TS5212 Asian International Cinema

The Bollywoodization of Shakespeare in Vishal Bhardwajs

Maqbool and Omkara
Written by Shriya Mohan
Submitted on April 4, 2012



Abstract: Vishal Bhardwajs Maqbool and Omkara are post-colonial retextualizations of
Shakespeares Macbeth and Othello. Bhardwaj appropriates the plots by making
intercultural revisions using familiar Bollywood strings The underworld landscapes of
Mumbai; Communal and caste tensions in Indian society; and finally, using Bollywood
song and dance sequences as a bridge to bring Shakespeare to the masses.


The Question of Appropriation
Theseus: [A]s imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poets pen
Turns them to shapes, and give to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
(A Midsummer Nights Dream 5.1.14-7) (Foakes 1984)
Original Shakespeare plays were both for a high browed and low browed audience - the
kings, queens and the commoners could equally be transported into the stories of love,
envy, revenge and myriad human emotions. Bill Ferris, Chairman of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, writes: "We understand the human condition better in our
own time because he wrote about it so penetratingly in his (Trasiter 1999). But today, in
the 21
st
century, Shakespeare has become exclusive to the elite, the so called Shakespeare
Scholars, who attend high walled universities and are taught to appreciate his work in their
academic pursuits of cultivating a fine understanding of English literature. There are a few
noteworthy attempts to bring Shakespeare back to the masses and this paper deals with
one such body of work in India.
India, an erstwhile colony of the British Empire, has a surprisingly rich history of drawing
from Shakesperean themes in a wide array of theatre performances, works of literature and
most recently, the world of Indian Cinema. The use of Shakespeare in Indian performance
art and films spans over 200 years, making him the most performed western author in India
(Poonam Trivedi 2005). Dr Poonam Trivedi, Film critic and Reader in English at the University
of Delhi, writes:
The recent naming of Shakespeare as the Writer of the Millennium is
not just the public confirmation of his 'global' status but a long-
awaited recognition of the fact that Shakespeare belongs to the
whole world, and that the diverse incursions of his work into virtually
every culture are as much a part of his essence as is the English
Shakespeare of Stratford (Poonam Trivedi 2005).

The Bard in Bollywood
The earliest engagement of Indian Cinema with Shakespeare goes back to the silent era of
1920s Dil Farosh in 1927 based on a popular stage adaptation of Merchant of Venice. Trivedi
writes: Like the stage versions, these films were as much about using Shakespeare as
abusing him. In the 1940s and 50s, the rise of a new breed of Indians schooled into
Shakespeare provided a new market for a more authentic Shakespeare space in Indian
Cinema. Kishore Sahus Hamlet in 1954 is a perfect representation which modelled the
visualizations of Lawrence Oliviers film Hamlet made in 1948. Sahu contextualized it by
filling in the key moments of dialogue using couplets from classical Urdu poems, thereby, in
Trivedis words recoding and improvising Shakespeare! Trivedi writes: The Indian
intelligentsia, however, still under a colonial hangover, could only accept Shakespeare as
either, pure and pristine, or bowdlerized and indigenized.
The next level of engagement, with Gulzaars 1981 film Angoor, was a turning point, since it
was a complete indianization of Shakespeares The Comedy of errors. Trivedi writes: The
only way of being faithful to Shakespeare, in the intercultural context, it seems, is to
relocate him fully. It led to a Shakespeare transformed, expropriated, localized, but one that
was paradoxically true.
As far as Bollywood is concerned, it is Bhardwajs Maqbool and Omkara which take
Bollywood to its next level of engagement with Shakespeare. Trivedi writes:
This kind of re-visioning that adds to and expands the canonical texts
leads to the fourth and current stage in the engagement with, by
now, a globalized bard, which is of a post colonial confidence to play
around with and deconstruct Shakespeare for our own needs
(Trivedi 2007).

