The film stays close to the play, with Hamlet's dead father wanting Hamlet to punish the people responsible for his death. Hamlet, unwilling to believe his mother's involvement is in a quandary and pretends to be insane. He has a play staged denouncing his mother and uncle. Gertrude drinks the poison intended for Hamlet, Hamlet kills his step-father and succumbs to the wounds received.

• Sohrab Modi as Hamlet
• Naseem Banu as Ophelia
• Shamshadbai as Gertrude
• Ghulam Hussain
• Obali Mai
• Fazal Karim
• Eruch Tarapore
• Ghulam Mohiyuddin
• Shamshad
• Rampiary
• Gauhar
• B. Pawar

As reported by Peter Morris, Khoon Ka Khoon was a "recording of a stage production", Modi filmed it using two cameras as the play was being staged. The play was a mix of Elizabethan costumes for the main leads, with a mixture of Western stage and Indian costumes for other characters in the play. Modi decided to film the play shot by shot as in the staging of the play.^[11] Mehdi Ahsan, a known writer of the Parsi theatre had earlier adapted the play for the silent film Khoon-e-Nahak (1928), before staging it for Modi. He apparently stated that he had to alter the Shakesperean plays to suit the Indian audience's "way of thinking".^[11][12]

Director Modi asked Shamshadbai, Naseem Banu’s mother, to play to play the role of Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother), in order to take the pressure off the young Naseem during shooting.^[13]

Khoon Ka Khoon, which was the first sound version of a Shakespeare play was not a success at the box office.^[14] However, Modi's film was appreciated mainly for the Urdu dialogues, the "quality of the play" and his acting. Modi's acting was noted as a performance dominating the film.^[3]

The different versions of Hamlet made in Hindi:^[15]

• Khoon-E-Nahak (Murder Most Foul) (1928) directed by Dada Athawale and written by Mehdi Hassan Ahsan
• Khoon Ka Khoon (1935)
• Hamlet (1954)
• Haider (2014)

The music was provided by Kanhaiya Parwar with lyrics by Mehndi Hassan Ahmed.^[16]

Song List