Between the dying cultural trappings of Shakespearean theater (of a deposed colonial power) and India’s wildly popular newer cultural movements (the golden age of Hindi cinema), SHAKESPEARE WALLAH traps two lovers doomed to realize their cultural incompatibilities.
Thank god for film restorations because every pristine frame by cinematographer Subrata Mitra SLAPS and the music by Satyajit Ray EATS. The microexpressions of Madhur Jaffrey were a TREAT.
This film is partly autobiographical; Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Liddell are also mother, father and daughter in real life, and just like in the movie they actually were a traveling Shakespeare troupe in India. Their other daughter, Jennifer Kendal, plays "Mrs. Bowen" and was the real life wife of Shashi Kapoor who plays Sanju. How wonderful for this film to endure.
Between the dying cultural trappings of Shakespearean theater (of a deposed colonial power) and India’s wildly popular newer cultural movements (the golden age of Hindi cinema), SHAKESPEARE WALLAH traps two lovers doomed to realize their cultural incompatibilities.
Thank god for film restorations because every pristine frame by cinematographer Subrata Mitra SLAPS and the music by Satyajit Ray EATS. The microexpressions of Madhur Jaffrey were a TREAT.
This film is partly autobiographical; Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal and Laura Liddell are also mother, father and daughter in real life, and just like in the movie they actually were a traveling Shakespeare troupe in India. Their other daughter, Jennifer Kendal, plays "Mrs. Bowen" and was the real life wife of Shashi Kapoor who plays Sanju. How wonderful for this film to endure.
