Shakespeare-Wallah (1965)

Director:

James Ivory

Writers:

James Ivory (screenplay)
James Ivory (story)
(more)

Release Date:

December 1965 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The story of a family troupe of English actors in India. They travel around the towns and villages giving performances of Shakespearean plays...

Plot Keywords:

Based On True Story

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Shashi Kapoor	...	Sanju
Felicity Kendal	...	Lizzie Buckingham
Geoffrey Kendal	...	Mr. Tony Buckingham
Laura Liddell	...	Mrs. Carla Buckingham
Madhur Jaffrey	...	Manjula
Utpal Dutt	...	Maharaja
Praveen Paul	...	Didi
Prayag Raj	...	Sharmaji (as Prayag Raaj)
Pinchoo Kapoor	...	Guptaji
Jim D. Tytler	...	Bobby (as Jim Tytler)
Hamid Sayani	...	Headmaster's Brother
Marcus Murch	...	Dandy in 'The Critic'
Pratap Sharma	...	Aslam
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Sudarshan Dhir	...	Manjula's Dance Director (uncredited)
Jennifer Kendal	...	Mrs. Bowen (uncredited)
Ismail Merchant	...	Theater Owner (uncredited)

Directed by
James Ivory

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
James Ivory		screenplay
James Ivory		story
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala		screenplay (as R. Prawer Jhabvala)
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala		story (as R. Prawer Jhabvala)

Produced by
Ismail Merchant	....	producer

Original Music by
Satyajit Ray

Non-Original Music by
Ludwig van Beethoven		(from "Symphony No.9")

Cinematography by
Subrata Mitra		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Amit Bose

Costume Design by
Jennifer Kendal		(as Jennifer Kapoor)

Makeup Department
Nath Grover	....	makeup designer

Production Management
N. Kabir	....	production manager
Mohammed Shafi	....	production manager (as Mohamed Shafi)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Prayag Raj	....	assistant director (as Prayag Raaj)
Mohammed Shafi	....	assistant director (as Mohamed Shafi)
R. Shukla	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Mangesh Desai	....	sound re-recordist
A.K. Parmar	....	sound re-recordist
Dev Roy	....	sound
Prabhakar Supare	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Lalit Bhavsar	....	main titles (as Lalit Bhawsar)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ranjit Biswas	....	electrician
Alex D'Souza	....	electrician
Fatik Mazumdar	....	assistant camera
N. Sarkar	....	assistant camera
Tapan Sen	....	electrician

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Qamar Ali	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
K.L. Naik	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Shyamsundar Ghosh	....	background music recordist (as Sham Sunder Ghosh)
Minoo Katrak	....	song recordist: song "Dil Dharke"

Other crew
Arun Bhatt	....	supervisor
Sudarshan Dhir	....	choreographer (as Sudarshan)
Abbas Khan	....	production assistant
Ali Raza	....	production assistant

Thanks
Mary Hotz	....	acknowledgment
Prayag Raj	....	acknowledgment: music & lyrics of hindi song "dil dharke" (as Prayag Raaj)
Maharaj Kumar Yashwant Singh	....	acknowledgment: Navar

Production Companies

• Merchant Ivory Productions

Distributors

• Continental Distributing (1966) (USA) (theatrical)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1975) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Embassy Home Entertainment (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Cecchi Gori Home Video (2004) (Italy) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Odyssey Video (2003) (UK) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Shakespeare Wallah (India: English title) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Filming Locations:

India

Company:

Merchant Ivory Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Wandering Company (1984) (TV)

Early Merchant-Ivory is Diamond in the Rough

This early (if not first) Merchant-Ivory collaboration anticipates what the team was later able to do with larger budgets and color cinematography. Set in post-independence India, it tells the story of a small, though thoroughly professional traveling Shakespeare company fallen on hard times. The troop, built on the talents of the three Buckingham family members, including the young and fetching daughter Lizzie, is slowly dissolving in a culture increasingly hostile to their art and readier to worship the queens of the silly Indian pop cinema.

The main thread of the plot concerns a rather thin romance between Lizzie and a young Indian playboy quite under the thumb of a local movie vixen named Manula. Meanwhile we are given snippets from various Shakespeare plays: Hamlet, Othello, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra.

Fine B&W photography, though much in this film seems dated now.