Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy finds new life in Aneil Karia’s fierce, full-blooded adaptation, set in present-day London’s vibrant South Asian community. Anchored by a resonant and complex performance from Riz Ahmed in the title role, this is Hamlet as you have never seen it. Karia is best known for their debut feature Surge and Oscar-winning short The Long Goodbye (the award is shared with Ahmed).
The Elsinore of this Hamlet was a family mansion in the English countryside, marked by unease, coded silences, and patriarchal dominance. The supporting cast—including Morfydd Clark as Ophelia, Art Malik as Claudius, and Sheeba Chaddha as a deeply conflicted Gertrude—bring slightly different reinterpretations. But it is Ahmed’s Hamlet who captivates: cerebral, wounded, and relentlessly modern. His long-standing dream to take on this role, in partnership with Karia, results in a performance that felt classical in a modern setting.
Knowing Karia’s vision for this Hamlet is integral to understanding why this film was made. From an entertainment view, I was very confused as to why Karia decided to keep almost all the Shakespearean English and language throughout this movie. Every time Ahmed’s Hamlet broke out into monologues, it was barely understandable to the modern, everyday person.
As someone who studied English literature in university, I struggled to understand who this film appealed to—those who liked the play, or was this a strange way to honour the South Asian community in the UK? It is possible that Karia wanted audiences to feel Hamlet’s emotions rather than understand the words coming out of his mouth. In an abstract sense, using Shakespearean English added to Hamlet’s broken mind.
For a modernized take, I would have thought they would modernize the language of this adaptation. There were small moments where they slipped in some Urdu. Throughout this whole watch, I was thinking how Dev Patel’s Monkey Man made a better movie of a modern UK-Indian-made movie than this take on Hamlet. Ironically, Monkey Man contained some Hamlet themes on revenge too, but did it better.
“Hamlet’s core strength is in its character acting. Ahmed acted his mind out. His soliloquies were perfectly delivered, watching a person lose their mind in classic Shakespearean fashion.”
Hamlet’s core strength is in its character acting. Ahmed acted his mind out. His soliloquies were perfectly delivered, watching a person lose their mind in classic Shakespearean fashion. Ahmed shows all aspiring actors how to embrace the soul and essence of Hamlet. Even Chaddha’s Gertrude was a standout for her role as Hamlet’s mother. The mother-son relationship held this film from completely crashing.
Every other cast member played their part from the iconic play without straying from the path, making for okay performances. Morfydd Clark’s Ophelia felt like a waste of her talent because her scenes were baked into the viewer knowing Ophelia’s story, and less on building the chemistry between Hamlet and Ophelia’s romance. Clark’s amazing performances in Saint Maud and Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power do not come close to her performance in Hamlet in the most disappointing ways possible.
The colour grading fit the mood, and matched a cyberpunk neon nightlife that made it feel like a John Wick film. The cinematography sold the ghostly elements, along with the claustrophobic insanity. The shaky handheld camera style felt disorienting but personal. The best camera work was in the traditional dance choreography scene that felt menacing and haunting—adding to the bloody betrayal.
Hamlet struggled to push the boundaries of the classic play and add enough South Asian influences. While there were hints of reinvention, the modernizing elements were overshadowed by the use of old Shakespearean English. Overall, this was not an enjoyable watch because the supporting cast was almost invisible to Ahmed’s sublime acting.
