Juxtaposing the Indian Othello's: a Comparison of Othello with Omka ra and Kalivattam
Parvathy IY. & Livna C.
The'Glocal'cinem atizing of the plays of William Shakespeare in India has been a grolrn,C-breakirig venture. The literary collpilation of Shakespeare is propulsive, arld a limitless fountain of inspiration for countless people across the r,vorld. 'When Shakespeare's writing is adapted on celluloid, itsets it ablaze,and transfers the aud.ience to acinematic utopia. Indian adaptation of botlr Shakespearean tragedy and cornedy can be comprehended as an anralgarnation of 'videsi' and 'desi', a synthesis of East,and West. and an Oriental and Occidental cultural exchange'.
Shakespearers Otlrello is one ofthe best written tragedies in Errglish. The play portrays Othello-tlre nroor; an easily misled man ruining a chain' of lives includirrg his own, falling prey to ego, jealousy and doubt. The play had beeri adapted to filnrs in English and various other languages as well. About four centrrries after the play rvas unveiled for the first tiffre, two Indian directors from Hirrcli and Malavalarn filrn industries had worked their rnagic to Indianize Slrakespeare's inrmortal villainous- hero
In 1997 l(eralite director liyaraj ieleased Kaliyattam,revolving t!'ound'KannanPerumalayan (Suresh Gopi), a Theyyarn artist who io''r'esponds to Othello, and Tharnara (ManjuWarrier), the beautiful daughter of the village lread.Jayaraj followed the same storyline in the film, where poor Tharnara ends up gettins murdered by Perumalayan.Paniyan who coveted the position of Theechamundi which Perumalayan holds, in order to gain which he plants a seed of doubt in Perumalayan's mind about Tharnara's fidelity,rnaking hirrr suspect that Thamara is cheating on hirn with Kanthan. Perumalayan believes Paniyan when he spots the silk robe he had given to Thanrara with l(anthan. The echo of Othello is very evident,though the filrn is set in tlre culturally packedNorthern Kerala. The art form Theyyam beconres the mask disguising the moor Othello as the
Keralite Theyyarn artist; :
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In a setting frorn a different tinre ancl cultlrral span, Bollywood director Vishal Bharadwaj reiterated the tragedy as Omkara (2006) for the North Indian audience.Vishal's Omkara (Othello) is the chieftain of a band of outlaws in a semi-lawless rural area in Uttar Pradesh. His brother and right hand nlan is Langda Tyagi (lago), named !o for his limp. Another prominent figure in this gang is Keshu (Cassio), the only memberto have a college education. Ortrkara is in love with the beautiful Dolly (Desdemona), and she with him. At her request, he and his gang interrupt herwedding and bring her to Iis village. In the viltage, Langda', *ife Indu(Ernitia) becomes Dolly's only companion and friend. When Omkara appoints Keshu as the Bahubali (youth leader) of the gang, Langda (who anticipated the post) feels jealous and overlooked, and seeks revenge by convincing Omkara that Dolly is lraving an affair with Keshu behind his back. For most part the story is the same as that of Othello, with just the background of each character adapted to suit the Indian temperament.
Otnkara is heightened in the sights of rural UP whereas Kaliyattam is based in the.culturally luxurious backdrop of south Indian art forms and beliefs surrounding it. The cultural form of Theyyam is the means through which Pet"umalayans character is betterexplored in the movie and the fihn is moored in the strong performances of Othello, Desdemona and lago.
I(annan Perumalayan. the Othello of the story is an ugly man-dark and pochmarked-'accompan ied with h is, characteri stic of be ing overwei ght and uncouth. Except from his immense talent as a theyyam artist he has nothing to recommend hiry._B_qqthe-eoncept tlrat love is lrlind is pictured when Tharnara,the most beautiful belle defies her own father for hirn. It is his irrsecurities about hirnself triggered with the curse her father puts Lrpotl his head-: as she has done unto ffie, so will she one day do unto you. He is the perfect victim when Paniyan brews his mischief. The easy make belief is due to the various levels of insecurity that perumalayan has of himself. The Shakesperean tragedy is sprinkled with local flavor and the tale of love and hate became a love story torn apart by caste and class tinged with jealousy and insecurity. The film thus has turned irrto an original work due to the addition of Jayaraj's own sensibilities.
Bharadawaj, whereas in Omkara has woven the characters around the plot. Though Omkara, Dolly are stillthe nrain characters, the entire plot steers according to Langda Tyagi's wishes, and he directs thern till he is
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Lutdoltc b!,his orvn \\,'ifc at tlre clinrax. Ontkat'a is allatrout tlte un{'olcling of -l the stor'-y. horv 1,ngi rrrzutage s to [rring about a plethol'a of trageclies.ltt starl< contl'ast. the plA),. hou,ever" concentrates on people. Each characters have their o\,vn distinct identities and personalities. For exanrple, Bhaisalteb. play,cd t," Naseenrclclin Slrah in the nrovie. Itas no role to play except u'here he steps in to bring abotrt a clrange in the direction in lvhich the story is going - a trvist in tlre tale. \\/hereas in Otlrello, the Duke of Venice has a verY c'listinct and irntrrorranr personality. In the play.the plot is just attother character. interacting rvitlr evet'),one in the play,with a distinct personality ol' its o\\/n.
The clorn inant change that the play undet'took. r'u'hen Indiart ized \\/as the reworl< of,the clirlax. Roth the directot's have solttehow etrtrvined the Inclian beliel'of I(anna into the fllrns. Othello ends with Othello l "Those u,ho pra-y f or your downfall are concentrating negative t[ougfuts towards yorr, \\/itlrout tal + 94 a .., I . 'Iil'ttdPosing lhc lntliun Otltcllo"t in the celluloid that Shakespeare finally gained a new ensemble. For like Satyajit Ray said, The readl sees only what the author chooses to describe Different directors have chiseled their own versions of Romeo, Othello, Macbeth, etc, through Ishaqzaade, Omkara,Kaliyattam' Maqbool, each to aptly suit the Indian psyche and even shaping them again to atttlne with the culturally diverse North and South Indian audience as well. "...A film on the other hand, presents information in lumps, as it were. At any given moment, the image on the screen may be filled with plethora of details, each carrying information "(Assadudin, 64). Bibloigraphy . http://www.imdb.com/title/ttO4884 I 4/reviews o https://www.academia.edu/5 l44979lThe-re-birth-of-Shakes peare_i-: n_l ndia_Ce lebratin g-and-lnd ian izing-the-Bard-in- I 964 o http://ijellh.com/cinematizing-shakespeare-study-shakespearean presence- i nd ian-c inem a"/ r https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliyattam e https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmkaraJ2006-film) ooo 95