Chapter Five - Hamlet and Indian Cinemas: Regional Paradigms

Summary

This chapter contends that fully capturing the diversity of Hamlet adaptations in India involves taking much more account of regional distinctiveness.[i] Between the earliest of the Hamlet films and the three adaptations of the play discussed in this chapter – Karmayogi (dir. V. K. Prakash, 2012), Haider (dir. Vishal Bhardwaj, 2014) and Hemanta (dir. Anjan Dutt, 2016) – there are shared approaches which stand as testimony to a revitalized interest in the multiple ways in which Hamlet is mobilized. Karmayogi, Haider and Hemanta contest the usefulness of the ‘Bollywood’ identifier and go beyond current applications of the label in theme and content, opening fresh ways of accessing Shakespeare inside Indian milieux. Each film renders explicit what is involved in the work of adaptation, acknowledging the play as a reflexive prompt for dialogue, iconography and on-screen text.