Academic Discourse
Year : 2012, Volume : 1, Issue : 2
First page : ( 55) Last page : ( 62)
Print ISSN : 2278-3296. Online ISSN : 2349-4441.

Influence of English/Hindi Literature on Indian Cinema

Ms. Sharma Sudha

Assistant Professor, Department of English, PG Govt. College, 46, Chandigarh, India

Online published on 18 June, 2014.

Abstract

There have been a lot of Hollywood films based on bestselling novels but this trend is not so common in Bollywood…or so we think! Over the years silently ingrained with our commercial successes have been films that were based on novels and short stories, some official adaptations others, “inspirations” As they say, never judge a book by its movie! So let's take a trip down Bollywood history to find some terrific books that served as plots for some super hit films. First of all, the trend setter who borrowed the plot of Indian movie from an English play was the father of Indian cinema Satyajit Ray whose movie Ghanashatru was inspired by Henry Ibsen's play The Enemy of The People. Films adapted from literature typically invite unfavourable comparison with literary originals, from film critics, newspaper reviewers and audiences alike. Critics see film adaptations of novels as fundamentally flawed, as they are not original, cinematic conceptions; journalists and audiences react with disappointment at superficial dissimilarities, dismayed by casting decisions, inevitable compression and the loss of favourite characters or incidents. Such films are often judged by the degree to which they adhere to or diverge from their literary source material -the film seen either as ‘a remarkably faithful adaptation’ or one that ‘fails to capture the spirit of the original.’ But what is it that they are supposed to be faithful to? If there are potentially as many readings of a text as there are readers, then might not film adaptations be regarded in the same light, as ‘readings’ of or ‘essays’ on their source texts?

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