Depiction of Trauma in Film Adaptations of Select Shakespearean Plays – An Overview

Abstract

Literature and films have been effective and eloquent vehicles of expression to portray human values, sentiments, emotions and trauma. Genres of literature such as poetry, fiction and drama are widely used by creative artists to depict the problems of human existence and continue to please and instruct sensible and sensitive audience besides exploring life and its varied facets.Similarly,films too have been instrumental in presenting a plethora of life situations earning a significant place in the minds and hearts of the people.Films based on plays authored by creative genius,William Shakespeare,have enhanced the worth of the plays and the glory of the Bard in greater proportions. Shakespeare's plays especially tragedies offer great scope to comprehend human trauma caused by follies, misgivings, apprehensions, excessive contemplation, hatred, scepticism and greed. The present paper entitled Depiction of Trauma in Film Adaptations of Select Shakespearean Plays – An Overview makes a humble attempt to critique the manner in which trauma has been presented on the celluloid in select film adaptations of Shakespeare's tragedies Othello and Hamlet. Offate, trauma studies have gained sufficient critical attention making it a genuinely rich area of harvest to unearth newer dimensions and perspectives. The paper focuses on two films Haider and Omkara directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and his treatment of trauma and emotional intensity which made the films worth appreciating and critiquing.