Shylock (film) Shylock (film) Shylock is a 1940 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Kinema Ramu and Serukalathur Sama (under the name Sama-Ramu) and produced by Bharat Pictures. It is based on William Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". The film stars Sama as the title character, T. V. Janakam as Portia, S. G. Kasi Iyer as Antonio, P. S. Sivaramalingam as the Duke and T. S. Santhanam as Bassanio. The film was a commercial failure, and no print of it has survived, making it a lost film. Kinema Ramu, a lawyer based in Kumbakonam and scholar on William Shakespeare, wrote the dialogue
The Merchant of Venice edition in 1600 states that it had been performed "divers times" by that date. Salerino's reference to his ship the "Andrew" (I,i,27) is thought to be an allusion to the Spanish ship "St. Andrew," captured by the English at Cádiz in 1596. A date of 1596–97 is considered consistent with the play's style. The play was entered in the Register of the Stationers Company, the method at that time of obtaining copyright for a new play, by James Roberts on 22 July 1598 under the title "The Merchant of Venice", otherwise called "The Jew of Venice". On 28 October 1600