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.