Page 40 - Seniorstoday March 2024 Issue
P. 40
Films +
Booked & Cooked
Let’s take a dekko at some great films adapted from novels in India, writes
Suguna Sundaram
#It takes cojones to make films from list is long, but very interesting.
published literature, especially if Way back in 1961, director Hemen Gupta
the said books fall in the category of made the unforgettable Kabuliwala, based
Classics. The Hindi film industry has on the short story of the same name,
seen innumerable stories based on written by the prolific Rabindranath
adaptations from books, ranging from Tagore. The story had already been made
classic to cheesy. It’s the directors who into a film in Bengali in 1957. The Hindi
have been instrumental in making them version starred Balraj Sahani, who made
into hits or flops. The good thing is, by the nation weep with his heartbreaking
my observation, we have some amazing histrionics. The film also starred actress
films made by powerhouse directors Usha Kiron, Sajjan and Baby Farida.
that do justice to the originals, as well Sudhendu Roy’s 1971 film Uphaar,
as leave an independent impact on the starring Jaya Bachchan was based on
viewers’ minds. Of course there are Tagore’s short story named Samapti (The
some publications that do not merit the End). Rabindranath Tagore also wrote the
directors their stories have earned. But novel Chokher Bali, which the late director
that is something we won’t elaborate on Rituparno Ghosh made into a film of the
just yet. same name, in 2003, starring his muse
Let’s take a dekko at some of these Aishwarya Rai, Prasenjit Chtterjee and
films adapted from novels in India. Raima Sen.
The originals range from Shakespeare, In 1963, Munshi Premchand’s classic
to dynamic Hindi novelists, to soulful novel Godaan (published in 1936, and to
Bengali authors, right down to the date acknowledged as one of the greatest
popular pulp fiction writer James novels in modern Indian literature) was
Hadley Chase, and our very own Chetan made into a Hindi film by Trilok Jetley,
Bhagat’s novels (gulp!!) Be warned, the starring Raajkumar, Mehmood, Kamini
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