Hamlet

Synopsis: Feature film. An Indian version of Hamlet believed to have been based on a stage production. Adapted by Amanot Hasrat and E.D. Verma. Many scenes are transposed and the parts of Rosencrantz and Guilderstern cut.
Language: Urdu
Country: India
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of release: 1955
Duration: Duration unknown

Director

Kishore Sahu

Producer

Kishore Sahu

Cinematographer

K.H. Kapadia

Writer

Amanot Hilal; E.D. Verma; William Shakespeare

Screenplay

Kishore Sahu

Music

Jaipuri Hasrat; Ramesh Nardu

Cast

General: The British Film Institute’s database and Esha Niyogi De’s article state that the film is a shot-by-shot reproduction of Olivier’s HAMLET (1948).
Reviews: Kenneth S. Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer Shakespeare On Screen: an International Filmography and Videography (London:Mansell, 1990), entry 104 cite a review which appeared in Film India (Feb.1955), pp71-75 under the heading ‘Sahu’s Hamlet Flops at the Metro [Bombay]'. Not only does the film ‘slander’ Shakespeare’s memory but also ‘Hiralal who plays the King was made a drunken clown’. Laertes has a ‘callow and silly face’, and the picture is ‘stupid and selfish’. An accompanying photograph shows Dame Sybil Thorndike on the opening night posing with the theatre manager Mr Butani.
Esha Niyogi De ‘Modern Shakespeare in popular Bombay cinema: translation, subjectivity and community’ in Screen (vol.XLIII, no. 1, Spring 2002), p.19-40.

British Universities Film & Video Council