Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Om Puri, Tabu

Shakespeare's `Macbeth` has found a number of followers in European cinema but in India it is for the first time that the play has inspired a film. Directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, Maqbool is not an attempt to simply retell the Macbeth story, but to rediscover it in our times and conditions. The story is set in the mafia world of Mumbai.

Maqbool is the story of a man (Irfan Khan), who is the right hand man of mafia don Abbbaji (Pankaj Kapur) who has been ruling the crime world since long. Nimmi (Tabu) is Abbaji's mistress, who hates her situation and sees Maqbool as the only hope. Abbaji is the lord who presides over the chorus -- the chorus of associates that includes Kaka (Piyush Mehra), Guddu, Boti and others.

Maqbool is his trusted lieutenant and an able warhorse. Maqbool worships Abbaji till his ambition is excited by jealousy - and it is Nimmi who foments this jealousy in him. The central act of crime is the murder of Abbaji. As in Macbeth, this is the symbolic disruption of peace in the universe of the narrative. Nothing remains the same thereafter.

The perpetrators of the crime isolate themselves from their inner humanity. The equilibrium is broken internally as well as externally. Murder follows murder - every act of blood is driven by fear of the horrible disharmony existing between Maqbool and his world. He is trafficking with things of nightmarish fantasy, whose truth is false and its falsehood is true.

Nimmi's guilt assumes a life of its own, in the form of the baby in her womb. Her womanhood succumbs to the enormity of the crime she instigated. Two corrupt policemen played by Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, who are part of Abbaji's world, keep making correct predictions about the future.

Throughout the major theme, runs the love story of Maqbool and Nimmi. Two strong personalities bonded in their desire to change things for themselves. Beneath the deceit, is a lyrical core of their relationship. Maqbool interprets Macbeth in the most unlikely of settings. An attempt as ambitious as this is a challenge even for the most ambitious craftsmen.

Maqbool humanises Macbeth. Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most profound vision of evil, is relocated in the human paradigm. It tells the tale of a particular human situation in which a complex interplay of human emotions results in a grave crisis. The film follows the architecture of the original play and remains true to its theme.

Mian Maqbool has a fantastic star cast. With Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Om Puri, Irfan Khan and Tabu acting in the film, Vishal can rest assured he will have a good movie for the serious cine-goer.