findings, pedagogical implications and conclusion...
TRANSCRIPT
274
V
FINDINGS, PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS AND
CONCLUSION
5.1 Preliminaries
This is the concluding chapter. The chapter enumerates major findings of the
present research. Then it states the pedagogical implications of the present study
and suggests, rather appeals, to the Course Designers to incorporate Film Studies
as a regular course in Indian Universities. The chapter also suggests some new
lines for further research. The chapter comes to an end after making some
concluding remarks.
5.2 Major Findings
5.2.1 Five Point Someone and 3 Idiots
As seen in the comparative study made in the previous chapter (cf. § 4.1.6.0 )
the filmmakers of 3 Idiots also made an extensive use of expansion that the
movie turned out to be quite different from the adapted novel Five Point
Someone. The novel stops at the end of their college life but the movie goes
beyond it. The filmmakers made use of the technique of expansion by enlarging
the minor character Venkat (‘Chatur’ in the film) to one of the major characters,
and by introducing new characters like Mona and Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas
Chanchad in the film. They, thus, expanded the sub-plots and added new plots
(cf. §4.1.6.4). The character of Prof. Cherian as Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe – better
known as ‘Virus’ - also gets expanded to a larger-than-life character, gives the
film a new dimension. The filmmakers also made dumb Neha Cherian a doctor
and gave her more footage in the film as the role is played by the leading actress
Kareena Kapoor. The character of Ryan Oberoi who used to come last in the
exams is played by the super star Aamir Khan in the film who just cannot be
presented as a failure student. They turned Rancho (Ryan) to be a guy smarter
than his Professor, who used to come out topper in every exam and turned out
to be a scientist in the film.
275 The film has got very good songs and dances which is another reason for its
excessive box office hit. There are five songs in the film. All total the film is
expanded by 21 minutes and 24 seconds through songs and dances.
In the novel, Five Point Some the lovers Hari and Neha get separated, but
whether they get married is unclear. It is experienced that the Indian audience
simply cannot accept a movie in which the hero and the heroine cannot reunite
at the end. Therefore, the film makers made Pia (Kareena Kapoor), the heroine
of the movie, remain unmarried for 10 years, and finally make her reunite with
the hero Rancho (Aamir Khan) at the end of the movie.
The web article sulekha.com points out:
The book doesn’t preach. It only presents. It brings to light the condition of
Indian colleges without making a conscious attempt to do so. The best that
the book did was to inspire a movie - Three Idiots, a film which manfully
criticizes Indian society and its blinkered views, without compromising on
the fun. Somewhere it succeeds in making educationists locate where
exactly we are wrong in the education system. 34
The plot of the novel Five Point Someone is dark, humorous and slow. But the
movie is a laugh riot and full of life messages. The filmmakers have not only
expanded the sub- plots but they have also expanded the themes.
Shamnad Basheer in article ‘“Three Idiots” Controversy- An Analysis’ says:
I personally think it’s highly misleading and downright dishonest to
claim that only 3-5% of the movie was taken, if at all it is possible to
precisely quantify such factors. The net implication is that the rest of the
movie script really originated from other authors, a proposition rather
difficult to digest. To me, it appears that a significant portion of the
book’s storyline, most of its characters and sub-plots, including some
dialogues were all reproduced in the movie. The fact that some new
scenes and sub plots were added afresh to the movie does not detract from
34 Talkativewoman. Five Point Someone- A Review. Sulekha.com,
276
the fact that significant portions of the book were copied onto the movie
in the first place. Therefore, the claim that the book only contributed 3-
5% of the movie is blatantly false. On the contrary, Chetan could claim
that the script borrows significant amount of copyrightable elements
from his book and he is therefore legitimately entitled to be treated as a
joint author of this script. Consequently, the lack of appropriate
attribution in favour of Chetan amounts to a violation of his rights to
authorship guaranteed by section 57 of the Indian copyright act. 35
The filmmakers and the writer of the novel have an issue over the percentage of
materials taken from the source. The makers said it is 2% to 5% but the novelist
claims it is more than 70%. But the present study shows that out of the total film
time of 168 minutes the borrowed material from the novel covers only 48
minutes of film time which comes to about 27%. It seems certain that the main
idea and the characters have been picked up from Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five
Point Someone. But we cannot deny the hard work of Raj Kumar Hirani and
Abhijat Joshi who have expanded the sub-plots, the characters and themes to a
higher level which makes the film highest gross film ever.
Comparing the similarities and dissimilarities between the novel and the film,
there is no denying that the basic structure of the film is inspired and adapted
from the book and some of the plots are directly lifted from the novel. The
changes made in the movie however are many, which are central to the movie
alone and not to the novel. The similarities are not extensive and the degree of
similarities is not such as to lead one to think that the film is taken as a whole
constitutes a copying of Mr. Chetan Bhagat’s novel under the copyright law.
5.2.2 Susanna’s Seven Husbands and 7 Khoon Maaf
The novella Susanna’s Seven Husbands is of 59 pages. But the adapted film 7
Khoon Maaf is of 2 hours. 15 minutes, i.e. of 135 minutes. The original existence
of this novella is in the form of a short story of the same title (undated) and is a
slightly more than five pages length which one can finish reading within ten
minutes.
35 Basheer, Shamnad. “The ‘3 Idiots’ Copyright Controversy: Will All End Well?” SpicyIp.
277 Likewise, one may take seventy or seventy-five minutes to complete the reading
of the novella of fifty-nine pages. Transferring this print medium to its visual
presentation may have taken hardly sixty minutes considering the fact that there
are many descriptive passages which may have taken much less time in its visual
presentation. It may be said that an entire descriptive page can be presented
visually in a few seconds. All these facts become relevant and also crucial when
the habits of Indian cine-goers are considered. They normally go to the theatre
for a two-and-half hours’ entertainment. Anything less than that is considered a
waste of money by most of the cine-goers.
