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ABLE ADAPTATION For all the Hitchhiker fanatics, the good news is the movie works

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

DVD, Rs. 599

2005, Touchstone Pictures

Directed by Garth Jennings

Screenplay by Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick

Starring Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman and John Malkovich

The story behind the making of the celluloid version of Douglas Adams's beloved intergalactic space spoof is well worth a separate saga in itself. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was born as a radio series and since then has been a BBC series, an increasingly inaccurately named trilogy of five novels, a musical, a record, a computer game, a comic book and a line of towels.

Adams was involved with the movie for 20 frustrating years and it is unfortunate that a heart attack claimed the writer before he could see his dream realised. For all Hitchhiker fanatics, the good news is the movie works. Naturally all that is in five novels and a six part telly series do not find a place in the movie, but the spirit of goofiness, and fondness for bizarre names are faithfully reproduced in the movie.

Considering all the trouble the makers had condensing the books into a two-hour film, a plot outline in limited words is going to be quite tough! Anyway here goes — the movie starts with Arthur Dent lying in front of the bulldozer that is about to demolish his home. Arthur realises he has more to worry about when his friend Ford Prefect, tells him Vogons (a particularly nasty piece of work) are going to blow up the earth. Ford, who is a researcher for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, takes Arthur on a ride through the universe, where he meets the two headed president of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, the beauteous Trillian, the designer of planets, Slartibartfast and of course the paranoid android Marvin with a brain the size of a planet. Through his travels, Arthur also finds out truths about the earth, creation and existence and the significance of the number 42. The film uses animation creatively and thankfully does not have the anaesthetic look and feel of most big budget blockbusters. The money shot is definitely the tour of the planet factory.

The narrator floats along in all his self-importance and the Vogons are decidedly hideous. There was no need to spend as much screen time on the romance between Arthur and Trillian (played with vim and vigour by Zooey Deschanel.) Adams introduced some neat new stuff like the character played by John Malkovich — the religious leader Humma Kavula, and the point-of-view gun invented by frustrated housewives across the galaxy. As far as casting goes Martin Freeman makes an everyman Arthur while Mos Def plays Ford on the right side of weird. Sam Rockwell plays Zaphod as a degenerate rock star type.

The special features include a Making of... feature, Additional Guide Entry with the bit about "God disappearing in a puff of logic," Deleted Scenes, which are there in the film and Really Deleted Scenes, which have Arthur dressed like Rambo ready to take on the galaxy!

The restaurant at the end of the universe is referred to in the end of the movie; so unfortunately there is no cow that comes to the table and offers to shoot itself! But that is okay, for if you are a Hitchhiker fanatic, you can enjoy a little meeting with old friends and for those who know nothing about the books and the brilliant mind of Douglas Adams, this movie serves as the perfect introduction. So long and thanks for all the fish!

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER

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