(1954)

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5/10
a free adaptation of Shakespeare's play, interesting changes
ajaaware16 March 2005
There are several films on Hamlet, this is a b/w version.

What interested and impressed me was the attempt to keep to the original lines in translation--however, the lines given to characters are within what is recognizably a Parsi theatre tradition, dominant on the Bomaby theatre scene (a residue of this style is seen also in Yehudi, in which the actor Sohrab Modi delivers a Shylock style speech).

The lines often rhyme (and might have been the equivalent of rap!).

Also what is interesting is 'mad Ophelia' (played by Mala Sinha) sings a song which actually is a ghazal by Bahadurshah Zafar, the last Mughl Emperor of India.

Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are conspicuously absent, several scenes are transposed.

This Hamlet is much more ambitious, waiting and wanting to be King.

I strongly recommend this to anyone interested in versions of Hamlet, or how the play is dealt with in non-English cinema.

those interested could also look up the journal 'screen', for 2002 i think, i remember seeing an article on this hamlet.
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