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Shakespeare Wallah
Shakespeare Wallah
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Ivory
Written by	Ruth Prawer Jhabvala ; James Ivory
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
Countries	United States; India
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 Hindi film industry. 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, Kapoor fell in love with and married George Kendal's elder daughter Jennifer Kendal. Their marriage was 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]

Reception

The film holds a score of 89%, based on 9 critics, on Rotten Tomatoes.^[5]

Home media

The film was released on DVD from Odyssey, as well as in a boxset as part of the Merchant Ivory Collection of the Merchant Ivory Productions.^[6]

References

^ "Berlinale 1965: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
^ Singh, Kuldip (15 June 1998). "Obituary: Geoffrey Kendal". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
^ "Shakespeare Wallah: James Ivory". TIFF. Archived from the original on 27 August 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
^ Keller, p. 42
^ "Shakespeare Wallah". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
^ Megahey, Neal. "Shakespeare Wallah Review". The Digital Fix. Retrieved 14 October 2020.

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.