20 years of Maqbool: Even Shakespeare would smile indulgently at the artistic liberties Vishal Bhardwaj took with the original text
From Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespearean trilogy Maqbool (based on Macbeth), Omkara (Othello) and Haider (Hamlet), Maqbool is the rawest, most honest and untarnished adaptation. The film completed 20 years yesterday on January 30. Maqbool transports us to a threshold of pain and redemption hitherto unknown to Hindi cinema. Because this is Shakespeare’s Macbeth trans-located to Mumbai’s underworld, and because Bhardwaj has selected a dream cast to portray his nightmarish world of crime and retribution, Maqbool takes its emotional content beyond any other film from the genre. The writing on the wall is so clear, coherent and redemptive, even Shakespeare would smile indulgently at the artistic liberties Bhardwaj has taken with the original text. Maqbool opens a whole new universe of passion-play, unexplored in the original text. Bhardwaj reveals the politics of lust and passion with a sure handedness seldom witnessed in Hindi cinema. Hence the King from Shakespeare becomes a doddering paun