Shakespeare and Indian Cinemas "Local Habitations"

This book is the first to explore the rich archive of Shakespeare in Indian cinemas, including less familiar, Indian language cinemas to contribute to the assessment of the expanding repertoire of Shakespeare films worldwide. Essays cover mainstream and regional Indian cinemas such as the better known Tamil and Kannada, as well as the less familiar regions of the North Eastern states. The volume visits diverse filmic genres, starting from the earliest silent cinema, to diasporic films made for global audiences, television films, independent films, and documentaries, thus expanding the very notion of ‘Indian cinema’ while also looking at the different modalities of deploying Shakespeare specific to these genres. Shakespeareans and film scholars provide an alternative history of the development of Indian cinemas through its negotiations with Shakespeare focusing on the inter-textualities between Shakespearean theatre, regional cinema, performative traditions, and literary histories in India. The purpose is not to catalog examples of Shakespearean influence but to analyze the interplay of the aesthetic, historical, socio-political, and theoretical contexts in which Indian language films have turned to Shakespeare and to what purpose. The discussion extends from the content of the plays to the modes of their cinematic and intermedial translations. It thus tracks the intra–Indian flows and cross-currents between the various film industries, and intervenes in the politics of multiculturalism and inter/intraculturalism built up around Shakespearean appropriations. Contributing to current studies in global Shakespeare, this book marks a discursive shift in the way Shakespeare on screen is predominantly theorized, as well as how Indian cinema, particularly ‘Shakespeare in Indian cinema’ is understood.

Introduction Poonam Trivedi and Paromita Chakravarti Part I. Indigenising the Tragic 1. Woman as Avenger: ‘Indianising’ the Shakespearean Tragic in the Films of Vishal Bhardwaj Poonam Trivedi 2. Eklavya: Shakespeare Meets the Mahabharata Robert S White 3. Reworking Shakespeare in Telugu Cinema: King Lear to Gunasundari Katha Nishi Pulugartha 4. Shakespeare in Malayalam Cinema: Cultural and MythicInterface, Narrative Negotiations C.S. Venkiteswaran 5. ‘Where art thou Muse that thou forget’st so long,/To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?’: Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) – A Neglected Shakespeare Film Koel Chatterjee Part II. Critical Innovations: Historiography of Silence and Poetics ofRasa 6. The Indian ‘Silent’ Shakespeare: Recouping an Archive Amrit Gangar 7. Shakespeare, Cinema and Indian Poetics Anil Zankar Part III. Between the Global and the Local 8. Such a Long Journey: Rohinton Mistry’s Parsi King Lear from Fiction to Film Preti Taneja 9. Cinematic Lears and Bengaliness: Locus, Identity, Language Paromita Chakravarti 10. Shakespeare and Indian Independent Cinema: 8 × 10 Tasveer and 10ml Love Varsha Panjwani 11. "Singing is Such Sweet Sorrow": Ambikapathi, Hollywood Shakespeare and Tamil Cinema’s Hybrid Heritage Thea Buckley Part IV. Reimagining Gender, Region and Nation 12. Gendered Play and Regional Dialogue in Nanjundi Kalyana Mark Thornton Burnett 13. Not the Play but the Playing: Citation of Performing Shakespeare as a Trope in Tamil Cinema A. Mangai 14. Indianising The Comedy of Errors: Bhranti Bilash and Its Aftermaths Amrita Sen 15. Regional Reflections: Shakespearein Assamese Cinema Parthajit Baruah Part V. Interviews Part VI. Filmography

Poonam Trivedi was Associate Professor in English at Indraprastha College, University of Delhi, India and is currently the vice-chair of the Asian Shakespeare Association. Paromita Chakravarti is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India.