In the last six months, I have seen three vastly different takes on Hamlet. From the Oscar-winning Hamnet to one of my personal favorites of 2026 so far with Scarlet, director Aneil Karia (Surge) had some big shoes to fill with his interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s greatest works. And given what I saw, he stepped up to the plate boldly and delivers.
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) plays the prince who has come home to mourn the death of his father (Elsinore in this case is a real estate company, as this version is set in modern-day London in the elite South Asian area) only to find out that his uncle Claudis (Art Malik of True Lies and The Living Daylights) intends to marry his mother. After being visited by what he believes is the ghost of his father and being told that Claudius murdered him, Hamlet goes on a revenge tour that has severe consequences for all.
It is always a bold move to set ancient texts in modern times and not change any of the dialogue, but with Hamlet it totally works here. Karia chooses a lot of low-light sets in order to add to Hamlet’s already less-than-sunny disposition, and along with a minimalist score and a brooding performance by Ahmed, this is nothing short of spectacular. There are those who may be more familiar with either seeing this play live or in one of the more “bombastic” interpretations that could see a problem with the playing down of Shakespeare’s beautifully written lines, but it is important to remember that in a stage play, actors are trained to “speak to the back of the room” in order to ensure that the entire audience can hear and understand (especially in that time when there was no such thing as amplification). I honestly believe that this is the way that The Bard wanted his work to go, given the darkness and anger that surrounds this story.
Although there are parts that are edited down or out in order to keep this at just under a tight two hours (I personally would have liked to see more of Polonius’ relationship with Ophelia, played by Timothy Spall and Morfydd Clark, respectively), but what stays in the film is POWERFUL. The best example here (and is a sequence that should be watched multiple times on its own) is the play that Hamlet changes to be performed at the wedding, depicting what he believes truly happened to his father. The music alongside the performances by the dancers and evolution of reactions by the bride and groom bring an intensity that had me glued to the screen even more than I already was.
This version of Hamlet is one that deserves to be seen by as large of an audience as possible, perhaps even to be used in schools alongside one of the more traditional presentations (the 1990 version with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close is a solid one to compare and contrast with) for a larger discussion of how the more things change, the more they stay the same. Do yourself a favor and catch this as soon as you can, even if you need the Cliff Notes version to help you get through the dialogue.