15th century to 21st, William Shakespeare still relevant in films

To be or not to be...that's not the question. The question is, why are people so obsessed with Shakespeare? As far as most of us go, Shakespeare is that dead guy that teachers sing praises of,but whose work makes no sense. So we mug it up before our exams and never look at it again. Shakespeare's works have had a significant impact on language, literature and even movies.With Haider, an adaptation of Hamlet, Vishal Bharadwaj will complete his Shakespearean hat-trick (2003's Maqbool based on Macbeth, followed by Omkara in 2006, an adaptation of Othello), which proves that Shakespeare is well and alive even today through his texts. We take a look at other ways in which he still influences the 21st century .
MOVIES While we wait with bated breath for Haider, here are some other movies that weren't quite so obvious about their Shakespearean beginnings, and the plays they were based on.
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HAMLET We have yet to see how Shahid Kapoor will portray the character that is often considered the ultimate challenge for any actor, but there is another movie that has already proved itself at the box office. None other than the beloved The Lion King! You might gag at the idea the story you loved as a child is based on Shakespeare? But the plot is quite telling. We have the evil uncle, Scar, who kills the king to take over the land, and robs Simba of his throne (ring any bells?).In some ways, though, the animated version trumps the original because of its happy ending.
What could the roaring bikes and leather jackets of Sons of Anarchy have in common with Shakespeare? But Kurt Sutter, creator of the show, has loosely based his hit series on Hamlet, with Jax Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam, as the biker version of Hamlet. Moreover, Ron Perlman, who plays Clay (or the villain Claude if you want to go by the Hamlet parallel), says the finale will follow a Shakespearean tragedy's structure ­ basically , everyone's going to die (sorry for the spoiler!).
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TAMING OF THE SHREW Considered one of Shakespeare's most sexist plays, it gets an American high school adaptation in 10 Things I Hate About You with Heath Ledger. Apart from the usual name modifications (Petruchio of Verona becomes Patrick Verona, Katherine Minola becomes Kat Stratford), the movie stands out because of its subtle homage to Shakespeare. The female lead's last name, Stratford, comes from Shakespeare's home town Stratford-upon-Avon.Moreover, there is also a class on Shakespeare where Kat writes the titular sonnet, giving the movie a nice metatextual touch.
THE TWELFTH NIGHT For future reference, any movie where characters end up together after a huge amount of mix-ups and cross-dressing ­ it's probably based on Shakespeare's plays. One of Amanda Bynes' early movies, She's The Man, scores points for using the cross-dressing to address gender issues in high school sports.
A COMEDY OF ERRORS Bollywood loves the trouble with twins theme, but the original mix-up story had already been written in around 1859 in The Comedy of Errors. Props to Gulzar for not slavishly following the text in Angoor, but adding modern-day flavour to the story , such as making one of the twins an avid fan of crime novels.
ROMEO AND JULIET One of his most popular plays has found its place in many modern day adaptations, from Lion King 2 to Romeo Must Die. The most recent, however, was in 2013's zombie romance Warm Bodies. While we're not sure if Shakespeare would be too happy with a zombie as the hero of his masterpiece, notice how the lead's name is conveniently “R“, his romantic interest is Julie. Coincidence? On the home front, we've had stories like Laila Majnu and Heer Ranjha,so it was no surprise that we adapted movies to this tale of star-crossed lovers. We have last year's more violent adaptation, Ram-Leela, and going further back, we have the movie that launched Aamir Khan to stardom, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.
LANGUAGE It doesn't take a PhD in English literature to quote Shakespeare. You probably quote the playwright a few times each day and just don't know it.
CATCH A COLD Who would have thought, right? This phrase comes from Cymbeline, one of Shakespeare's lesser known works.The full quote is, “Straight away for Britain, lest the bargain should catch cold and starve...“
BREAK THE ICE This everyday phrase first appeared in The Taming Of The Shrew in the lines, “And if you break the ice, and do this feat, achieve the elder, set the younger free.“
OBSCENE Can you image what life would be like without this word? Shakespeare penned it in Love's Labour Lost, and since then we got a label for the countless numbers of songs and movies that we found tasteless.
GREEN WITH ENVY People don't actually turn different shades of green when they're jealous, so you might be wondering how this one came about. Shakespeare referred to envy as the “green-eyed monster“ in Othello, probably because of the colour's association with illnesses.
GENRE It may not seem like a big deal now, but if it weren't for Shakespeare, movies we've come to love, like Titanic or A Walk to Remember, wouldn't have existed. The reason? A romantic plot wasn't considered worthy enough to be a tragedy ­ the greatest of all genres. Notice how Shakespeare's greatest tragedies, Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, all have no romantic angle. But as he sat down to write Romeo And Juliet, he probably thought, `To hell with it all!'
and we're grateful that he did!
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