Shakespeare Wallah **** (1965, Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal) – Classic Movie Review 11,514

The marvellous Merchant Ivory Productions team established their style and reputation with the 1965 drama Shakespeare Wallah, a leisurely, gently ironic study of a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India, based on the experiences of the family of Felicity Kendal (from The Good Life). The family perform Shakespearean plays in towns across India, against dwindling demand and the rise of Bollywood.

Shashi Kapoor plays Sanju, the already involved playboy attracted to Lizzie Buckingham (Felicity Kendal), the daughter of Tony Buckingham (Geoffrey Kendal) and his wife Carla (Laura Liddell), who oversee the troupe. Lizzie falls in love with Sanju, who is also romancing  Bollywood film star Manjula (Madhur Jaffrey).

The Kendal family troupe members play themselves in fictionalised counterparts as the Buckinghams with a curious mixture of ham and sensitivity, and there is effective, straightforward direction by James Ivory, along with touching, crafted writing by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who creates the story and screenplay. Also in the cast are Laura Liddell, Geoffrey Kendal, Madhur Jaffrey, Utpal Dutt, and Parveen Paul.

Madhur Jaffrey, as Manjula, won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin International Film Festival. The music is composed by Satyajit Ray.

It is the first film of Jennifer Kapoor, better known as Jennifer Kendal, sister of Felicity and daughter of actor Geoffrey. Shashi Kapoor fell in love with Jennifer for real. She died from cancer at 50 in 1984.

The cast are Shashi Kapoor as Sanju, Felicity Kendal as Lizzie Buckingham, Geoffrey Kendal as Tony Buckingham, Laura Liddell as Carla Buckingham, Madhur Jaffrey as Manjula, Utpal Dutt as Maharaja, Praveen Paul as Didi, Prayag Raj as Sharmaji, Pinchoo Kapoor as Guptaji, Jim D Tytler as Bobby, Hamid Sayani as Headmaster’s Brother, Marcus Murch as Dandy in ‘The Critic’, Partap Sharma as Aslam, Jennifer Kendal as Mrs Bowen, and Ismail Merchant (the film’s producer) as Theater Owner.

Ivory and Merchant are reuniting with Jhabvala and Kapoor after the success of their first film, The Householder (1963).

The film is shot by Subrata Mitra in black and white for budget reasons.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,514

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/