Keeping all this in mind, how does a Bollywood film-maker, then, fits a 59-page
(1710 lines – many of them not even full sentences) and the reading of which
can take somewhat like one hour into a two-and-half-hour film? It should be
remembered that the success of his film at the box-office has a direct bearing on
the way he makes use of his creativity to handle this problem. As mentioned
earlier (Cf. §. 2.3), the film-maker has two techniques – Expansion and
Condensation – for adapting his written material into a full-length film. Since in
this case the written material is of a very short length the film-maker is
somewhat bound to resort to the technique of expansion. For doing this, the film-
maker has certain ways and means at his disposal. He can make additions on
certain fronts. He can add subplots and new characters. He can expand scenes
and story lines. He can also enlarge the existing main characters like those of
the hero, the heroine and the villain. As Indian audiences hardly think of a film
without songs and dances the film-maker can easily integrate a few songs and
dances and thus fill in the existing time gaps.
A comparison between the novella Susanna’s Seven Husbands and 7 Khoon
Maaf, it is found that the filmmakers have extensively used the techniques of
expansion in adapting the novella to the film. They have remained faithful to the
novella in terms of plot, character, theme, setting and style. Apart from being
faithful to the original text they have expanded the plot by expanding the role of
DSP Keemat Lal, making him the fourth husband and the way he got killed. To
fit him in the list of seven husbands the makers of the film resorted to the
278 technique of condensation by removing the husband Sammy Das from the film.
The film makers might have thought that his obsession with mobile phones
would be too trivial a reason to get him killed and the audience may not like it.
There is also an expansion in terms of songs and dances as we know songs and
dances are an integral part of Bollywood films. There are 4 songs and 1 dance
sequence in the film 7 Khoon Maaf expanding the film material and time by 15
minutes 12 seconds. Again, the filmmakers through the last song called “Yeshu”
of 1 minute and 55 seconds where how Susanna has murdered her husbands is
shown which is not in the novella. The possible reason behind such an ending is
that in a theatre or cinema hall where a large variety of people—people from
all walks of life starting from the most illiterate to highly literate-–are watching
the film together an ambiguous or half-solved or puzzling answer would not
have worked. Moreover, the filmmakers made Susanna’s character likeable by
making the husbands cruel and ‘imperfect beings’. This is because Indian
audience would not accept the main lead, especially their favourite female star
to be in a negative role. Bond’s novella is dark and simple while Bhardwaj made
7 Khoon Maaf dense and ornate with layered use of colour and music.
The film got critically acclaimed and Priyanka Chopra fetched the Best Actress
award for playing the role of Susanna. The songs in the movie are also well
received by Indian audience. But the box office results showed the movie as not
successful in terms of business.
Comments
We find that in both the adapted Bollywood films the film-makers have made
extensive use of expansion to make their respective films blockbusters. But our
analysis says that only one film i.e. 3 Idiots got success and the other film i.e. 7
Khoon Maaf got less success. The reason may be that 3 Idiots managed to reach
a larger mass than 7 Khoon Maaf. The audience preferred a laugh riot and a
film full of life messages to a serious and murderous one.
279 5.2.3 Q & A and Slumdog Millionaire
A comparison between Vikas Swarup’s novel Q & A and the adapted film
Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle and Screenplay written by
Simon Beaufoy shows the film to be quite different from the source and is only
loosely adapted from the book. The main plot of the film is definitely taken from
the novel Q & A -- the protagonist gets arrested after winning a million rupees
in a quiz show; he is accused of cheating in the quiz show. Rest of the sub-plots,
how he is able to answer all questions correctly from his own experiences in life,
are different from that of the novel. The novel is not just not about Ram
Mohammad Thomas. There are several characters with whom Ram has spent
few years. For example, the Chapters where Ram remains a passive character
are – ‘The Death of a Hero’, ‘How to Speak Australian’, ‘Hold On To Your
Buttons’, ‘A Soldier’s Tale’, ‘License to Kill’, and ‘Tragedy Queen’. But in the
Film Ram (i.e. Jamal) is at the center of every scene. There is no single incident
where Jamal is left out.
There are more than 60 characters in the novel, but to incorporate them all in the
film would have created great difficulty for the filmmakers. Usually a film has
three central characters: the hero, the heroine and the villain. Rests are minor
characters. The screenplay writer, Simon Beaufoy, condensed the subplots and
minor characters of the novel and kept only three main characters in the film.
These are Jamal- the hero, Latika- the heroine, and Salim- the villain. He
moulded one bad guy out of the main character’s best friend in the book, Salim,
turning the friend into the hero’s brother — a brother with street smarts and
survival skills, but lacking the morals that guide Jamal. Beaufoy takes a
character from the book who preys upon street children, taking them to his
“orphanage” where he has them blinded or crippled so that they will earn more
money begging in the streets.
Other characters he omitted entirely or shaded differently. The host of the game
show, Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor), in particular, has a much darker side in the
book that ties in more with the hero’s determination to get on the game show. In
280 the book, Ram is motivated to get on the show not just for the money, but by his
desire to take revenge on Prem Kumar for the acts of violence he has committed
on two female characters. In the film, the revenge thread is eliminated. In its
place there is a sweeping melodrama about love and destiny, about these two
characters who surpass overwhelming odds in order to be together. The money
is just a side benefit.
Simon Beaufoy simply doesn’t pick up scenes from the book which are likely
to fit into his screenplay. He adds new ideas which he has picked up from his
time spent in India, creates entirely new scenes and characters and finds a far
more effective way to expand the source material to the screen than just a mere
literal transportation. He feels he has to be authentic for them. “It’s more
important to be true to the place than to be true to the book — and I don’t mean
that as disrespectful to the author, but as an outsider going in, you have to be
true to that,” says Boyle (Voynar 2008:1). “The authenticity is very important,
especially if you’re making a film in a different culture, a different place” (Ibid.).
