Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet based on William Shakespear's Hamlet

•   How faithful is the movie to the original play?

 The movie Kenneth Branagh's "HAMLET" based on William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is according to me faithful to Shakespeare’s Hamlet because the language of the play is same to the movie and as a director Kenneth Branagh had tried to do some changes in the movie. The movie starts with the statue of Hamlet and also ends at there. The spectacle, the setting of different places, costumes of all characters, the use of flashback technique, in mirror scene, use of mirrors, love scenes are added by Kenneth Branagh.
       

  After watching the movie, have your perception about play, characters or situations changed

 

       Before screening the movie, I was thinking about Ophelia that she is as common as Shakespeare’s other characters but movie changes my perception about Ophelia. Ophelia is shown as a heroine in the whole movie, and it suits to the character also. And before movie I was thinking that the ghost of Hamlet will directly come and meet Hamlet but in the movie I saw hamlet’s statue first, and then suddenly the ghost comes at the Forrest, and I was little surprised.So, I can say that my perception was changed.
           

Do you feel ‘aesthetic delight’ while watching the movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?

From starting of movie, I can not feel any kind of aesthetic delight, but at the end, when Hamlet takes the revenge, I feel aesthetic delight. Because in the whole movie I was waiting for “How Hamlet will take the revenge?”And I was waiting for the end. And I was actually in hurry, when Hamlet was delaying.

           

• Do you feel ‘catharsis’ while or after watching movie? If yes, exactly when did it happen? If no, can you explain with reasons?

Yes, I also feel catharsis many times in the movie.Exectly speaking I feel sympathy with Ophelia, Hamlet and Gertrude. When Hamlet’s father revels the truth, and Hamlet decide to take revenge from Claudius, when he was thinking about his uncle’s cruelty,I feel pity for him. When Polonius asks Ophelia to read the letter, I feel sympathetic with the condition of Ophelia. In one of the Nunnery scene, I feel Catharsis when the conversation was going on between Hamlet and Ophelia. And when Hamlet was talking with his mother, I feel sympathy for her also, when Hamlet speaks “Frailty, thy name is women.”In the movie I also see Ophelia with a key in her mouth, and she also sings a song for her father that’ he will never come……” and at the next when Gertrude comes with news that Ophelia is drowned. There I also feel catharsis. And at last but not the least, when Hamlet takes revenge from his uncle, and the duel between the two. Hamlet was cruelly killed by Laertes, there I feel pity for him, and his dialogues, I think I can’t forget them.
               

•  Does screening of movie help you in better understanding of the play?

The screening of the movie, I can say helps me, in better understanding of the play and Hamlet’s character. The flashback technique every time helps me to understand the situation. At First, in Ghost-scene, Polonius forces Ophelia to read the letter, there comes the Flashback, I can say that Flashback helps me.
              

•   Was there any particular scene or moment in the movie that you will cherish lifetime?

 Yes, when Hamlet’s father forces him to take the revenge and Hamlet decides to take the revenge and at the last when Hamlet tells Horatio to be alive, and he was taking his last breath, these two scenes I will cherish lifetime. And from the Ghost scene things get started, and at the death it ends.  

• If you are director, what changes would you like to make in the remaking of movie on Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’?

If I am a director, I will try my best to change Hamlet’s thinking for his mother, and his beloved. And I will try to make the Hero and Heroine alive. Because if we see minutely, there is not any kind of fault in female characters, because according to me Gertrude and Ophelia both were innocent. They both were right in there ways. Ophelia was trying to be faithful to his father and lover, and Gertrude to her husband and son. But they meet to their tragic doom. So I will try to change the end of the the movie.