Recently I had the chance to watch ‘Shakespeare Wallah’ on DVD. As one can infer from the title itself, the movie concerns the great playwright, Shakespeare. However, it is not a biography of him but it is a portrayal of a true story of a theatre company trying to promote theatre in India, a country famous for Bollywood. What strikes me about the movie is the determination and eagerness of the theatre company to promote Shakespeare in a country whose culture is entirely different from Shakespeare’s. In my opinion, credit should be given to that company for its efforts. If only such efforts are put in teaching literature in school, I am sure that our Malaysian students would definitely find literature to be something enjoyable or at least comfortable. Efforts aside, I personally feel that the directors of the movie could have done a better job in portraying the real story behind the movie script. The movie was boring on a whole, not to mention the fact that the director decided to include romance in it. =( Not a good combination I would say. Comparing to the previous movie that I watched (please refer to previous posting) I would not recommend Shakespeare Wallah to those who are babies in literature or Shakespeare. The production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company would definitely be a better choice to be used to promote literature among students. Shakespeare Wallah does not have what I can adapt and apply in my future teaching courier. So, for me, the production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company would be a better choice for teachers to promote literature and also to adapt ideas on drama activities. Enough said. Feedbacks are definitely welcomed.
