Bollywood Shakespeares

Richard Allen, New York University, USAParomita Chakravarti, Jadavpur University, IndiaBrinda Charry, Keene State College, USARosa María García-Periago, University of Murcia, Spain Mike Heidenberg, Fashion Institute of Technology, USAKendra Preston Leonard, independent scholarGitanjali Shahani, San Francisco State University, USAVikram Singh Thakur, Ambedkar University, IndiaPoonam Trivedi, Indraprastha College, University of Delhi, India

"Shakespeare came to India during the British empire on the project of the 'civilizing mission.' Bollywood Shakespeares compellingly brings to life appropriations and adaptations of Shakespeare as a window into hybrid, post-national identities emerging from a global consumer culture in India today. In a theoretically nuanced framing argument, Dionne and Kapadia explore the interface between Shakespeare's theatre and the global stage of Bollywood cinema, while the ensuing essays examine in rich detail how Bollywood "uses" Shakespeare to represent and examine modern Indian life. Bollywood Shakespeares is an important and timely study into the politics of global culture and of the place of Shakespeare within it." - Jyotsna G. Singh, Professor of English, Michigan State University, USA "This edited collection traces the historical origins of Bollywood's engagement with the Bard to Parsi theater, provides nuanced readings of well-established films (such as Shakespeare Wallah), and introduces readers to some less familiar ones (such as The Last Lear). Collectively, the essays in Bollywood Shakespeares demonstrate how both terms in the book's title are complicated and unsettled by their interaction. The volume also makes a significant contribution to theoretical discussion of the relationship between Shakespearean appropriation/adaptation and the rapidly changing field of Global Shakespeare." - Christy Desmet, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of English, University of Georgia, USA

• Introduction: Shakespeare and Bollywood: the Difference a World Makes; Craig Dionne and Parmita Kapadia PART I: BOLLYWOOD'S DEBT TO THE THEATER: AESTHETIC AND CULTURAL MULTIVALENCY 1. Parsi Shakespeare: The Precursor to 'Bollywood Shakespeare'; Vikram Singh Thakur 2. Bollywood Battles the Bard: The Evolving Relationship Between Film and Theater in Shakespeare Wallah ; Parmita Kapadia PART II: SHAKESPEARE'S LOCAL FACE: USING SHAKESPEARE TO REARTICULATE INDIAN IDENTITIES 3. The Ambiguities of Bollywood Conventions and the Reading of Transnationalism in Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool ; Rosa María García Periago 4. No Country For Young Women: Empowering Emilia in Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara ; Mike Heidenberg 5. The Global as Local / Othello as Omkara; Brinda Charry and Gitanjali Shahani PART III: BOLLYWOOD'S CULTURAL CAPITAL: BOLLYWOOD SELLS SHAKESPEARE 6. Interrogating 'Bollywood Shakespeare': Reading Rituporno Ghosh's The Last Lear ; Paromita Chakravarti 7. The Sounds of India in Supple's Twelfth Night ; Kendra Preston Leonard 8. Comedies of Errors: Shakespeare, Indian Cinema, and The Poetics of Mistaken Identity; Richard Allen Afterword: Shakespeare and Bollywood