An introduction to Vishal Bhardwaj
When Indian Filmmaker, Vishal Bhardwaj, first watched Akiro Kurasawas thrown of blood
(1957) little did he know that it was based on Shakespeares Macbeth. He fell in love with
the plot and immediately saw it being played out on the complex fabric of Mumbais
underworld. Drawing on Macbeth, with overtones of Coppolas Godfather, in 2003, he made
Maqbool (meaning acceptance in Urdu). Bharadwaj not only directed it, but also co-
produced it, wrote the script, screenplay, dialogues and importantly composed the music
for the film. Bhardwaj, had started his career as a harmonium player for local Ghazal singers
and was known as a popular music composer in the industry until before got into film
making in 2000. Maqbool was Bhardwajs second film as a filmmaker released in 2003.
While it was not a box office hit, it was the recipient of the International Indian Film
Academy award and Bangkok International Film Festival award with positive reviews in
western media.
Drawn to Shakespeare, he made Omkara (Othello) in 2006, based in rural Central India,
Uttar Pradesh. The film explores the greed for power, jealousy, passion and betrayal,
emotions in Shakespeares plays that Bhardwaj terms universal and applicable to any
culture and society. The film was a box office hit and internationally well received. It was
showcased at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and was selected to be screened at the Cairo
International Film Festival, where Bhardwaj was awarded for Best Artistic Contribution in
Cinema of a Director. The film also won three awards at the Kara Film Festival, an award at
the Asian Festival of First Films, three National Film Awards, and seven Filmfare Awards in
India.

Research Questions
This paper answers the following research questions in order to make the above stated
abstract:
1. In what way and to what extent does Bhardwaj appropriate Shakespeares original
text into Maqbool? What are the points of departure?
2. What sort of Bollywood tropes does Bhardwaj use to convey a Shakespearean plot to
an Indian audience?
3. Does Bhardwajs work count as a cross over, international or transnational cinema?
An analysis of Maqbool Departures from the original text and Bollywoodization
In Poonam Trivedis paper Filmi Shakespeare published in 2007 she writes that Bhardwaj
was keen to sell Maqbool as a commercial entity and shied away from marketing its
affiliation to Shakespeare, instead he only referred to it as a loose adaptation of
Shakespeares Macbeth (which dont appear in the official movie posters), in order to not
make it too daunting for an audience ignorant of Shakespeares plays (Trivedi 2007).
Bhardwaj himself explains his appropriation:
But my interpretation of Shakespeare is not textbookish. When put in
a schools context even the most exciting story seems sterile...
Macbeth is such a melodramatic play! I have tried to be true to the
plays spirit rather than the original text. The plays essence is guilt
and its denial (Jha 2004).

