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 Richard Cumberland created a character named Abraham Abrahams, who is quoted as saying, "I verily believe the odious character of Shylock has brought little less persecution upon us, poor scattered sons of Abraham, than the Inquisition itself." Cumberland later wrote a successful play, "The Jew" (1794), in which his title character, Sheva, is portrayed sympathetically, as both a kindhearted and generous man. This was the first known attempt by a dramatist to reverse the negative stereotype that Shylock personified. The depiction of Jews in literature throughout the centuries bears the close imprint of Shylock. With slight variations much of English