Beaufoy expands the theme by making it bigger than just a poor slum kid who
becomes a millionaire. Beaufoy has himself experienced the life style of
Mumbai’s slums. He says: “I went to Bombay; it’s a very passionate place, a
very romantic place, and I suddenly understood those weird Bollywood films —
the singing and the dancing and the romance — and I thought, that’s it, it’s got
to be a love story. That’s what will override this money thing. I just didn’t want
to write a story about a guy getting rich, and I knew that was it” (Ibid.).
Beaufoy sets out to give his hero a heroine to love and to long for, which gives
him the means to build a platform of classical-hero narrative structure over the
foundation of the game show story. Once he is determined that the love story
would become the central thread, he goes back to the source and decides what
to pick up from the original story that would fit in with the romance angle, and
what has to go.
He knows that the tone of the film is crucial: this would be a melodramatic film,
with moments of comedy and mirth interwoven with brutal violence, scenes of
281 crushing poverty and torture. “Indian cinema isn’t concerned with being
authentic as a rule. That’s a broad generalization, but it’s largely true,” Beaufoy
says (Ibid.). “In England, you couldn’t get away with torture and comedy in the
same movie, but here you could”
In the book, the boy is called Ram Mohammed Thomas; in the film he is Jamal
Malik. The character in the book is named by the priest who takes him in as an
infant and raises him after he has been abandoned by his mother. The Priest
christens the boy with both Hindu and Muslim names to appease the men who
are displeased by the idea of an Indian boy being raised by a white man, and
since there is no way to know whether the boy’s mother is Muslim or Hindu, the
priest gives him names with both origins. Beaufoy realizes that there is always
the Hindu-Muslim tension in India. He incorporates the Hindu-Muslim tensions
into the film by having a conflict between the groups resulting in the death of
Jamal and Salim’s mother, he has to change the hero’s entire personal
background. In the film, Jamal is not an orphan at the start of the story; he
becomes an orphan when his mother is killed. This crucial decision also allows
the far earlier introduction of the love story thread that ties the film together:
Jamal meets his love interest, Latika, when they are both young orphans living
on the streets of Mumbai.
Vikas Swarup complains that the film makers have -changed the title from Q&A
to Slumdog Millionaire. ("That made a lot of sense," says Swarup.) They
changed the ending. ("Danny thought the hero should be arrested on suspicion
of cheating on the penultimate question, not after he wins as I had it. That was
a successful idea.") They made friends into brothers, axed Bollywood stars and
Mumbai hoodlums and left thrilling subplots on the cutting-room floor.
Crucially, they changed the lead character's name from Ram Mohammad
Thomas to Jamal Malik, thereby losing Swarup's notion that his hero would be
an Indian everyman, one who sounded as though he was Hindu, Muslim and
Christian. Instead, they made Jamal a Muslim whose mother is killed by a Hindu
282 mob. ("It's more dramatically focused as a result, perhaps more politically
correct.") 36
He worries how that scene of Hindu mobs murdering Muslims will play when
the film opens in India next week. "People in India are sensitive about how
they're portrayed, so there will be criticisms. But a Bollywood director recently
told me Slumdog Millionaire's failing was that it wasn't extreme enough to be
truly Indian. India has a genius for recycling its contradictions." Swarup rewards
my skeptical frown with an endearing smile (Ibid.). "I was forewarned of the
changes by Simon Beaufoy, the screenwriter," Swarup says. And he's still
happy. "The film is beautiful. The plot is riveting. The child actors are
breathtaking"(Ibid.).
The film works on every level, from the casting, to the performances by the nine
actors playing Jamal, Salim and Latika at various ages, to the way in which
director Danny Boyle captures the wildly frenetic energy of the streets of
Mumbai, to the fantastic use of music
Visually, Slumdog is a stunning film; masterfully shot, overlaying the grimness,
the shit and dirt and filth of the slums. The editing is superb. The film is fast and
has no lags whatsoever. This film examines the lives of its poor characters
without exploiting or sensationalizing them, and finds the humanity and hope
amid the poverty and desperation. Although the script remains true to its source
material in certain key ways, overall, the script is composed largely of original
material that’s the brainchild of the writer; the result is a film that is far better
than a mere straight adaptation would have been, and in this case, the
screenwriter deserves as much credit as the director for what we see on screen
— an entirely unique blending of melodrama, classic hero story arc, romance,
adventure and Bollywood, that feels true to the culture of its setting. 37
36 Swarup, Vikas. Interview by Stuart Jeffries. ‘I'm the luckiest novelist in the world’ The
Guardian.
37 Voynar, Kim. ‘Consider The Source: Simon Beaufoy’s Adaptation of Slumdog Millionaire.’
Movie City News.
283 5.2.4 The Namesake and The Namesake
According to our analysis the film The Namesake can be called a literal or
‘faithful’ – to use the much misinterpreted term - adaptation of the novel The
Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. The film is exactly the same as the novel whether
it is the plot, the characters, the theme and the style. The only difference is that
the film takes a straight narration starting from Ashoke’s train accident to the
ending where Gogol starts reading the book gifted by his father. The novel is
initially narrated in back and forth sequence. Ashima and Ashoke remember
their past at the hospital. The novel is of 291 pages and it is not possible to
incorporate in the film each and every event mentioned in the novel. So, the
screen play writer Sooni Taraporevala and the director Mira Nair condensed
some events of the novel two few scenes : for example, raising baby Gogol to
his adolescent and Sonia’s birth to her adolescent. Moreover, Gogol’s meeting
his first girlfriend Ruth, getting separated and his affair with a married woman
is also not shown in the film. We directly see Gogol with Maxine spending time
with her family. Episodes relating to Moushumi’s past with his fiancée and lover
Dimitri have been condensed. Moushumi and Gogol/Nikhil spending time with
Astrid and Donald in Paris also gets condensed. The rest of the film’s plot,
characters, theme and setting remain faithful to the novel.
