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Magic on screen
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The year 2003 saw filmmakers hunting for meaningful scripts in the world of literature. RANA SIDDIQUI tells us about some of the books that made it to cinema.
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THE YEAR 2003 saw a marriage of literature and cinema. From Amrita Pritam to Rudyard Kipling, writers provided inspiration for meaningful cinema. They may not all been have successful at the box office, nobody could fault them for the effort. When Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, the maker of "Pinjar" based on the famous novel by Amrita Pritam, realised that this film did not do well at many places, he was not disheartened. "I anticipated this response. That the audience will lap up an amalgam of literature and art in all its soberness was not expected. The lukewarm response made me realise that despite our audiences' demand for a good story, they still need something more. I will take care of that aspect in my next film. It is not a failure of literature or the writer but the changing taste of the audience," Dwivedi gauges.
He had read the Hindi edition of this novel, originally in Punjabi. Dwivedi made some minor changes in the film for which he "took permission from the author". For instance, in the novel, Puro's brother is very young, while in the film he is shown as a big boy who can take care of the family. Similarly, in the novel, Puro meets her brother after 13 years of being kidnapped while Dwivedi shows the reunion after one year. He has a reason. "I shot mostly in Punjab and Rajasthan where the temperature was so high it was difficult to retain the make-up of an old face." The novel tells of Ramchand's marriage but in the film, he remains unmarried.
Interestingly though, Kitabghar Prakashan, Delhi, the main publishers of almost 20 titles of Amrita Pritam saw the sales of her books, especially "Pinjar" going up by 30 per cent after the film was released. The book, whose Hindi translation is also published by Hind Pocket Books, is "out of print" for sometime now.
Then there was "Chokher Bali", based on the novel by Rabindranath Tagore, which made it to the silver screen under the direction of Rituparno Ghosh recently. Set in early 19th Century, the film showcases the strength of a widow, Binodini - played by Aishwarya Rai - who refuses to lead a life of self-denial and goes her own way. Though Ghosh is believed to have read the original classic to make this film, Srijata Goha translated the novel into English a year ago.
"A faithful translation, strictly sticking to this original classic," as Udayan Mitra, Senior Editor, Penguin Books puts it. The book, whose launch three months ago in Kolkata coincided with the release of the film, sold approximately 3000 copies across India. "For the first three months, the book sold at an enormous rate, but later, for obvious reasons, it saw a little dip," informs Mitra. But he would surprise you with figures of last year's sales of books on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's "Devdas". The book was translated into four foreign languages: Greek, Italian, French and Japanese and they sold 7000 copies at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year. And for next year, Penguin is taking the "Chokher Bali" translation too, to Frankfurt.
Then there were J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", the second in her series of hugely popular stories about the boy wizard, Rudyard Kipling's "Jungle Book-II" and "Jajantaram Mamantaram" based loosely on Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", which were transformed into films this year. While "Harry Potter" and "Jungle Book" did well, "Jajantaram" was rejected.
The year 2003 also saw "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Part - II" based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novel. Though it was nominated for 13 Oscars, and did exceptionally well abroad, it failed to enthuse the Indian audience.
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