Shylock (film)

Shylock
Poster
Directed by Kinema Ramu
Serukalathur Sama
Based on The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare
Starring Serukalathur Sama
T. V. Janakam
S. G. Kasi Iyer
P. S. Sivaramalingam
T. S. Santhanam
Production
company
Bharat Pictures[1]
Release date
 1940
Country India
Language Tamil

Shylock is a 1940 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Kinema Ramu and Serukalathur Sama (under the name Sama-Ramu) and produced by Bharat Pictures. It is based on William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. The film stars Sama as the title character, T. V. Janakam as Portia, S. G. Kasi Iyer as Antonio, P. S. Sivaramalingam as the Duke and T. S. Santhanam as Bassanio. The film was a commercial failure, and no print of it has survived, making it a lost film.[2]

Cast

  • Serukalathur Sama as Shylock
  • T. V. Janakam as Portia
  • S. G. Kasi Iyer as Antonio
  • P. S. Sivaramalingam as the Duke
  • T. S. Santhanam as Bassanio

Production

Kinema Ramu, a lawyer based in Kumbakonam and scholar on William Shakespeare, wrote the dialogue for Shylock, a Tamil adaptation of Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. He and his friend Serukalathur Sama directed the film under the name Sama-Ramu. Sama also played the title character. The lyricists were Yaanai Vaidyanatha Iyer, P. S. Sivaramalingam (who acted onscreen as the Duke) and Papanasam Rajagopala Iyer, brother of Papanasam Sivan. S. G. Kasi Iyer, the brother of Tamil theatre actor S. G. Kittappa, was the music director, besides playing Antonio onscreen. Portia was played by T. V. Janakam, and Bassanio by T. S. Santhanam. Shooting took place at Bharat Movietone in Kilpauk.[2] The makers went to great lengths to recreate an authentic Venetian look for the narrative through the costumes and setting.[3]

Release and reception

The film did not succeed commercially as audiences could not relate to the characters, costumes and sets.[2] However, film historian Randor Guy praised it for remaining faithful to the source material, the performances of the cast, and the costumes and sets.[2] No print of the film is known to survive, making it a lost film.[2][4]

References

  1. ↑ Doraiswamy, V. (1952). Asian Film Directory and Who's who. Bombay: Fozalbhoy House. p. 176.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Guy, Randor (29 March 2014). "Blast from the Past: Shylock (1941)". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 22 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  3. ↑ Jain, Manju, ed. (2009). Narratives of Indian Cinema. Primus Books. p. 233.
  4. ↑ Baskaran, S. Theodore (23 April 2016). "Of monologues and melodrama". The Hindu. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
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