Shakespeare Wallah
| Shakespeare Wallah | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | James Ivory |
| Written by | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala |
| Produced by | Ismail Merchant |
| Starring | Shashi Kapoor Felicity Kendal Madhur Jaffrey Geoffrey Kendal Partap Sharma |
| Cinematography | Subrata Mitra |
| Edited by | Amit Bose |
| Music by | Satyajit Ray |
Release date | 1965 |
Running time | 120 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Shakespeare Wallah is a 1965 Merchant Ivory Productions film. The story and screenplay are by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amidst a dwindling demand for their work and the rise of Bollywood. Madhur Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival for her performance. The music was composed by Satyajit Ray.[1]
Plot
Loosely based on the real-life actor-manager Geoffrey Kendal's family and his travelling "Shakespeareana Company", which earned him the Indian sobriquet "Shakespearewallah", the film follows the story of nomadic British actors as they perform Shakespeare plays in towns in post-colonial India.[2] In this story, Tony Buckingham (Geoffrey Kendal) and his wife Carla (Laura Liddell) oversee the troupe. Their daughter, Lizzie Buckingham (Felicity Kendal), falls in love with Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), who is also romancing Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey), a Bollywood film star.
In real life, Shashi Kapoor fell in love with Felicity's elder sister Jennifer Kendal. Their marriage provided an important contribution to the Indian film industry until Kendal's death in 1984.
Cast
- Shashi Kapoor as Sanju
- Felicity Kendal as Lizzie Buckingham
- Geoffrey Kendal as Tony Buckingham
- Laura Liddell as Carla Buckingham
- Madhur Jaffrey as Manjula
- Utpal Dutt as Maharaja
- Praveen Paul as Didi
- Prayag Raj as Sharmaji (as Prayag Raaj)
- Pinchoo Kapoor as Guptaji
- Jim D. Tytler as Bobby (as Jim Tytler)
- Hamid Sayani as Headmaster's Brother
- Marcus Murch as Dandy in 'The Critic'
- Partap Sharma as Aslam
- Jennifer Kendal as Mrs Bowen (uncredited)
- Ismail Merchant as Theater Owner (uncredited)
Production
After the success of the first film, The Householder (1963), the team of Ivory and Merchant reunited with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and actor Shashi Kapoor for this film. Due to budget constraints, the film was shot in black and white, and the Kendal family play their own fictionalized counterparts, "the Buckinghams".[3][4]
See also
References
- ^ "Berlinale 1965: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
- ^ Kuldip Singh (15 June 1998). "Obituary: Geoffrey Kendal". The Independent. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ "Shakespeare Wallah: James Ivory". TIFF. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ Keller, p. 42
- James R. Keller; Aia, Leslie Stratyner (2004). "Shakespeare Transposed: British Theatre on Post-colonial screen". Almost Shakespeare: Reinventing His Works for Cinema and Television. McFarland. ISBN 078648103X.
External links
Further reading
- Geoffrey Kendal; Clare Colvin (1987). Shakespeare Wallah: Autobiography. Penguin Books. p. 186. ISBN 0140096841.
- 1965 films
- 1965 drama films
- American films
- Indian films
- Indian-American films
- English-language films
- English-language Indian films
- Films about theatre
- Merchant Ivory Productions films
- Films directed by James Ivory
- Films with screenplays by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
- Films based on actual events
- Films set in India
- American black-and-white films
- Films set in the 1950s
- Films set in Lucknow
- American drama films
- Films with screenplays by James Ivory
- Films shot in Lucknow