According to Naseeruddin Shah, all stories in Indian cinema are actually inspired from Shakespeare’s stories. Vishal Bharadwaj’s Shakespeare trilogy has won the hearts of audiences globally. ‘Maqbool’, ‘Haider’ and ‘Omkara’ are some of the finest adaptations of Shakespearean plays not only in India but the whole world. Here are some other movies that are inspired or adapted from different plays by William Shakespeare.
Joji (2021) – Amazon Prime Video:
‘Joji’, written by Syam Pushkaran and directed by Dileesh Pothan, is inspired from Shekespeare’s Macbeth. It has Fahadh Faasil in the lead role and tells the story of an engineering dropout Joji, who decides to kill his father after getting tired of his abuses and taunts everyday. After committing the act, Joji gets hallucinations and a rumor about him being involved with his father’s death is spread. The story is imagined with great deftness and a lot of effort has been given to transform ‘Macbeth’ a common, regular, middle class man yet have the same mental conflicts as the brave Scottish general.
Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) – Amazon Prime Video:
‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’ stars Kamal Hassan and Rati Agnihotri in the lead roles of a wonderful retelling of the classic Shakespearean play ‘Romeo And Juliet’. The film tells the love story of a Tamil man and a North Indian woman and how they are opposed by their families for this cross-cultural relationship. The execution of the film is realistic, believable and enriching. ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye’ is directed by K. Balachander and the music is composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Kamal Hassan has done a phenomenal job in this movie. You should not miss this movie if you are a fan of Shakespeare’s stories.
‘Zulfiqar’ is a Bengali adaptation of two famous Shakespearean plays ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘Antony And Cleopatra’. The movie is directed by Srijit Mukherjee and stars talented actors like Prosenjit Chatterjee, Kaushik Sen, Dev, Ankush Hazra, Parambrata Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Nusrat Jahan and many others. It did not have great reviews but was a superhit due to the word-of-mouth of audiences. The movie tells the story of Zulfiqar Ahmed, a gangster and member of the Syndicate, a powerful organization. He is killed by his most loyal friend Basheer Khan who is a very strong nationalist and has some misunderstanding about Zulfiqar’s ideologies. The Syndicate is in chaos after the death of Zulfiqar and the lives of friends Tony, Markaz and many others are in danger. ‘Zulfiqar’ has some great songs composed and written by Anupam Roy and is definitely worth a watch.