Posted:
On BBC2 they showed a documentary about Shakespeare being performed in India. Apparently his plays are being performed in India since 1830 and have been translated in many Indian languages.
There is a small, not very posh, school in a small town in Gujerat where the English teacher teaches Shakespeare to students around the ages of 10-16 and every year they put on plays like Midsummer's Dream, Macbeth etc for the parents. The teacher believes that learning Shakespeare at that age gives the children huge enrichment and makes them progressive and an ability to understand very complex issues. Apart from that they get good taste! This teacher was very much like Sandhya and the school was in a town like Pushkar.
They then showed a film maker who has translated King Lear in Kannada language. With the help of the government he has taken this to prisoners in a prison and trained them to perform the play. Most of the players are under going life imprisonment and have little or no education and they are in for serious crimes including murder!
The man playing Kind Lear performed so beautifully that I had tears in my eyes just watching him.
There were many more such examples and it was an eye opener.
Against that, we have a program like DABH!
Is it not a sad state of affairs that in a country where there is so much progress and where Shakespeare is played, understood and appreciated and applauded, we are force feeding crap like DABH.
The documentary is called "Shakespeare in India". Do watch it if only to be able to put DABH in one context.
I mean what were they showing today. How much more crappy does it have to get in the name of entertainment.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
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