Shakespeare in Louww

Due Apologies to the non-Tamil crowd. This post may not make sense to you. But you can participate in the contest though.

Final Update: Bikerdude, Farkandfunk and Ramsu win the contest. Please send me an email with your address, and a pathbreaking CD containing groundbreaking music shall be shipped to you.

I saw this on Anantha’s blog and it got me thinking. What if we superimpose Madras Bashai (The holy, exalted, pure and divine tongue of the wise citizens of Chennai) on Shakespeare? Click on the title links to see the original scenes.

King Lear

Hamlet

Julius Caesar

On a serious note, my personal favourite part of this speech is when Antony is overcome by tears in between and he says “Bear with me, my heart is in the coffin there with Caesar and I must pause till it come back to me”. If that isn’t eloquence, tell me what is.

On a frivolous note, here’s the contest. There’s 2 parts.

Part 1. Desi (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam) dialogue (can be both filmy as well as original dialogue) superimposed on famous Shakespearean scene

Part 2. Shakespearean dialogue superimposed on famous desi movie scene.

Upload your entries to your blogs and paste the link in the comments section. If you do not have a blog, email your entry to me. My email address is krishashok [at] gmail [dot] com. Winning entries will get an mp3 CD featuring Bappi Lahiri’s greatest album of all time – Rock Dancer.

And to make this a little more challenging, only entries that do not rely on humour targeting specific individuals, groups or risque references will be considered.

Update: We have responses, and what responses they are! Bikerdude, Ramsu and Farkandfunk have gotten their creative juices flowing like the Yangtze river in spate.

Here are some. Go through the entire comments thread though. If you belong to this select lucky group of Indians who love Shakespeare and desi kitsch equally, you will enjoy this immensely.

Ramsu gives us a few more scenes from R&J, including this Blockbuster Balcony scene featuring Bappi da.

(original: What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d )

Farkandfunk spices up Romeo and Benvolio with someT-Rajendar style rhyming dialogue.

And one of my favourites. The Three Witches meet Macbeth,

Bikerdude brings us some God’s own flavour,

KuttigaLey, pattigaLey,
MaakrigaLey, peerkrigaLey..
Ningakku ichchiriyengilum puththiyunda dei
Pombey chaettane polum arinjoodey?
Ninda montheykku orotta kuththu kuththiyaalundallaa..

You blocks, you stones,
you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? (Julius Ceasar 1.1.39)
Translated to Trivandrum Malayalam circa 2007