Shakespeare in Bollywood : Bollywood News

“Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast”- Comedy of Errors

Talk about comedy of errors and Priyadarshan’s films come to mind. However, The Comedy of Errors is one of the earliest known slapstick comedies. The central theme of the play revolves around mistaken identities of a couple of set of twins which leads to rib-tickling misunderstandings.

Bollywood’s tryst with The Comedy of Errors began as early as 1933 with Jayant Desai’s Bhool Bhulaiyan. The Hindi film had Keki Adajania in the lead and two leading comedians of that time Dixit and Ghori. Dixit and Ghori were then known as the Laurel and Hardy of Bollywood because either of them resembled the comical duo in terms of physicality. Though no credits were given to Shakespeare, the English title of the film was Comedy of Errors.

Many years later came the much-popular laugh riot Angoor directed by Gulzar in 1982. Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma in double roles together brought the whole house down when their identity is mistaken for their look-a-like. The film also had a hoard of other actor ranging from Moushmi Chaterjee, Deepti Naval, Utpal Dutt and had music by R.D. Burman. William Shakespeare got credit for this film.

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose – The Merchant of Venice

Believe it or not, no Hollywood director has ever attempted to bring William Shakespeares The Merchant of Venice to the big screen until 2004. The reason for this has to lie in the theme of the story as it probably is the most vicious work of Shakespeares literary career, packed full of bigotry, revenge, and characters that live for only one thing – MONEY.

Despite the reason stated above, India saw this piece of Shakespeare’s work in the form of Zaalim Saudagar in 1941 directed by J J Madan. The film starred yesteryear actor Kajjan and new-comers Hyder Bandi and Rani Prem Lata. There are not many details about this film as it had a quick release and barely ran for a couple of weeks in India.