Maqbool

Maqbool (2003)
The Bollywood adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Directed by Vishal Bharadwaj

Key Players:
Irfan Khan: Maqbool (as Irfan)
Tabu: Nimmi
Pankaj Kapur: Jahangir Khan (Abbaji)
Naseeruddin Shah: Inspector Purohit
Om Puri: Inspector Pandit
Piyush Mishra : Kaka
Masumeh Makhija: Sameera (Abbaji's Daughter)
Ajay Gehi: Guddu (Kaka's son)
Ankur Vikal: Riyaz Boti

Shakespearian tragedy meets the Godfather in this Indianized adaptation of Macbeth. Jahangir Khan (Abbaji) is a powerful gangster wanted by the government for his involvement in underworld crime. Adopted by Abbaji at a young age, Maqbool has grown-up in the dark underbelly of Bombay’s Mafia. At the onset of the film, two corrupt police inspectors/astrologists predict Maqbool’s increasing power among the gang, even though he is already Abbaji’s right hand man. The soothsayer’s predictions come true after a rival gang is overtaken. One of this gang’s members, Riyaz Boti, is taken into Abbaji’s gang by force. Maqbool is having a secret affair with Abbaji’s mistress Nimmi and they begin to plot Abbaji’s murder so Maqbool can take his place as don, and most importantly, as Nimmi’s husband. As the Vito Corleone-like Abbaji continues to gain power he arranges the marriage of his daughter, Sameera to Guddu, the son of one of his men, Kaka. On the night of the engagement, Maqbool shoots Abbaji in his bed. Nimmi looks on as their pre-planned murder unfolds. After his death, Maqbool takes Abbaji’s place in the gang and in Nimmi’s bed. Nimmi and Maqbool are haunted by their crime, especially after learning that Nimmi is pregnant with Abbaji’s child. Maqbool’s wild desire for the family he never had ignores that the baby is Abbaji’s heir. Paranoid and haunted by his bloody misdeed, Maqbool systematically eliminates anyone else who might usurp his power and claim to Nimmi and the baby. He organizes Kaka’s murder, alienating Guddu and sparking a war between the two gangs. An attack on their compound causes Nimmi to go into premature labor. In a fit of paranoid insanity, Maqbool takes Nimmi from the hospital to their home where she dies after feverish and guilt-ridden hallucinations. Maqbool returns to the hospital to claim “his” son, only to be shot dead at the entrance by Riyaz Boti, who has harbored a grudge since his family’s murder. Like Macbeth, Maqbool ends with the death of its main players, and like any Bollywood film their love is undying to the very end. -Eve Neiger