Noblemen: This Merchant of Venice adaptation lets Shylock have his revenge | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Noblemen: This Merchant of Venice adaptation lets Shylock have his revenge | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Ishita Sengupta |New Delhi |Updated: July 5, 2019 2:48:52 pm

Noblemen: This Merchant of Venice adaptation lets Shylock have his revenge

In Vandana Kataria’s directorial debut, Noblemen, actions replace words and Shylock becomes more of an idea rather than a person.

Vandana Kataria in her directorial debut questions the nobility of the Noblemen. Source: Yodlee Films/YouTube)

In a room full of impressionable students, the new and rather likeable drama teacher Mr Murali (Kunal Kapoor) states the primary theme of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice — revenge. No one contradicts, the students look on. A reading such as this — bypassing the comic embellishments assiduously bestowed by the playwright, bypassing also the friendship between the principal characters, Antonio and Bassanio — lays the play bare in its primal form, one where there is an exigent moral crisis, where one is right only by wronging someone else, and one where the unaligned scales of justice demand to be squared off by revenge. This interpretation, not particularly singular but troublingly adult, introduces a moral compass and plants seeds of tragedy in one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies.