaptation can be studied from "three distinct but interrelated perspectives” (7). She comments that adaptation can at first be examined as a, "formal entityor product", besides as a "process of creation", and thirdly it can be considered as a "process of reception" (7-8). Hutcheon further watches that adjustment is "a form of intertextuality” (8).

Gerard Genette in his applauded work, Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree (1982), made a definite investigation of the palimpsestuous nature of the content, which concentrated on the association between the writings. He welcomed this connection, and supported intertextuality for advancing imaginative expression. Therefore, it might be inferred that an adaptation is, "a derivation that is not derivative― a work that is second without being secondary. It is its own palimpsestic thing" (Hutcheon 9).

Another extremely valuable procedure in filmmaking is that of ‘Appropriation’. Julie Sanders, while depicting with the part of ‘appropriation’ proposes that, this procedure manages the source-text by appropriating it into an alternate mix of societies. She says that this change

July, 2016. VOL.8. ISSUE NO. 2 www.ascgujarat.org Page | 30 Towards Excellence: An Indexed Refereed Journal of Higher Education / Mr. Pathik Dodiya / Page 26-32 may include bland shakiness and that, "the appropriated text or texts are not always as clearly signalled or acknowledged as in the adaptive process. They may occur in a far less straightforward context than is evident in making a film version of a canonical play" (Sanders 26). Shakespeare had faith in allocation himself since he appropriated numerous folktales, legends and myths in his plays. He was significantly enlivened by writers like Ovid and Plutarch. It is a result of apportionment that conscious literary theft in moviemaking can be controlled, and the realness of the adjusted content can be held.

Conclusion In the expressions of T. S. Eliot, a famous scholarly figure of the twentieth century, “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” (15). These lines reverberate the glocal criticalness of extraordinary personalities of the past that have a non-decreasing character. Their enormous dedication moulded the assortment of English dialect in order to make worldwide readership, and support scholarly energy. The Glocal viewpoint that altered Indian silver screen, and indigenized the plays of Shakespeare should be concentrated hopefully. The advancement of current Indian silver screen is therefore a non-consuming attempt to decipher the scholarly capability of Shakespearean show for Indian audience, and to study Shakespearean dramatization historiographically, which implies exploring Shakespearean artistic corpus both truly and graphically.

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Works Cited

Bhardwaj, Vishal, and Shahid Kapoor. Interview by Roshmila Bhattacharya. Indiatimes.com. The Times of India, 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. Damrosch, David. How to Read World Literature. UK: Wiley-Blackwell Publication, 2009.Print. Eliot, T.S. “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” Selected Essays. London: Faber and Faber Limited, n.d. Print. Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge Publication, 2006. Print. Jain, Madhu. Rev. of Maqbool, dir. Vishal Bhardwaj. Outlookindia.com. Outlook, 9 Feb. 2004. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. Joshi, Namrata. "Moor of Meerut." Rev.of Omkara, dir. Vishal Bhardwaj.Outlookindia.com. Outlook, 14 Aug. 2006. Web. 12 Oct. 2014. Kaplan, E.Ann. "Fanon, Trauma and Cinema." Frantz Fanon: Critical Perspectives. ed. Anthony C. Alessandrini. London: Routledge Publication, 1999.147-150.Print. Kidnie, Margaret Jane. Shakespeare and the Problem of Adaptation. New York: Routledge Publication, 2009. Print. Peer, Basharat. " Writing a 3D Kashmiri: Basharat Peer on the challenges of co-scripting Haider." By Deepanjana Pal. Firstpost.com. Firstpost, 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014. Sanders, Julie. Adaptation and Appropriation. New York: Routledge Publication , 2006. Print. “Toni Morrison –Nobel Lecture”. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 12 Oct 2015.

Pathik Dodiya Assistant Professor The KPES College, Bhavnagar Email ID:[email protected]

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