The novel doesn't have a clear-cut narrative arc, it has few conversations.
Mostly, an omniscient narrator tells us about the thoughts and feelings of the
characters, and the reader is gently swept along by Lahiri's lucid writing. We
rarely get to hear the protagonists speaking in their own voices. Gogol in
particular: intellectually, we understand his confusion, the shifts in his feelings
over time, and especially the effect his father's sudden death has on him, but we
never completely get into his head.
A frequent criticism of movie adaptations is that where the book allows us to
participate in the creative process (using our imaginations to fill in the characters
and settings, for instance), the film by its very nature makes everything explicit,
closing the door on imagination. But it seems Nair's film is more satisfying than
284 the novel precisely because these characters are presented to us in specific terms,
we see them talking to each other, and most importantly all this is done
extremely well. The casting is near-perfect – Irfan Khan, Tabu and Kal Penn
bring an immediacy to the characters of Ashoke, Ashima and Gogol that is
missing in the book.
The various themes of the novel whether it is the theme of Name and Identity;
Alienation; Culture; Relationships between Parents and Children; Tension
between Life and Death; and Nostalgia are well presented by Director Mira Nair
and Screen play writer Sooni Taraporevala.
Sophisticated film lovers no longer insist that an adaptation be completely
faithful to its source. We now recognize that sometimes the film is actually
better. The Namesake is the rare case in which book and film are equally strong,
and their differences actually complement each other. With Gogol as her focal
point, Lahiri works out into the wider world, whereas Nair focuses on Ashima
and Ashoke and works inwards. In both cases, youthful experiments are
counterpointed with middle-aged accommodations.
The voice of the novelist and the eye of the filmmaker are in perfect synergy.
Scene after scene, Nair creates iconic images that depict intense emotions. Facial
expressions, subtle gestures, and even pieces of furniture all capture the
ineffable. Before they’ve ever made eye contact, Ashima sees Ashoke’s shoes,
and the tiny moment in which she daringly slips her feet into them resonates
throughout the entire film. The novelist has described these shoes in detail, but
it is the filmmaker who shows us how well they fit. They’re big, of course, but
not too big. These shoes, on Ashoke’s feet, will take Ashima to America, and
she immediately senses that they will protect her without overwhelming her. 38
Fundamentally, the book and the film both deal with the same topic of
displacement and the creation of identity, and the film, for the most part, is true
to the narrative of the novel. It is only incidental that in the film Ashoke and
Ashima come to New York instead of Boston, as the Queensboro Bridge over
38 Huttner, Jan Lisa. The Namesake: Jan’s Review. Womenarts.org.
285 the East River in New York and the Howrah Bridge over the Hooghly in
Calcutta cinematically connect the two cities and help in the comparison of two
different cultures. 39
The film is the product of a rare combination of talents – the novelist Jhumpa
Lahiri, the screenplay-writer Sooni Taraporewalla, and the director Mira Nair –
all the three have a first-hand experience of the immigration dilemma. No doubt,
the film made a name internationally as a cross-over cinema.
Comments
We find that in the adapted Hollywood films, the Slumdog Millionaire the film-
makers have made extensive use of expansion to make the film do well at the
box office. The screen-play writer has altered the story to make it commercially
successful. The filmmakers and the novelist have agreed that the changes in the
film made the film a box office hit than a mere straight adaptation would have
been. On the other hand, The Namesake is a straight adaptation. The
filmmakers are true to their source novel and used less expansion. Rather they
have used condensation to fit the novel into a 120-minute film. The Namesake
turned out to be a critically acclaimed film but it didn’t even come near the
height of success that Slumdog Millionaire has reached.
The reason is that Slumdog Millionaire is made keeping the audience’s
expectations and the commercial aspects film in mind. But The Namesake is
made keeping the soul of the novel, or as the screen-play writer of the film Sooni
Taraporevala uses the term ‘spiritual DNA’, in mind.
39 Saha, Amit Shankar. ‘The Namesake: The Book and the Film’. Desi Magazine. Issue No.3: 2007
286
5.3 Percentage of Adaptation and its Effect on Box Office Reception
Table - 2 below shows the percentage of adaptation from the novels to
their corresponding adapted films under study:
Table - 2
Five Points
Someone and
3 Idiots
Susanna’s
Seven
Husbands and 7 Khoon Maaf
Q & A
and Slumdog
Millionaire
The Namesake
and The Namesake
Pages in
Novel
270 pages 59 pages 361 pages 291 pages
Film Run
Time
168 minutes 144 minutes 115 minutes 112 minutes
Material used
from Novel
44 min.
09 sec.
68 min.
25 sec.
30 min.
22 sec.
104 min.
11 sec.
Material
Expanded
125 minutes 67 minutes 85 minutes 8 minutes
Percentage of
Material used
27% 47% 26 % 93 %
Percentage of
Expansion
73% 53% 74% 7 %
Type of
Adaptation
Loose
Adaptation
Intermediate
Adaptation
Loose
Adaptation
Literal
Adaptation
The present study shows that the four films that have been taken for analysis,
the respective filmmakers have extensively used the theory of condensation and
expansion to adapt the novels or novella to fit into two-to-two-and-half-hours
films. These condensation and expansion are done through condensing or
expanding the beginning and end of the films. Secondly, by condensing or losing
the sub-plots. Only those sub-plots are there in the films which are important for
overall understanding of the film. Thirdly, by expanding or adding new sub-
plots. The new sub-plots are added to the film to make the film more interesting
and to do well in box office.
