Tagore and Ray had qualities of Shakespeare: Vishal Bhardwaj
Vishal Bhardwaj is credited with bringing the Indian versions of William Shakespeare’s tragedies — “Macbeth”, “Othello” and “Hamlet” — to screen, and the filmmaker believes Rabindranath Tagore’s writings and Satyajit Ray’s cinema mirrored the Bard’s work.In the session titled ‘Masala Shakespeare’ at Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest, Bhardwaj was in conversation with Delhi-based scholar, teacher Jonathan Gil Harris and the discussion was chaired by Kaveree Bamzai.”For me, Tagore has had all the qualities of Shakespeare- be it music, be it poetry and the kind of stuff Shakespeare has written. Even Ray to some extent showcases the same qualities. It is great that cinema has evolved over the years where we were a sexually suppressed society and roses were shown on screen instead of a kiss,” Bhardwaj said on Saturday.Talking about Shakespeare’s influence on his filmography, the filmmaker said today cinema was losing the “element of political incorrectness”.”I believe Shakespeare has been politically incorrect where he has made fun of Jews in one of the plays although he didn’t know that this issue would be so politically charged up in the future at that point of time. In recent times, we are losing that element of political incorrectness in cinema.”Although, we may have been politically incorrect after 75 years of Independence. For instance, in his writings, Tulsidas has compared women with animals which is again politically incorrect,” he added.
