Books weds Movies: A blissful marriage

As I struggle to hold a 700-page book hovering atop my face while trying to recover from a nasty fever, I realise 10 years ago I would’ve never bothered reading a book even I were in the pink.

My interest in books stems from my love for cinema. Fiction, Non-fiction, inspired by True Events - all kinds of books related to Cinema ❤️ For someone who is mostly a visual learner (or so I convince myself), movies have been the best medium to discover new stories and live alternate lives. It all began in 2014 when I was madly, deeply and truly in love with Bollywood that I even bought a English-Hindi dictionary.

Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor in 2 States (2014)

I heard that 2 States, a story of a Tamil girl falling in love with a Punjabi boy (read: Peak love for Bollywood), was being made into a feature film. Obviously I was overly eager and bought that book (and the whole series of Chetan Bhagat books) in a quaint bookshop in Chandigarh. That book was basically the christening of thyself into the Indian Fiction genre. I read up about IITs (Sis wanted to go on exchange to an IIT), Pani Puri stalls and I must admit some raunchy stuff was also in the book. When the movie released, I remember rushing to watch the first day first show at Jurong Point with my Cousin. Walking out of the cinema, I felt (at that point) that it was the BEST movie ever made. What I didn’t realise was that my experience was backed by a few more thousands of words and descriptions that the film failed to encapsulate. I remember a line he wrote that truly disturbs me till date, it was something about Tamilians wearing the holy ash on the forehead and something to do with their dusky skin tone and how it turns grey or something. The book has plenty South Indian racist remarks. 16 year old sis was offended.

Films and Books have always been 2 separate mediums for me and I frankly dislike trying to prove one is greater than the other. Yes I agree that reading the Book gives you way more details. However, you don’t get to witness the visual spectacle. You can’t write about 10/10 cinematography or the sweet sweet power of a good screenplay. I may be biased because I like putting a face on the characters I read (i.e. faces of actors) and not really imagine how they may be, physically.

In all honestly, I don’t think films have to match up to their original books. The amount of time you invest in reading a book is probably 5-10x more than the amount you invest in watching a movie.

If you’re like me, read then watch and that’s honestly the best experience one can get.

I’ve done this for many movies. 2 States, Half Girlfriend, Whale Rider, The Zoya Factor, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat, Namesake, Talvar to name a few.

Konkona Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi in Talvar (2015)

I even once bought a book called “The Accidental Apprentice” by Vikas Swarup and read it throughout a holiday in Bangkok because Director Sriram Raghavan announced (in 2014) that he was going to make it into a film with Deepika Padukone in the lead. Don’t think the film’s being made anymore though!

One book I hope to read one day is “Ennu Ninte Moideen” by R.S Vimal which has a feature film with the same name. The book is in Malayalam so I probably have to learn how to read Malayalam first. The thirst for details and curiosity to know what happens in every frame is what drives my crazy obsession with this particular genre of books.

The huge book I’m currently reading (read: struggling to hold) is called “The Ivory Throne” by Manu S Pillai. The book’s rights have been bought by the Producers of Baahubali to make it into a Web series. It’s a non-fiction history book which is way out of my usual Chick Flick realm but let’s see how it goes...Most ambitious book outing!

This post is dedicated to a friend of mine who used to enthusiastically encourage me (read: ambushed me to watch Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Divergent - movies inspired by books which I had no clue about) to read books in Secondary School but I obviously didn’t listen and only realised the “Whole New World” out there post-2014. Happy Belated Birthday, A! Sucks that I forgot to wish you on your birthday and I’ve been figuring out how to make it up since last week.