Seger (1992:4-7) points out:
[i]t’s important to remember that entertainment is show plus business, and
producers need to be reasonably sure that they can make a profit on their
287 investment… Films and television shows need to satisfy the masses to make a
profit. Novels and plays have a more select audience, so they can cater to a more
elite market: they can be thematic; they can deal with esoteric issues, or work with
abstract styles. But the transition to film requires that the materials be accessible
to the general public. … A number of decisions can make material more
commercially viable. Strengthening the story line is a first step, for audiences like
a well-told story. A good story has movement and focus and engages audiences
from beginning to end. … Making it more commercial also means simplifying,
sometimes spelling out a story line, and making sure that characters are not
ambiguous.
Table - 3 below indicates commercial reception of the films under study:
Table - 3
It is also worthwhile to note here the observations made by S.W. Dawson (1970)
in his book Drama and the Dramatic regarding the elements which are crucial to
the success of the stage performance of a play. This is also true for a film in its
success at the box office. Dawson (1970:12) observes:
It is characteristic of drama, as of no other form of literature, that it
makes an absolute and sustained demand on our attention…. A play
in performance demands our uninterrupted attention … Sitting in
silence without conspicuous movement for as long as an hour and a half
is a considerable achievement, possible for most of us only when our
attention is entirely engrossed. It follows that the dramatist’s primary
responsibility is to seize and hold our attention. This is why we
commonly refer to plays and films as ‘gripping’.
Films Budget Box Office
collections Hit or Flop
3 Idiots INR 55 crore
US $ 8.7 million
INR 392 crore
US $62 million
Super Hit
7 Khoon Maaf INR 15crore
US $ 2.4 million
INR 20crore
US $ 3.2 million
Flop
Slumdog Millionaire $15 million $377.9 million Super Hit
The Namesake $ 9.5 million $20 million Average
288 A little later he points out another important quality of drama – and this is also
very important for the success of a film – the quality of ‘immediacy’:
A newspaper story has more in common with drama than has an
ordinary story, since the writer is concerned with immediacy, a sense
of its happening now, not in the past. (Headlines are usually in the
present tense.) this immediacy is integral to drama, since what is
happening on the stage is happening now, for the first time, and not in
what Suszanne Langer calls the ‘virtual past’ of narrative literature
(Ibid.:13).
Hutcheon suggests that, in experiencing a work as an adaptation, one ‘oscillates’
between the adaptation and its source (2006:xv, 121). Hutcheon also describes
this as ‘flipping back and forth’ (2006; 69), which leads Leitch to propose more
generally:
Watching or reading an adaptation as an adaptation invites audience
members to test their assumptions, not only about familiar texts project
against the new ideas fostered by the adaptation and the new reading
strategies it encourages (2008:116).
The present study also shows that while condensing and expanding the sub-plots
the characters in the respective novels also got condensed and expanded. It is
also difficult to incorporate all the minor characters of the novel to the adapted
film. For example, our study shows there are more than sixty characters in the
novel Q & A and it is quite impossible to incorporate sixty characters in the film
giving importance to each character as in the novel. The filmmaker Atul
Agnihotri, Director of Hello!, who has adapted for this film Chetan Bhagat’s
One Night @ the Call Center tells the researcher in an informal conversation at
the Mehboob Studio, Bandra (West), Mumbai, on 15 December 2012:
We (filmmakers) have to work in limited time and with limited budget.
We have to check the film production cost going over budget. For this
reason we have to make changes. In a novel, anything we can write
irrespective of budget. But film making is a serious business.
289 To say a book is always better than a movie made out of it is a cliché but writers
love this, author Amish Tripathi contended at the 13th edition of the three-day
FICCI-FRAMES global convention at Mumbai, March 15, 2012 (IANS):
Although a cliché, we as writers love it. At the same time when people
ask me if a movie should be made exactly like a book, I would say
absolutely not,” he said at a panel discussion on “The journey from books
to successful screenplays: The writers’ take.
Tripathi said that the two books he has written so far are both around 400 pages.
One page of a book roughly translates to a minute in a movie if made
‘exactly’ as the book says. Now, it is a violation of human rights if a
person has to watch a movie which is 400 minutes long.
On the panel there were other big names such as author Chetan Bhagat,
screenwriters Sooni Taraporewala and Shibani Bhathija and filmmaker Sudhir
Mishra who unanimously opined that there are practical constraints that a
filmmaker will face while adapting a book. Also posing a question at the
discussion was Bhagat who asked as to why writers don’t get the same visibility
as stars or filmmakers. “One of the probable reasons might be that authors are
not as charismatic as stars,” said Bhagat whose novel Five Point Someone was
adapted into a super hit film 3 Idiots. “Also, the power equation is a factor. In
some cases, the filmmakers take credit for the success of the film and the
author’s name is buried in opening and closing credits,” he added.
Amish Tripathi said:
There are some practical difficulties that a director faces while adapting
literary work. I remember reading that the visually delightful science
fiction film ‘Avatar’ script was written 12 years before it was made into
a movie. It was released so late as the technology required to make it was
not available back then.
290 Taraporewala said:
All difficulties aside, a book is always a win win. If a film adaptation
succeeds, people praise the book and the author. If it doesn’t, they say
they did not do justice to the book. So, authors will never have to worry.
Film maker Sudhir Mishra, however, put it in an easier way saying:
Literature is a private medium where one sits and writes alone. As for
films, it is a social medium involving interacting with people.
He adds:
Also, sometimes when people have nothing to say, they make movie
adaptations of a book. We just have to ensure that the soul of the book is
maintained while a movie is made.40
5.4 Novelization in India
Another interesting finding of the study is that in India the concept of
novelization, as understood in Hollywood, has not yet properly begun.
