ABSTRACT
Helsingor has been immortalised as Elsinor in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The castle is situated on the extreme north-eastern tip of the island of Zelandat, the narrowest point of the Oresund, which interestingly interprets as the 'sound' between Denmark and Sweden. This chapter shows whether we could recoup traces of the Indian 'silent' Shakespeare, either in the primary source of the film or the paper-based secondary or tertiary sources. Facing all kinds of absences, recouping an archive in India is a massive task, but there are efforts being made, though almost solitarily. Evidence shows the presence of six silent Shakespeare films made in India: Dil Farosh (Merchant of Venice), Khoon-e-Nahak (Hamlet), Kusum Kumari (Cymbeline), Meetha Zahar (Cymbeline) and Khooni Taj (Macbeth). The chapter also presents new evidence of an additional, hitherto unknown, earliest silent Indian Shakespeare film: Champraj Hado (Cymbeline).
