| Very free indeed, judging by the sizzling item numbers that the ravishing Bipasha Basu belts out in her role as Bianca-turned-Billo. Music director and filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj had such a good time turning Macbeth into Maqbool that Shakespeare's Complete Works are by now his favourite bedtime reading. He has transferred the twisted tale of lust, jealousy and towering male egos to a contemporary setting of gang wars in small-town Uttar Pradesh. Should Omkara prove a box office clincher, the director will have his work cut out for him. King Lear will soon be the stuff of Bollywood legend, followed by epic histories, roistering comedies, and playful fantasies ... all originating from a single volume to be found on a bookshelf near you. |
| There must be something serendipitous about the Indian film industry's Shakespearean fling because, curiously, one of the biggest successes this summer at the annual Shakespeare festival at Stratford has been the English director Tim Supple's multi-lingual production of A Midsummer's Night's Dream with an ensemble composed almost entirely of Indian musicians, dancers, actors and set designers. The Indian Dream has been such a hit in Europe that it is now booked for tours from Korea to Edinburgh next year. |
| The Moor of Venice as a ruffian in mofussil India, Desdemona as Dolly Misra and Manipuri drummers and Malayali dancers hitting the boards in Europe""all this does not sound like a clash of civilisations. In fact, I think, the crux of the issue is something simpler""there aren't enough original, good stories to go around. |
| Many top-of-the-line Indian film-makers in recent years have found their best ideas in books. Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Devdas), Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Parineeta), Rituparno Ghosh (Choker Bali and Raincoat) and Amol Palekar (Paheli) have turned to well-thumbed literary classics while crossover directors like Mira Nair and Gurinder Chadha have had a go at novels by Thackeray, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Jane Austen. |
| In fact, some have gleefully taken to cannibalising old blockbusters into up-to-the-minute remakes. Farhan Akhtar is remaking Don, Feroz Khan is reworking his own hit Qurbani as a vehicle for his son Fardeen, and J P Datta has announced a new version of Umrao Jaan""although many nowadays forget that Muzaffar Ali's original film hit about a Lucknow courtesan in distress is not based on any real-life figure; it is, in fact, an adaptation of a famous early 20th century Urdu novel by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. |
| Life, however, doesn't necessarily imitate a successful plot line. The exigencies of a commercial film industry demand a formula which, in effect, means a tried-and-tested story that's had a good long run. You can't beat Shakespeare or Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay on that score""they've been playing to capacity crowds for eons. |
| Hacked down to basics, Jane Austen's famous plot is just another boys-meeting-girls caper while Othello is about a raving lunatic who strangles his lover in a fit of jealousy. Neither sounds very appealing but their authors turned them into the epitome of romantic comedy and brooding tragedy. |
| There is the possibility that film-makers revamping the old tales will create something familiar yet unfamiliar. There is also the risk that they will beat the life out of the stories into tired cliches. Gurinder Chadha failed with Bride and Prejudice. Will Vishal Bhardwaj succeed with Omkara? |
| Still, film-makers should go on reading. As Leo Tolstoy said there are only about twelve original plots in all of fiction. The rest are remakes. |
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