Novelization, as noted earlier (cf. §.1.2.2.4), is the process of turning movies into
books. Perhaps, such authors think that in India people are less fond of reading
books. But it is not that in India novelization has not begun at all. Ruskin Bond’s
novella can be cited as an example. This is how it happened. Bond sent a
collection of short stories to film maker Vishal Bhardwaj where he found the
story ‘Susanna’s Seven Husbands’. Bhardwaj requested Bond to elaborate the
short story into a novella as characters in the story ‘needed to be fleshed out
further’. Bond sent the novella after expansion. With the help of this novella
Susanna’s Seven Husbands, Bhardwaj and Matthew Robbins, co-writers, wrote
the screen-play of the movie 7 Khoon Maaf. Vishal Bhardwaj thought it would
be a good idea if they published the novella, short story and screen-play together,
thus giving the reader an insight into the way a short story became a film story
and then a screen-play.
40 “Ensure book’s soul not lost in moviemaking: Writers.” IANS. sify.com
291 Likewise the screen-play of 3 Idiots was published after the release of the
movie. The book 3 Idiots: The Original Screenplay revealed to us the inside
matter through rare interviews, exclusive behind-the-scene photographs, and
insightful first-person accounts. The book uncovered the journey of the personal
philosophy of its makers. The book seemed to compel a nation to think on its
education system. But it cannot be accepted as an example of novelization in its
proper sense.
It is a usual practice now-a-days that an adapted film whenever becomes a box
office success the post-success edition of the novel comes with the cover page
featuring the pictures of the stars of the movie. For example, Chetan Bhagat’s
novels after the release of their adapted movies, were reissued with changed
cover pictures featuring the stars and the titles of the respective movies along
with the novels’ original titles. Likewise, Vikas Swarup’s Q&A earlier had a
cover picture of a boy carrying tea kettle and cups on a tray. But after it was
adapted into an Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire the title and cover
of the novel were changed featuring the stars of the movie. The novel’s title also
got changed from Q&A to Slumdog Millionaire. These small changes boosted
the selling of the novel. Before the movie was made, hardly anyone knew that a
novel entitled Q&A existed. This is what a movie or film can give back to its
adapted book -- immense popularity. This is also true with the novel The
Namesake. After the release of the movie The Namesake the cover of the novel
was changed from an unappealing one to an eye-catching one featuring the main
leads of the movie. This is a technique resorted to by the publishers to attract
those readers who buy books by looking at their attractive covers. By this the
novelists as well as the filmmakers make a good deal of extra money.
292
5.5.0 Pedagogical Implications
The present study also has certain pedagogical implications. It is in the fitness of
things that some suggestions, based on the findings of the study, may be made
for a more effective literature and language teaching and learning in the second
language classroom.
5.5.1 The Indian Scenario
It has been a common practice by the syllabus designers of Indian universities to
prescribe one British novel at the B.A. (Pass) Compulsory, two British novels at
the B.A. (Honours), and three to five British novels at the M.A. English
Literature courses. Only about two decades ago some – not all - universities
started replacing the British novels by at least one Indo-Anglian novel only at the
Under-Graduate level. The Indo-Anglian novel prescribed mostly is either
Kanthapura by Raja Rao, or one of the novels of R. K. Narayan, usually The
Guide. The problem is, in spite of these novels being set in the Indian
background, their backgrounds remain typically south Indian. It becomes quite
difficult for non-south Indian students to have total comprehension of the setting,
the customs and manners of the area, the rituals, etc. Of course, any Indian novel
will pose the same problem considering the multi-cultural nature of India with
its myriad variety of traditions and customs. This problem of total comprehension
becomes manifold when the prescribed novels are British. Now-a-days there are
even special papers exclusively on American/Canadian/African/European
(without British)/British novels as part of the Post-Graduate Literature Courses.
One of the easiest solutions is provided by the adapted films of such prescribed
novels. As Smith (2010:3) puts it: “Using an adaptation to supplement the novel
is a perfect solution.”
5.5.2 Adaptation Studies as a Pedagogical Tool in Academic Institutions
Overseas
In a number of American and British Colleges and Universities ‘Adaptation
Studies’ form an important and regular part of the curriculum because of its
enormous pedagogical potential. Even then Thomas Leitch in his article ‘How to
Teach Adaptations, and Why’ (2010:4) (Leitch as quoted by Smith 2010)
293 unhappily notes that even universities have yet to tap into the resources
adaptations have to offer: “I know of no English department, however generous
in its views and text making or up-to-date in its theorizing of the relation between
reading and writing, that assigns a central importance to adaptation studies. This
is a shame, because the study of film adaptations has a great deal to offer
contemporary English studies”. Leitch seriously argues that ‘Adaptation Studies’
should be made a compulsory course, not an elective one, at the Graduate level.
He even proposes a basic four unit plan for educating students about adaptations.
The first unit involves students “recovering the sense of adaptations as
adaptations.” This means students will explore (i) what exactly constitutes an
adaptation, and how an adaptation relates to its source text, even if the source
text is not well-known. The second unit explores (ii) “analyzing adaptations as
necessary, contingent, and incessant writings.” Students will analyze a particular
familiar source text and its adaptations, their receptions, and any other related
materials. (iii) The goal is for students to understand that adaptation is inevitable
and natural. (iv) By exploring how a film is received, students can better
understand how and why audiences felt the way they did. Citing the example of
Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet’s (1597) being made into West Side Story
(1961) as a musical adaptation, Leitch suggests that a lively classroom discussion
can be triggered as to why that story has remained popular, and why the updated
story took on the form it did (set in 1950s New York City, with Latino Americans
and Caucasians serving as the respective Capulets and Montagues). Students can
then easily understand how the same problems from Shakespeare’s time are still
relevant today (like class disputes, teenage angst, violence, etc.) (Adopted from
Smith 2010:16-18).
5.5.3 Pedagogical Implications for India
Bearing in mind the suggestions of Leitch and other scholars on ‘Film Studies’
about the utmost importance of the inclusion of ‘Adaptation Studies’ as a
compulsory component of the syllabus at the Graduate Level even in an L1 (First
Language) situation, it may be argued here that such a study gains much more
294 importance as an effective pedagogical tool in the L2 (Second Language)
situation in India.
