March 9, 2017 at 6:16 pm

I did wrote blog on this topic earlier on different sites(I think on Blogjob), but this is a question that still comes to my mind.
What do you prefer- a book or Novel, or its Screen adaptation– Movie adaptations would perhaps be the word, but some Novels are also adapted for TV Sops.

Do share your opinion.

March 9, 2017 at 9:49 pm

Most of the times i prefer the book because they have more details to it. The story becomes complete with all these little details and you can imagine the things they say in your head and the way you want.

When they adapt a book to a movie they tend to lose some details along the way. Especially because it is rare that you can get a whole book into a movie.

March 10, 2017 at 12:51 pm

@tarasquirrel yes books can have more details. Movies have to cut out some part or shorten it. Exceptions can be in shorter length stories. In cases like “3 idiots” – an adaptation of “Five Point someone” by Chetan Bhagat, the movie was almost as good as the novel, and in some places better.
But of course, it also depends on the script writer, director and the actors.

March 10, 2017 at 12:55 pm

Hi Peeush, Thank you for bringing up this topic.

I agree with Sarah. Book is always better than screen adaptation.

However I would say there are several advantages of the adaptation also. Let me list down those, let me know your views on that.

1. The very first point I would like to mention is sometimes we can not exactly understand the  vivid description, especially for the books on something historical places or pictures etc if we have not seen that before. Let me put an example, the film adaptation of THE VINCHI CODE. I had read the book before, but when I watched the movie, the pictures (How it explained the Last Supper) , places came more clear to me. I have not seen those places so the movie helped me to understand those.

2. There are thousands of books written in different languages which we cannot read in our life time. A 2 hour movie adaptation of any book will give at least the idea of that book. Like I have not read God Father. For Bollywood, I can tell about Devdas (non Bengali’s did not read it).  Or you can think about Game of Thrones. At least I have not read that, and also do not have that much time to read that huge book. I don’t want to increase the list.

But I would always suggest if you want to read a book and same movie is there then read the book first. I have done so for some Bengali films when I heard some film is going to release and adapted from a particular book. I read that book before.

And another thing is most important, that is for the directors, they should be honest enough and stick to the book as much as possible. I don’t like those movies which changes part the story as their own.

March 10, 2017 at 1:03 pm

@ichchhemrityu  I am now relishing this forum very much. So much that I can’t resist coming back here, discussing, commenting and may be starting newer discussions in near future!  🙂
Yes, adaptations can be great if we want viwers in say English to see a great work written in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, or even Chinese, Japanese, Italian, German, French or Arabic etc.
Complex works can be simplified so more viewers can come to know about the work.
However, I do not like distortions and heavy distortions, as I came to know about distortions of a few works of Alistair MacLean( 🙂  Yes I am a fan of his books too – do you recollect “Guns of Navarone” , “Where Eagles Dare” etc)

Another option could be a TV series, though many of recent Hindi TV series on historical books or stories drag and distort them too much and try to make them look like a Saas-Bahu type daily sop, which I entirely dislike!

March 10, 2017 at 1:23 pm

Thanks Peeush, the group will be more interesting if more people provides their inputs. Try to add your friends who loves book.

I understand your feelings when you love some books and the film adaptation distorts them. I have similar feelings when I watched one of my favourite book. Other friends who did not read that book liked the movie very much but I could not rate that movie as good.

Generally I do not watch TV series. Even Game Of Thrones I watched after downloading all the series and watched one by one. and Hindi/Bengali TV serials are pathetic. Even the historical ones are distorted to promote some political propaganda. They don’t remain truthful to the historical fact.

March 10, 2017 at 2:08 pm

@ichchhemrityu
Yes some have been distorted very much. There is currently a show “ChandraNandini” on Star Plus, which looks like it has distorted the historical events during Chandragupta Maurya’s time a bit too much.
Programs like “Bharat Ek Khoj” were better and even “The Sword of Tipu Sultan”.

March 10, 2017 at 3:14 pm

There is channel called Epic. Sometimes I watch that channel. Programs are good. They try to describe events of epics/puranas in a better way considering the social condition of that time. It is not based on blind faith but a better rationalists approach to see things.

You can give a try.