‘Booked’ For A Movie?

What’s common between ‘The Namesake’; ‘A Mighty Heart’, and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’? Well, they are brilliant movies, they star the talented Irrfan Khan, and they are remarkable cinematic adaptations of different novels. What started as an experiment has gradually evolved into a trend over the years. Almost every other movie is an adaptation of a popular novel, especially in Hollywood. Bollywood is a bit different. Mostly, they copy straight away (sorry, ‘adapt’) from regional cinema!

The joy of reading is something beyond comparison. You start living the characters, and relate to their circumstances. You read books at your own leisure. Movies, on the other hand, are grander and altogether more colourful. What you read over a few days, you can watch in 2-3 hours. The emotions get clearer, you connect strongly with the character (depends LARGELY on the acting). In a way, cinematic adaptations of books are a good way to popularize the novel. There have been many wonderful adaptations. ‘The Godfather’, ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘Devdas’, ‘The Kite Runner’, ‘The Guide’, ‘Narnia’ series, ‘Lord Of The Ring’ series, ‘P.S. I Love You’, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, and off course ‘The Harry Potter’ series…the list is endless but these are some successful examples. Who can forget the eight Oscar winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, an adaptation of Vikas Swarup’s ‘Q&A’ (why on earth did he rename his book ‘Slumdog Millonaire’ after the movie released? Individuality, originality are lesser known virtues, eh?) Another excellent movie, though less popular, is ‘Pinjar’, an on-screen adaptation of Amrita Pritam’s novel by the same name. Shakespeare is an all-time favourite; his plays have been adapted in different languages all over the world. Closer home, best-selling author Chetan Bhagat’s novels are perfect movie material, with two movies already released based on his novels- ‘One Night At The Call Centre’(‘Hello’: bad, period); another based on his debut novel ‘Five Point Someone’ proving to be a blockbuster hit( ‘3 Idiots’:infamous for the writer-director controversy, but entertaining all the same); with the other two books also in the making.

We talk about books losing their charm, with nobody taking pains to take out time to read and preferring the shortcut by watching movies instead; but we forget where this shortcut takes base from. If you look at it that way, cinematic adaptations are actually a way of paying tribute to novels. Movies provide a larger platform to books. Once you watch a movie on the big screen, you will most definitely want to read it in print, though it is a silly idea to keep away a book and wait for the movie based on it. You get a different feeling when you watch a movie and when you read a book, and it’s best to savour both the feelings separately and not be judgemental.