But before it really takes a start in India certain preliminary courses regarding
‘Adaptation Studies’ need to be introduced at the Under-Graduate English
Literature (Honours) level. The courses should aim at the students’ achieving
‘Visual Literacy’ or ‘Cinematic Literacy’.
Film is a language – this is the first fundamental principle the students must bear
in mind. It is not simply a showcase of stars. They should understand that visual
images can be read like other texts. For that, they should learn not only how the
composition of a shot is made but also how camera distance, angle, lighting, and
the placement of a shot in a sequence all affect a person’s interpretation of the
moving image. A film is a whole made up of many parts, the smallest part being
the frame. Like learning the basic terminology of literary interpretations as
students of literature, they must acquire a vocabulary of film terms, including
types of shots and editing techniques. Students need to study basic science
principles of lighting and apply that to understand how a cinematographer creates
various visual effects. All these will help them understanding, analysing and
interpreting a film effectively.
There is another important distinction which the students should know, and as
Hutcheon (2006: xi) emphasizes, without which one is unable to understand the
process of adaptation -- that is, the distinction between ‘story’ and ‘discourse’.
The story, she continues, includes the content behind the narrative, comprising
the chain of events, the characters and the setting, whereas the discourse is the
means by which the content is communicated. Desmond and Hawkes (2006:39)
also emphasize the same point: “In simple terms, the story is the what in the
narrative that is depicted, discourse is the how”. It is, therefore, imperative for an
adapter to identify the story behind a narrative in order to transpose it onto screen.
For that a sound knowledge of the conventions of literature as well as that of the
295 cinema is highly important. By the same token, students should also have to
acquire this knowledge of conventions.
After the basics as mentioned above are taught, the novel and the adapted film
should be presented to the students to make a comparative analysis.
5.5.3.1 Pedagogical Use of the Present Study
It may be mentioned here that adaptation studies made in the present study of
novels Five Point Someone, Susanna’s Seven Husbands, Q & A, and The
Namesake and their corresponding adapted films Three Idiots, 7 Khoon Maaf,
Slumdog Millionaire, and The Namesake can also be used for the purposes of
not only developing the second language students’ critical and analytical
faculties but also their abilities to effectively use the second language, English.
Moreover, the pedagogical suggestions mentioned above can also be fruitfully
used if the novels studied here are prescribed for Indian Colleges and
Universities. The adapted films can also be shown to them in the classrooms for
a comparative study. The analyses and the findings of the present study will
provide the Second Language Teachers and Learners with a useful and model
guideline as to how to go about such a study. The pedagogical suggestions will
also help the teachers to make their classrooms very interesting and highly
rewarding.
5.5.4 Bringing Adaptation into Indian Classrooms
Indian culture in the last few decades have become quite a visually dominated
culture, though it is not so visually dominated as its western counterparts –
especially American and European – are. The positive aspect of this is that
students with a strong visual literacy are expected to excel in comprehension and
communication. Moreover, as Bane (2006:6) observes:
[adaptation] can become the perfect tool for promoting our own critical
engagement with a particular work of literature and literature as a whole
by reading texts in a different medium. From a pedagogical perspective,
asking students to respond to literary texts through their filmic
counterparts enhances students’ awareness of their own interpretive and
296
reading strategies, and thereby promotes active engagement with the
literary originals on multiple levels of textuality.
Hence, by providing Indian students in their classrooms the original text of Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) (a recent edition as available), BBC
Television adaptation by Andrew Davies (1995) with the same title, and Gurinder
Chadha’s Indianised adaptation Bride and Prejudice (2004) highly interesting,
useful and rewarding discussions could be made possible. (This novel is chosen
here as it is quite regularly prescribed for Indian students.) Some of these are:
(i) As mentioned above the students will be exposed to three varieties of
textuality. This exposure itself can stimulate their minds perhaps to have their
own individual versions, if they get a chance to do so. However, this aspect could
be exploited through discussions, and, may be later, in the form of paper
presentations. Such papers could also be used as a reference point for future
students.
(ii) Students will be able to distinguish between story and discourse along the
lines suggested by Hutcheon, and Desmond and Hawkes (Cf. §. 1.3). They
will also be able to point out what each adaptor has chosen from the novel and
how each of them has presented them visually – rather audio-visually - in two
distinctive ways. They may also be asked how they would like to present the film
with different themes as the focal points.
(iii) A workable method with the Indian students will perhaps be to divide the
novel episode-wise and make a critical analysis of how each episode has been
presented by each of the adaptors (as has been done in the analyses in the present
study). The students then will be able to notice the changes made in each episode.
They should try to do this through group discussions (each group of four or five)
– finally the teacher should assess each group’s performance, and then provide
them certain guidelines so that they can make better assessments next time. By
such an exercise with authentic materials the students will be able to make a
comparative critical analysis of two modes (the written and the visual) of
expression in perhaps the best manner possible.
297 (iv) Adaptation studies can also be fruitfully exploited in the Second Language
Classroom for language acquisition. As noted by Aguillo (undated, unpaginated):
Specifically, movies are highly recommended input sources for
teaching listening and speaking skills outside an English speaking
environment. … Literary works complement the type of input
provided, and also offer the opportunity of extending input reception
beyond the classroom allocated time. The use of both ‘tools’ can be
justified by many of the theories that explain L2 acquisition,
particularly if we combine viewing or reading with communication-
based activities with a focus on some grammatical point. 41
She further states:
… [both] films and books have the potential to create a very wide
linguistic and extra-linguistic context that provides a relevant schema
background, making language relevant and comprehensible (Stoller,
1988). For example, in the written mode we can see not only isolated
words and sentences, but also discourse and textual elements such as
reference, deixis, time and place clauses. … On the other hand, the
paralinguistic features of the filmed version allow learners to see and
understand how discourse elements link all the parts of the text, specially
with the use of images, music, movement, and the like. These contextual
cues enrich or at least improve the students’ comprehension, and
probably can also improve their competence, and even though the
realisation of both modes is obviously different, they still constitute part
of a context for comprehension and, hopefully, learning. Furthermore, if
students are familiarised with the story line of the book or film, they can
concentrate their efforts on the linguistic features. … Also, the
comparison of both modes can evoke a critical analysis: how the
filmmaker conveys metaphors and descriptions, figures of speech…in
short, how he makes it possible to ‘see’ rather than to ‘read’ (Ross, 1991).
