Anti-Othellos and postcolonial Others in Izzat and Aastha | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Indian Othellos: Shakespeare Adaptations in India
  • ISSN: 2059-0660
  • E-ISSN: 2059-0679

Abstract

While Indian cinematic adaptations that attempt to recreate William Shakespeare’s have received scholarly attention, practically no work has been done on films that make fleeting references to the source text while questioning its authority. This article aims to fill the gap by presenting two Hindi-language postcolonial adaptations, namely (1968) and (1997), that can be read as anti-Othello films. They challenge Shakespeare’s status as a colonial icon in independent India by terming his works as ‘rotting feudal tales’ and by subverting Othello’s murder of Desdemona. However, although men of ‘low’, mixed or ambiguous origins do not kill their wives in these two adaptations, both films still depict the marginalization of caste, class and gender Others. This article will study the tension between these on-screen Others and the anti-Othello stance.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/itj_00016_1
2021-08-01
2024-04-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Alhuwalia, Pal. ( 2001), Politics and Post-Colonial Theory: African Inflections, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bate, Jonathan,, Levenson, Jill L., and Mehl, Dieter. ( 1998), Shakespeare and the Twentieth Century: The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Newark:: University of Delaware Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bhabha, Homi. ( 2004), The Location of Culture, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bhardwaj, Vishal. ( 2006), Omkara, India:: Shemaroo Entertainment;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bhattacharya, Basu. ( 1997), Aastha: In the Prison of Spring, India:: Aarohi Films;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Burt, Richard. ( 2010;), ‘ All that remains of Shakespeare in Indian film. ’, in D. Kennedy, and L. L. Yong. (eds), Shakespeare in Asia: Contemporary Performance, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;, pp. 73108.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Butler, Judith. ( 1990), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Ciofalo, Nuria. (ed.) ( 2019), Indigenous Psychologies in an Era of Decolonization, Cham:: Springer;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hampton-Reeves, Stuart. ( 2011), Othello (The Shakespeare Handbooks), New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hutcheon, Linda. ( 2006), A Theory of Adaptation, New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Jayaraj, R.. ( 1997), Kaliyattam, India:: Jayalakshmi Films;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kar, Ajoy. ( 1961), Saptapadi, India:: Allochhaya Productions;.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Mirasi, Dada. ( 1963), Ratha Thilagam, India:: National Movies;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Natesan, M.. ( 1953), Anbu, India:: Natesh Art Pictures;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. The Oxford English Dictionary: Volume XIII ( 1989), , 2nd ed.., Oxford:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Rao, Prakash T.. ( 1968), Izzat, India:: Pushpa Pictures;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Said, Edward. ( 1995;), ‘ Afterword. ’ in Orientalism, New York:: Vintage Books;, pp. 32954.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Seeff, Adele. ( 2018), South Africa’s Shakespeare and the Drama of Language and Identity, London and New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Shakespeare, William. ( 1603), The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice. Rpt in Honigmann, E. A. J. (ed.) (2016) Othello, The Arden Shakespeare, London: Bloomsbury .
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Stam, Robert. ( 2005;), ‘ Introduction: The theory and practice of adaptation. ’, in R. Stam, and A. Raengo. (eds), Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation, Malden:: Blackwell;, pp. 152.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Veeraraghav, Salma. ( 2020;), ‘ No lockdown on caste atrocities. ’, DHRDNet, https://www.dhrdnet.org/ebook/no-lockdown-on-caste-atrocities-ebook/. Accessed 10 March 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Jayakumar, Archana. ( 2021;), ‘ Anti-Othellos and postcolonial Others in Izzat and Aastha. ’, Indian Theatre Journal, 5:1, pp. 5972, https://doi.org/10.1386/itj_00016_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/itj_00016_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/itj_00016_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error