Books Vs Movie Adaptations

cynic

Taking cue from a topic Shivani posted a few days back.

It has been a never-ending debate about which medium of story telling is better - a book or its movie adaptation. Both mediums have different elements that work in their favor. A film has the visuals, audio and the human connection that a book could not physically create. Books stretch your imagination and are more in-depth (not everything can fit into two hours of film).

What are your thoughts? Which medium do you prefer, and what movie(s) has been the best adaption according to you? Or you prefer TV shows based on books? Is there a book you picked after seeing the movie adaptation?

booklover1980

I prefer the book because it has so many nuances which cannot be translated on screen. A case in point is the martian. Someone else. On the forum too mentioned about this i picked up the book after watching the movie. I loved the movie but it pales in comparison with the book.

Meself

The book for sure. With the book there is no restriction of pushing the story into a limited time frame. Each and every nuances can be better explored with the book .




Though there are certain books I would love to see adapted on television. With movies it is impossible to bring to life everything.

jhsurti

Definitely the book. As pointed out by @booklover1980 & Shivani, a movie adaptation cannot give you everything that a book can explore. Consider the thought process of one character, for instance. How do you portray that on screen? Unless you show him/her talking to him/her-self. A book OTOH can bring to words what the character is thinking.

Another point that a friend made when he saw "The Da Vinci Code" movie - those who did not read the book found it difficult to understand it fully; those read the book, found it superficial!

However, from a personal POV, as I don't like reading action & sci-fi books, I would prefer those in the movie or tv adaptations. Because in those cases I prefer visual treat over verbal.

booklover1980

Exactly... Therw are some books which just beg to be depicted on celluloid, the harry potter series is a case in point. The books are great, but watching the story unfold on scrwwn is a different e perience, however sometimes the essence of the book is diluted since its physically impossibke to. Depict everything on acreen in the limited time available

cynic

Meself 9-5-2018 12:11 PM
The book for sure. With the book there is no restriction of pushing the story into a limited time fr ...

I agree about TV series. It has a lesser amount of time contraint.


So, is imagination better than visualization?

Meself

cynic 9-5-2018 09:52 PM
I agree about TV series. It has a lesser amount of time contraint.

I am all in for an adaptation of a book. But let's get real, on TV or in movies the selling point is "masala". And because of this one factor most of the times scenes or complete story is changed. Case in point Prithvi Vallabh by K.M. Munshi. It is a beautiful book for the time period its written in and really asserts feminist thoughts through its heroine Mrinalvati who is the general of her kingdom's army. The TV series is blech at best. Changing stories and character arc.




So unless and until someone really takes effort in bringing alive an author's imagination, I think I'll stick to the books.

Meself

^^P.S. The rights for Immortals of Meluha has been bought by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sonam Kapoor got dibs on Aryavarta Chronicles.




My heart's bleeding. RIP beautiful books. This is the reason behind preferring books over movies.

cynic

Meself 11-5-2018 12:30 AM
^^P.S. The rights for Immortals of Meluha has been bought by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sonam KappKa  ...

Indian TV adaptations are a joke. The stories get twisted to no end to cater for the masala seeking audience. Be it Ekta Kapoor Mahabharat or turning Parvati into a nagging wife in Mahadev.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is adapting Immortals of Meluha? Let alone butchering the book, the man sure knows how to court controversies.

jhsurti

Meself 11-5-2018 12:27 AM
I am all in for an adaptation of a book. But let's get real, on TV or in movies the selling point i ...

Another case in point: Saraswatichandra - a 4 volume novel in Gujarati written by Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi. It simply not possible to adapt it to screen. And the whole story was literally butchered. Stopped watching it after a couple of weeks. It was produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali! At least the movie which was released in 1968 did a reasonable enough job by remaining faithful to the story-line.

These guys simply cannot resist the urge to add their own "masala" to the original. And it tastes bad!!