Books and Movies

Came across a very interesting blogpost about book-flicks. On-screen adaptations of successful books haven't exactly been rare but there seems to be an increasing trend now to make a movie out of every best-seller. Da Vinci Code with Tom Hanks is underway. Shantaram with JohnnyDepp. Chitra Divakaruni's Mistress of Spices with Aishwarya Rai, not to forget 'The Harry Potter' series and 'The Lord of the rings'; the list is long.

I have to agree with Priya, and am confident most book-lovers feel the same, that books are heaps better than their movie versions. (I guess its the ones who can't be bothered to read through a book who enjoy these movies the most). Well! at least mostly.

'The Godfather', I felt was very true to the original-Mario Puzo was one of the writers of the screenplay. I wouldn't call the movie better than the book but it was faithful to the book. I am told, 'Babe' was an unreadable book but the movie was excellent. And someone mentioned the latest 'Pride and Prejudice' as being a tribute to Austen. Exceptions, I guess.

In Tamil, Sujatha's 'Vikram' was brutally murdered in the on-screen version. and so was his 'Priya'... but less so. Thi.Ja's Mohamull was picturised. I haven't read the book, but the movie was supposedly good.

Enhancing the experience of a book by making a movie out of it doesn't work as often as we expect it to. (How many times have we read a book and said, Wow! that would make a great movie or watched a movie and said, there is a book there in it - but it just doesn't work guys. Trust me...it doesn't). On the whole, my verdict - don't spoil a book for us by making a movie out of it. But if you have to, at least be true to the book.