Shakespeare Comedies & Bollywood Movies: The Hidden Connection

No one would ever accuse Bollywood movies of being even remotely Shakespearean, but no one would be right. There are enormous similarities between Shakespeare’s comedies and Bollywood movies. Until a few years back, it was mandatory for at least 50% of Hindi movies made in any given year to inflict on the populations of the Indian Sub-Continent, the Middle East and any other place on the planet inhabited by people with a fondness for Hindi movies, a set of identical twins separated at birth.

The original inspiration for the identical twin themes in Hindi cinema comes no doubt from Shakespeare, who used identical twins liberally in his comedies. In “The Comedy of Errors” there is not one, but two sets of identical twins. Antipholus and his twin Antipholus have been separated at birth in a storm. Their attendants, another pair of identical twins called Dromio, are likewise separated. Antipholus I, Dromio I and Daddy live in Syracuse while Antipholus II, Dromio II & Mummy live in Ephesus, though Mummy is not in contact with her sons. There are many contrived and allegedly hilarious situations involving the two Antipholii and Dromii before the play meanders to its happy ending.

A Comedy of Errors was probably the most hare-brained plot from the Elizabethan Age down to the late 20^th Century, until the release of the iconic Bollywood movie “Judwa”, featuring only one set of identical twins (why this parsimony?). This movie was bad even by the glorious standards of Bollywood twin movies. Judwa has an interesting twist on the whole twin bonding thing. When twin A, for example gets beaten up by the bad guys, Twin B feels it, and vice versa. Shakespeare didn’t think of that one.

Another of Shakespeare’s plays, Twelfth Night, involves identical twins Sebastian and Viola, one girl and one boy, who absurdly get mistaken for each other. The beautiful Lady Olivia falls in love with Viola (dressed as a man) and ends up marrying Sebastian. Viola is in love with the Duke Orsino, who is originally in love with Olivia, and believes Viola to be a boy and therefore does not pay her much attention. In the end all the knots are untangled and everyone lives happily ever after. The absurdity of the play would have made any Hindi movie director of the 1970s or 1980s green with envy.

It is surprising that no Shakespearean scholar has ever studied this connection between Bollywood and Shakespeare. In Bollywood, shameless plagiarism is referred to as “inspiration”, and Bollywood directors draw extensive inspiration from a multitude of sources, including Hollywood movies, Turkish pop, classical music, rock, Hong Kong martial arts – often all at the same time, However the link to Shakespeare is not as well known, even though I’d reckon that Shakespearean comedies were probably one of the greatest influences on Bollywood, spawning a whole genre of idiotic movies with themes involving identical twins. Ah Shakespeare, Shakespeare, what hast thou wrought?