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There are shades of\u00a0<\/span>Succession\u00a0<\/i>in Aneil Karia\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Hamlet<\/i>:<\/span>\u00a0<\/i>a\u00a0stylish, uneven adaptation that takes pleasure in entropy and extremity<\/span>.\u00a0<\/i>Set at the estate of a\u00a0wealthy desi family in present-day London, the film begins by bringing our eponymous prince (Riz Ahmed) face-to-face with his father\u2019s corpse. We see him performing rites, anointing the body with sandalwood paste; the naturalistic handheld camera (DOP<\/span> Stuart Bentley\u2019s) moves us from the sterile morgue to a\u00a0ceremony room and the staid performance of a\u00a0funeral bhajan, then straight into the crematory\u2019s roaring flames for the title credits. This isn\u2019t your grandma\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Hamlet<\/i>, it seems to\u00a0argue.<\/span><\/p>\n Labouring this further under magenta-yellow club lights, Ahmed\u2019s protagonist takes a\u00a0big bump of something offered up by Laertes (a characteristically smarmy and despondent Joe Alwyn). At times, the film\u2019s action-fuelled instincts can tend a\u00a0little try-hard. Speeding down the highway with a\u00a0death wish, Hamlet delivers his infamous existential monologue while threatening to crash his BMW<\/span> into a\u00a0semi-truck driving in the opposite direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The prince\u2019s unravelling is already in motion, catalysed when his magnate father appears to him on a\u00a0rooftop, telling of his own murder. Spurred on by anger and bewilderment at the suspiciously hasty marriage of his shadowy uncle Claudius (Art Malik) and his widowed mother Gertrude (Sheeba Chaddha), Hamlet lashes out at Polonius (Timothy Spall), soaking the beige-toned minimalism of the family mansion in a\u00a0vast pool of dark\u00a0blood.<\/span><\/p>\n Karia relies heavily on facial close-ups throughout, anchoring the story in Ahmed\u2019s increasingly erratic expressions of grief as the young heir to Elsinore \u2013 the castle ciphered here as a\u00a0powerful and unpopular (or at least frequently graffiti\u2019d\u2011about) construction group. This thread proves to be little more than late capitalist window dressing, but the merits of Karia\u2019s adaptation lie within smaller compositional details and moments of genuine flair.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Gertrude and Claudius marry, for example, a\u00a0troupe of Indian dancers campily reenact the hypothetical poisoning, made up in kohl and gold body paint. At the top of the scene, Hamlet dons a\u00a0mirrored headscarf and a\u00a0smear of fuchsia lip paint. Drunk on loathing, he reaches for the microphone and proceeds to wreak havoc, making dick jokes and causing Ophelia (Morfydd Clark) to burst into\u00a0tears.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For the most part, costume designer Nirage Mirage opts to clothe the cast in sombre, business casual neutrals. During the wedding scene, Hamlet\u2019s off-white kurta temporarily disappears under a\u00a0brocaded, ivory-coloured nehru jacket. Laertes smoulders in an ash brown suit, and Ophelia wears a\u00a0silk lehenga in a\u00a0muted chartreuse, deep red mehndi dotting her hands and wrists.\u00a0The film is an undeniably beautiful one, though not quite unique enough to make a\u00a0case for its adaptation. Certain aspects of the production \u2013 such as the casual mix of Shakespearian English and conversational Hindi \u2013 feel novel, but ultimately don\u2019t push the envelope in the way more successful ones do.\u00a0<\/span>Grand Theft Hamlet<\/i><\/a> comes to mind as an especially inventive variation, but Karia\u2019s film is one of three in the TIFF<\/span> programme (including Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Hamnet<\/i> and Mamoru Hosoda\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Scarlet<\/i>) based on the very same\u00a0play.<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps it is inevitable that its synecdochic question would have changed in recent years, with the text having been put through the industry machine so many times. In any case, the one I\u00a0found myself asking by its conclusion was: How much Hamlet is enough Hamlet?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n