This paper analyses three important ways that Bhardwaj has Bollywoodized the original text
in Maqbool. First, by setting it in Mumbais underworld, an exciting terrain with Bollywood
audiences (with contemporary gangster films like Ram Gopal Vermas Satya and Company);
Second, by weaving in communal tensions faced by the Muslim identity, which is a very real
and sensitive issue in India; and Third, by incorporating Bollywood music sequences as a
sound bridge to draw and Indian audience to watch Shakespeare.
Maqbool is set in the underworld of Mumbai, notorious for its high yielding power in
politics, business and law and order of the city. The underworld in Maqbool has a stake in
everything from the Bollywood film industry to a range of illegal businesses. At the outset,
you are made to feel that you are entering a world that functions on a different code of
ethics. As Moinik Biswas writes:
The significant moral shift for Maqbool is that one is no longer
lamenting the degeneration of a legitimate order, but an order within
the underworld. The Mumbai Macbeth violates the law of the
criminal regime itself; there is no moral ground above ground, the
outside only sends punishment, retribution in the form of the police.
The country, the way of life mourned in Maqbool is one that has
fallen from this fallen state (M. Biswas n.d.).
The underworld family, in which the story is set, belongs to a Muslim minority in India,
exercising its authority on a Hindu majority in Mumbai. The 1992 riots between the Hindus
and Muslims in Mumbai led to the death of 900 people in that year (S. Biswas 2011). The
popular sentiment that was said to be used by the Hindus used to instigate Muslims was
that Mumbai didnt really belong to them. In one of the striking scenes, the lead character,
Abbaji, a Muslim don, is being requested by a weapons dealer to accept a smuggling deal
that would afford him the luxury of settling down anywhere in the world. Abbaji says, But
Mumbai is my Mashauka (my beloved) and it cannot be traded for any amount of money.
Through this perhaps Bhardwaj is trying to make a larger point about who belongs to
Mumbai.
In Maqbool, the characters Abbaji (Duncan), Maqbool (Macbeth), Nimmi (Lady Macbeth),
Kaka (Banquo), Guddu (Fleance) and the avenger Boti (Macduff) appear to be at first, the
familiar characters of Macbeth. But Bhardwaj gives some interesting twists to their roles,
departing from the text of Macbeth. For instance, right at the first scene of the film, the
weird sisters or the witches are incorporated as two corrupt policemen, Pandit and Purohit,
who are prophesying the bloody future of Mumbai by drawing the citys horoscope on a
fogged window. This brilliant imagery is something that all Indians can identify with, for
there is almost always, in every family, an uncle or relative who practices astrology as a
hobby and charts horoscopes for family members, guiding them on impending dooms.
These predictions, at first laughed at by Maqbool, start coming true. Towards the end, just
like the weird sisters in Macbeth, it is these policemen, who in their seemingly playful
predictions drive Maqbool to actually murder Abbaji.
Bhardwaj changes several aspects of the original text to justify the plot in the Indian
context. For instance, Nimmi (Lady Macbeth) is actually Lady Duncan, since she is Abbajis
mistress. Abbaji is given a daughter, Sameera, unlike the original text in which Duncan has
two sons, making for some very crucial roles played by the women. The motivations for
killing Abbaji in both Nimmi and Maqbool are different from each others. For Nimmi, who is
the age of Abbajis daughter, falling in love with Maqbool is not just an act of love. It is more
a desperate last attempt to find release from a life she feels trapped in. If Maqbool kills
Abbaji, she would at last, be free. Maqbools own motivations to kill Abbaji are instigated by
Nimmi. She makes him realise that Guddu, Abbajis to be son-in-law, might be the new heir
to the throne of Abbaji, threatening Maqbools rightful inheritance. Nimmis forbidden love
affair with Maqbool is a departure from Macbeths text, making his reasons for killing Abbaji
more complext and compelling than Shakespeares own motivations penned down for
Macbeth, which was solely the pursuit of power. In Maqbool, the question remains with us
till the end, about which was the bigger reason for Maqbool to kill Abbaji The love for
Nimmi or the chance to become the don of Mumbai. We also see Maqbool through the
film, slowly being ensnared by Nimmi, undergoes a transformative change. What originally
starts with a confused Maqbool not knowing how to respond to Nimmis meaningful glances
and out rightly flirtatious remarks (In one scene she says: I have 12 moles in my body.
Would you like to see where they appear?), eventually becomes a man who can do just
about anything for her. At the last second before Maqbool fires the gunshot at Abbaji, there
is a moment of hesitation, which passes, when he thinks of old Abbaji making love to
Nimmi, and overpowered by disgust and anger he pulls the trigger.
Maqbools relationship with Nimmi changes even more after murdering Abbaji. Their guilt