41 Aguillo, Gloria Luque. ‘ “Reading”’ Films and “Watching” Literary Texts: 5 Lesson Plans for
Advanced TEFL Students’ Publications 1st edition. University of Barcelona.
298
And most important of all, how the director makes it possible to spend
one hour and a half ‘watching’ a story that has taken many long hours,
and days, or even weeks, to read (Ibid.).
The great potential of film adaptations as noted by Aguillo and as mentioned
above should be an eye-opener for the syllabus designers of Indian Universities
to teach our students, and also to make them adept in, not only critical analysis
of literature, and comparative analysis of film adaptations, but also competent
and effective second language users.
5.6 Confirmation of Hypotheses
The present study proves that all the hypotheses as postulated in (cf. §.1.12) are
true.
(i) Film as Visual Literature
Based on the analyses and findings of the present study it can be said that adapted
films based on literary works are visual literature. As noted in (cf.§.1.1.6),
literature uses only the linguistic form in its written mode, but films use the visual
mode as well as the linguistic form in its oral mode. Both are forms of narrative.
Films have tools and techniques, what Jai Arjun terms as “movie-making
grammar” (2011:1) peculiar to their forms of expression – the audio-visual form.
Literature is a highly specialised linguistic exercise where the writer uses his
literary tools like metaphor, imagery, etc. In the same manner, a filmmaker uses
all his cinematic tools like camera, colour, light and shade, etc. for his narrative
presentation. Nonetheless, it is also kind of literature – visual literature.
The following books and theses also prove this point: (1) The Cambridge
Companion to Literature on Screen (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
by Deborah Cartmell (Editor), Imelda Whelehan (Editor) 2007; (2) Visualising
Literature : Screen Adaptation and the Process of Reading/Viewing. George
Douglas Raitt. Australia: Deakin University (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis) 2011;
(3) From Page to Screen: Dancing to the Altar in Recent Film Adaptations of
299 Jane Austen’s Novels. Nora Foster Shovel. Persuasion Vol. No.28 (pp. 185-198)
(JASNA- On-line Journal of Jane Austen Society of North America), 2008.
ii. Filmmakers’ Departures from the Novels
The present study shows (Cf. § Table No.2, Chapter V:286) that the filmmakers
are bound to make departures from the original literary works as their goals are
different from that of the writers. The book is meant for highly literate people
whereas films are meant for everyone – from highly literate to totally illiterate
people.
iii. Changes Become Inevitable
The present study also shows that changes from the original literary medium
become necessary when transferring the literary material to the audio-visual
medium.
iv. Adaptation Studies as a Part of Curriculum
The present study proves that a lot of intellectual exercise go into making such a
study. That is to say, it will help not only in developing the critical faculty of our
students but it will also train them to interpret literature in different modes – print
as well as visual.
v. Adaptation Studies for Second Language Learning
The present study also proves that films not only show what to say but also how
to say with its accurate paralinguistic features. This knowledge will definitely
help our students to master the use of the second language accurately and
appropriately.
5.7 Scope for Further Study
As mentioned earlier, not much has been done in India in the field of Film Studies
as part of the academics at the University level. Researchers can take up areas
like : (i) Adaptations of short stories and plays into English films; (ii) Star System
in Film Industry and its Impact on the Adapted Films (Sometimes a minor
character of book is given a major role in the film because a popular star is doing
the role.); (iii) Teaching Second Language Students the Correct Use of English
Language with its Correct Paralinguistic Features by Using Adapted Films in the
300 Classroom; (iv) Teaching Correct Pronunciation through Film Adaptation; (v)
Use of Technology in the Conversion of Verbal Language into an Audio-Visual
Language; (vi) Societal Pressures Affecting Film Adaptation; (vii) External
Pressures Affecting Fidelity in Adapted Films; (viii) Role of Songs and Dances
in Bollywood Adaptations. This is just an idea for future researchers which they
can take up. Since Adaptation Studies are not much of a trodden path in India
many unexplored areas remain to be explored. This seems to be now a new area
of research with the promise of a bright career for the sincere researchers in the
field.
5.8 Conclusion
The present study has all along been emphasizing the fact that the filmmakers
have only two adaptation techniques – ‘condensation’ and ‘expansion’ – at their
disposal. At the same time, the study also discovers that only a sensible and astute
use of these two techniques is what makes the fine line of difference between a
successful film and an unsuccessful one. The filmmakers must strike a fine
balance between the two important aspects – one, keeping the ‘spiritual DNA’ of
the adapted novel intact, and the other, keeping an eye on the commercial success
of the adapted film. For them, it is like using a double-edged sword dexterously.
As far as the academic value of ‘Adaptation Studies’ such as the present one is
concerned, it lies in the fact that it can teach the students not only ‘what’ elements
can make hit films but ‘how’ to manipulate those elements to make hit films. If
it is an adaptation and made in Hindi it can teach students ‘what’ to adapt from
the original work and ‘how’ to present them on the screen without violating the
Indian milieu. In addition to this, it can also be used in the classroom as a source
of second language teaching and learning if it is an English movie adapted from
a work in English either by an Indian or by a foreigner. Keeping in mind the great
advantage the Indian students are likely to have, it can be strongly proposed here
that ‘Adaptation Studies’ should form an integral part of Literature and Language
Study curriculum in Indian Universities.