"Everyone tells me that this film (Haider) will win the National Award but I am not thinking about it," actor Shahid Kapoor was quoted as saying recently. You might think this a little premature of him - National Award talk even before the world at large has seen your film? - but consider this: the part Shahid is playing in Vishal Bhardwaj's about-to-release Haider is a desi version of Hamlet, Shakespeare's Melancholy Dane. A role that has defined the career of many actors on stage and on screen.
The story of Hamlet - the tragic hero of tragic heroes, so conflicted, so Freudian - has been relentlessly told and retold in countless stage versions and over 50 films. As Shahid Kapoor's bearded and shaven-headed Haider prepares to take the marquee, here are five celluloid Hamlets that have already raised the bar sky-high for him:
Sir Laurence Olivier
British thespian Sir Laurence Olivier directed himself in the black and white 1948 film, the most awarded of any of the screen Hamlets with Oscars for Best Film and Best Actor. Sir Laurence also voiced the Ghost. He was 41 when he played Hamlet on screen, and the film was noted for its casting of 28-year-old Eileen Herlie in the role of Queen Gertrude, Hamlet's mother - a deliberate underlining of the Oedipal undercurrent in the play.
Mel Gibson
In cult 1995 coming-of-age film CluelessLethal Weapon
In 1996, Kenneth Branagh directed and starred in the first unabridged film version of Hamlet
Director Michael Almereyda transplanted Hamlet from the grim ramparts of Elsinore Castle to modern day Manhattan. Ethan Hawke's Hamlet was a film student, his uncle Claudius having become CEO of the 'Denmark Corporation' after murdering Hamlet's father. Kyle McLachlan played Claudius, Julia Stiles appeared as Ophelia, Lieve Schreiber as Laertes and Bill Murray as Polonius.
Sarah Bernhardt
The very first screen Hamlet was played not by a male actor but by a woman. French star Sarah Bernhardt, then "the most famous actress the world has ever known," played Hamlet in a 1900 five-minute film of the fencing scene between Hamlet and Laertes. The dialogue and accompanying soundtrack was recorded separately on a phonograph and were played while the film was screened. Ms Bernhardt also played Hamlet on stage previously.