draws them closer to each other. In one scene Maqbool gets a call in the middle of the night
from his men who inform him that all hell as broken loose. Maqbool is about to leave to go
fix matters, until he finds Nimmi crying and talking to her pregnant womb like a mad
woman. Maqbool, incapacitated by Nimmi, tells his men he cannot come and hangs up to go
console Nimmi and ease her pain. At that point, it is clear that Maqbools priorities have
changed and all he wants is a happy life with her.
Bhardwaj gives Nimmi and Maqbool a child unlike the original text, but the father of the
child is left ambiguous until the end, leaving you wondering if it is Abbaji or Maqbool. After
Nimmi dies of post delivery complications, Maqbool goes back to the hospital to fetch his
child. He has one last card left, and that is to flee the country with his baby. Just as he is
about to enter the glass door, with a gun in one hand, he finds Guddu and Sameera already
there to pick up the baby. His gun is ready to shoot as he watches the nurse hand the baby
to them and how their faces glow with joy while adoring the child. At that point Maqbool
has a change of heart. His eyes fill up, staining the glass door he was resting his head on with
his sweat and tears, and he drops his shawl and his gun on the floor. Maqbool walks out
slowly, without a reason to run any longer. The game is over. Outside the hospital, he is shot
by Boti (Mcduff) and he falls, in slow motion, without any resistance, almost grateful for the
release. The film ends with the camera panning from Maqbools face to the endless blue sky
he now faces.
Bhardwajs Macbeth is much more complex in terms of the human relationships between
the characters and fleshes out these multiple layers far more evocatively than the original
text.
Song and dance sequences
Bhardwaj who started his career as a music composer before becoming a film director, has
made the music for Maqbool while Gulzar, Indias most famous lyricist penned the lyrics for
the album. Out of a total of eleven songs, seven songs have vocals with lyrics and the rest
are instrumental scores that play in the background, enhancing crucial shifts in the moods of
the film. The song that received the most acclaim was Jhin min Jhini, which is a wedding
dance number performed at the wedding preparations leading upto the wedding of Abbajis
daughter, Sameera, to Guddu. The song portrays the strange relationship between Nimmi
and Sameera, as they dance together. At moments one feels that Nimmi is like a sister to
Sameera, sharing her joys and teasing her. At other occasions, Nimmi substitutes for a
mother (Sameera is motherless) by helping with Sameeras wedding preparations. At a
scene during the song, Nimmi suddenly becomes pensive. The feeling of envy and longing is
unmistakable in her as she has longed for such a wedding to one that she loves, possibly
Maqbool. As the song ends, Abbaji enters with his new mistress, a hot new entrant in the
Bollywood film industry. Nimmi and Maqbool exchange glances as Abbaji, who measures no
taller than his mistresss shoulder, dances a limping old dance, bobbing his aged head as his
eyes look seductively at her. The acting is brilliant and Abbaji succeeds in disgusting the
audience.
Other songs in Maqbool are used to show the shifting dynamics of the relationship between
Nimmi and Maqbool. The first song, Rubaru, is used when Maqbool and Nimmi are walking
to the dargah, a place of worship for the Sufis. It is the first time that Nimmi has planted the
seed of murder in Maqbools head. In the background traditional Sufi singers are singing the
praise of Allah. The emotions of love and surrender are running high. In one of the scenes of
the song the Sufis are singing, Ek masoomi dil ki tajveez hai, ishq mein jaan dede to badi
cheez hai, meaning, it is an innocent hearts wish that to give up ones life in love is the
greatest thing one can do. The song ends in a high, with the sufis singing, yeh zindagi kuch
bhi nahin, yeh bandage kuch bhi nahin meaning, (without you) this life means nothing,
there is no meaning to this bondage as the worshippers in the dargah are twirling madly to
the increasing momentum of the song. The lyrics are telling of Maqbools state of mind as
he begins to see reason in killing Abbaji.
In the final scene of Maqbool, after Nimmi dies on Maqbools lap, he hears the police
breaking into his house to get him as he places his head on Nimmis body one last time,
before he prepares to run. In the background we hear a beautiful folk song being sung by
Ustad Sultan, Listen, O breeze, softly and sweetly blowfollowing my heart I offer up my
heart to you The same song plays in the end after Maqbool is shot. We hear the sounds
of the traffic on the road fading as the song begins and we see Maqbool, fallen on the road,
facing the endless sky.
It is a commonly known truth that tragedies seldom make box office hits in Bollywood. The
Indian movie goer is someone who goes to the cinema after a hard days work, to be
entertained, much less come back with a tragic hangover to add to his own personal woes in
