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entertainment Rauf Ahmed, veteran film archivist, feels that the B-Town rid itself of its long-standing “boy-meets-girl-villain-throws-spanner-in-romance” theme with Dil Chahta Hai, “Unlike yesteryear film producers, who were obsessed with bumping off the hero/heroine in the climax and let them meet in the next birth that earned Dilip Kumar the title of tragedy king, today’s filmmakers are ready to look at ever-evolving human emotions and relationships. Just look at the range and depth of ideas last year — from a sperm donor (Vicky Donor) to an item girl’s biopic (The Dirty Picture). The willingness to experiment is the main the precursor for hunting ideas in books,” he reasons. Like the popular emotions on your cell phone and personal computer, looks like it is time for emoti-films now.
(2) Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara was adapted from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (3) Stills from Sanjay Gupta's Shootout at Wadala, Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po
Che! and Mira Nair’s Midnight’s Children Bhawana Somayaa, senior film scribe and biographer, finds it a welcome trend, “Anything is better than remakes! Lazy filmmakers, greedy for superhits are going for remakes. There is such a pressing paucity of fresh ideas that they have to borrow from past hits or literature.” Moreover, she is greatly impressed with the recent adaptations — Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Mira Nair’s Midnight’s Children and Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che! “The screenplays were thoroughly enjoyable and the characters multi-layered. These are good precedents for films based on books,” she opines. Bangla bests Indian films started off by drawing on religious epics — Ramayana and Mahabharata initially. India’s first silent movie Raja Harishchandra in 1913 was based on the legend of the munificent king from the mythological texts. Then came the talkies and B-Town turned to Bangla literature for themes from Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Kabuliwallah, Bimal Mitra’s Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam to Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas. “I adore the rich tapestry of emotions and characters in films based on literary works like Saraswati Chandra (by Gujarati novelist Govardhanram Tripathi) and Parineeta (by Sarat babu),” cites Somayaa. Incidentally, as many as 17 Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay novels have been adapted into Hindi and Bengali films, hitherto. Chandraprakash Dwivedi, who made Pinjar based on Amrita Pritam’s eponymous novel in an interview earlier had reasoned, “Literature is rich with well-conceived ideas and plots that are elaborately thought out. Therefore, adapting a novel readily ensures strong content.” Amply proven by adaptations like Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy based on Bibhutibhushan Bandhopadhyay’s books, likewise Premchand’s books — Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Sadgati, Gaban, Godaan and Heera Moti have inspired memorable films. Ismat Chugtai’s story inspired Garam Hawa (1973), film based on India’s partition — cited as her favourite film by late Indira Gandhi, Rajender Singh Bedi’s novella — Ek Chadar Maili Si and Mirza Ruswa’s Umrao Jan Ada also spun off classic films. Shakespeare ’n’ Zaidi The 1980s witnessed an era of mindless action films, followed by a shake-up in which filmmakers angled for scripts based on real-life incidents as well as people. B-Town has always been attracted by Shakespeare — Gulzar’s Angoor (Comedy of Errors), Vishal Bhardwaj’s Maqbool (Macbeth) and Omkara (Othello). Bhardwaj, thus, explained his fascination for the bard, “Shakespeare is the greatest storyteller ever. His stories have layers of spectacular human drama. I think these can be adapted anywhere, and in any language. I can live my whole life on Shakespeare.” Saif Ali Khan, who played Langda Tyagi in Omkara, had remarked, “If you see, all his plays are completely targeted towards the front benchers. That’s like a perfect fit for our film industry.” Ruskin Bond has been another favourite. Shashi Kapoor made Junoon based on his novel, A Flight of Pigeons while Vishal Bhardwaj made The Blue Umbrella and 7 Khoon Maaf on Bond’s works. Some films like Mani Ratnam’s Guru drew ‘unofficially’ upon Hamish McDonald’s biography of Dhirubhai Ambani — since the book is banned in India. Bollywood then took a fancy to Mumbai-based crime reporter S. Hussain Zaidi’s works. His Black Friday—The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts won Anurag Kashyap his first ovation. Since then, Zaidi has become the darling of B-Town — Sanjay Gupta’s upcoming Shootout at Wadala is also based on Zaidi’s Dongri to Dubai. Vishal Bhardwaj is reportedly adapting a story from Zaidi’s Mafia Queens of Mumbai. While Zaidi is currently busy co-authoring Headley and I, with Rahul Bhatt (who was a fitness trainer to Headley, an American, who confessed to helping plot the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai), which is the latest to make it to the celluloid. Power to pop-lit But most of these literature-based films were from the alternate stream as Girish Ranade, executive film producer points out that ‘sahitya’ (literary works) mostly inspired ‘art films’ until Gulshan Nanda’s popular novels surfaced sometime in the 1960s. “This was the first commercial alliance of books and films. Nanda’s novels were made into many hit films like — Kaajal, Neel Kamal, Kati Patang, Patthar Ke Sanam, Sharmilee, Ajnabee, Khilona, Hanste Zakhm and Jheel Ke Uss Paar. Something like that is happening again with popular literature being adapted into films,” he explains. All of Chetan Bhagat’s books from My Conversations with God (Hello), Five Point Someone (3 Idiots) and The 3 Mistakes of My Life (Kai Po Che!) and 2 States have ensured boxoffice success and he’s the flavour of B-Town now, “My stories are very Indian, very middle class, funny, simple; so I think Bollywood is looking for stories now...3 Idiots success has shown they can be adapted successfully, so that’s why it’s happening and it’s good for me because I want to reach as many Indians as possible. But I write in English; if I write in Hindi, the reach increases,” Bhagat said in an interview. With Johar acquiring the film rights to Amish Tripathy’s Meluhans and Shah Rukh Khan dealing with the movie adaptation rights of Anuja Chauhan’s The Zoya Factor by Booker winner Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger being picked up by Hollywood, literature looks like a hot vocation folks!
Everybody loves a madcap comedy
Bringing up babies This one is for newly minted mothers. Former actor Tara Sharma is back with Ek Nayi Ma Ka Safar every Sunday at 10.30 a.m. on Colors. This is a realistic diary of Tara’s experiences and adventures as a new mum. The show is informal and, often humorous, with the personal touch of real experiences being recounted and demonstrated. Season 2 picks up where the finale of Season 1 ended with the birth of her second son, Kai, making showcasing the adventures of a family of four. The show highlights pertinent issues like the siblings rivalry, journey of bringing up a new born and toddler as well as travelling with kids. Through her own experiences, Tara Sharma brings the truths of rearing two little children and discusses the ups and downs of parenthood. There are, of course, more ups as the bonds that develop create their own special loving moments. — NF
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Salman Rushdie
We’ve all loved Raymond and can’t have enough of his oddball family— petite wife Debra, meddlesome mother Marie, hilariously acerbic father Frank and his mildly jealous brother Robert. Everybody Loves Raymond at 8.30 p.m. Monday to Friday on Comedy Central has never failed to raise the guffaws even 17 years after it was launched in 1996. The dysfunctional family revolves around Raymond’s family and his parents who live directly across the street. They barge into the son’s home whenever they please much to the irritation of his wife Debra. While mother Marie’s cooking advice is less than appreciated, his brother Robert, a divorced policeman openly resents Ray’s successful career as a sports writer. Father Frank is happy taking pot shots at anyone who is at a hearing distance which all makes this madcap comedy a classic family sitcom.