life. Bhardwaj uses the music as a sound bridge to help the audience connect to
Shakespeare.
Are Maqbool and Omkara transnational or national?
It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation. I cling obstinately to
the notion that something can be gained (Rushdie 1991).
According to the Oxford English dictionary, adaptation is the process of modifying a thing so
as to suit new conditions or the alteration of a dramatic composition to suit a different
audience. Appropriation on the other hand, is the making of a thing private property,
whether anothers or (as now commonly) ones own; taking as ones own or to ones own
use (Hodgdon 2005).
I would argue that Bhardwaj has appropriated Shakespeare in his films through the method
of intercultural revision. Authors and film critics Dennis Kenny and Li Lan Yong, in their 2010
book, Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance, write:
Intercultural revision refers specifically to those Asian performances that have deliberately
chosen to highlight the difference between the Shakespearean material and the time and
place of its current representation, adapting the text to a foreign mode of performance or a
signified meaning that in the West would normally be considered outside the concerns of
the play. Intercultural revision estranges the Shakespeare play in a Brechtian manner in
order to create a new text, a third text, which is neither the original nor the estranging
device but the result of their performative interaction (Lan 2010).
The best known intercultural practitioners in Europe, French stage director Ariane
Mnouchkine and English film maker Peter Brook, have made some interesting and rather
controversial interpretations of Shakespeare. According to Dennis Kennedy and Li Lan Yong,
their work, admittedly powerful and revelatory, has been often criticised for its insensitivity
to the politics of cultural appropriation: in both cases the director has assumed the right to
acquire, essentialize, alter, or distort the attributes of traditional (and sometimes religious)
performance modes of Japan, China, India, or certain African countries, ignoring the unequal
power relationships behind their actions, dismissing accusations of cultural imperialism on
the grounds that art is exempt from such charges (Lan 2010).
Bhardwaj himself admits: My intention is not just to adapt the play. My intention is to
adapt it and make it look like an original work. After a point, I forget that Shakespeare has
written this. I start believing that I have, 400 years ago, so it is my birthright to change
everything (Sen 2006).
I would argue that Bhardwaj has created third texts of Shakespeares works, appropriating
the stories as his own. Maqbool and Omkara have both been labelled by critics as
crossover cinema (Trivedi 2007). Maqbool was produced within a budget of Rs
30,000,000 or USD 600,000. It was produced and distributed by Kaleidoscope Entertainment
Pvt Ltd, one of Indias leading television and film production houses. Omkara on the other
hand was produced on a much larger budget of USD 1.4 million by Indian filmmaker Kumar
Mangat Pathak and it grossed USD 16,466,144 worldwide. Production wise, both Maqbool
and Omkara were home productions with a Bollywood caste and made for an Indian
audience. One could argue that apart from the basis of the storylines being drawn from
Shakespeare, there is nothing foreign about these films; nothing transnational. Omkara and
Maqbool are very much a part of Indian national cinema today, only created by making
intercultural revisions to a western script. In that sense, it can be loosely called Crossover
Cinema.
Conclusion
Both Maqbool and Omkara are the first Indian film adaptations of Shakespeare to have
gained international recognition and that are discussed in Daniel Rosenthal's 100
Shakespeare Films (2007), published by the British Film Institute. It is obvious that western
critics have not only accepted a Bollywoodized Shakespeare but even applaud it.

Yet, one cant help but notice that Maqbool, which is Bhardwajs critically more acclaimed
film, manages to attract lesser media attention and lesser success at the box office when
compared to Omkara. After making Maqbool, Bhardwaj must have realised the missing
ingredients that need to go into making a commercially successful film Mainstream actors,
Bollywood item dance numbers and the dishoom dishoom bollywood fight sequences.
His formula was right because Omkara was the box office hit. Maybe the real threat to the
quality of work from directors like Vishal Bhardwaj, going forward, is being confined to the
hegemony of Bollywood itself. As Ashish Rajadhyaksha has observed:
While Bollywood exists for, and prominently caters to, a diasporic audience of Indians, and
sometimes (as, for example, with Bhangra-rap) exports into India, the Indian cinema
much as it would wish to tap this "non-resident" audience is only occasionally successful
in doing so, and is in almost every instance able to do so only when it, so to say,
Bollywoodizes itself . . . (Rajadhyaksha 2003)









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