Entertainment Desk :Bollywood draws inspiration from multiple sources. Real life incidences sometimes become fodder for rich imagination while other times its fictional depictions that fuel the flight of mind’s eye. Books and Bollywood share a rather surprising bond. Nondescript, far from glamour and demure source of comfort, books are Bollywood’s constant ally and muse. The fictional setting and world transforms into stuff that dreams are made off when movies bring the stories to life via silver screen. More than often Hollywood has taken a simple tale and spun it into reality in ways not even the author would have imagined. In past we have enjoyed many such amazing movies that found their origin in books for e.g. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games etc. Not even comics have been spared, as we have in past seen the world of Marvel and DC comics brought to life in form of Avengers, Thor, Ironman, Batman, Spiderman and other super hero movie franchises. Not the one to be left behind, Bollywood too has adopted some of the most cherished international and Indian literature and made it their own. Some of the most delightful Bollywood movies have found their way to the hearts and minds of the audience with the help of some amazing literary work of geniuses. We bring you 10 movies that we love which are based on books.Haider – HamletHaider has been raking in praises, money and award since it hit theaters. But who gave the world this gem of art? Vishal Bharadwaj brought the prince of Denmark to Kashmir and turned the Hamlet to Haider and tastefully so. Haider, starring Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor brought William Shakespeare’s tragedy of Hamlet to life. Omkara – OthelloOmkara told the story of a dusty north Indian village which had regular characters with emotions and stories that were anything but ordinary. Once again master of movie crafts, Bharadwaj turned Shakespeare’s masterpiece Othello into Omkara, something that Indian masses could relate to. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice starring Ajay Devgn, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor looks pretty good in Indian version too, doesn’t it? Maqbool – MacbethIt is said that uttering Macbeth during play staging jinxes it and misfortune soon follows. However no misfortune befell Bharadwaj as he turned Shakespeare work into pure magic in its Indian onscreen adaption as Maqbool. Pankaj Kapoor, Irrfan, Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri left an indelible mark on the sheets of Bollywood history in this Bollywood version of Macbeth. Devdas – DevdasIt’s not just Shakespeare who has an authority in writing some of the best tragedies. Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay has contributed some of the greatest literary masterpiece to the world of literature and some of them created history on silver screens as well. Devadas is one such book. The original version of Devdas starred tragedy king Dilip Kumar in the title role while the remake starred Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit in lead roles. Parineeta – ParineetaSharat Chandra Chattopadhyay contributed quite a lot to the world of Bengali cinema, Bollywood too benefited. In form of Parineeeta, he gave us a musical love story which not only jump started Vidya Balan’s career but also gave Bollywood a dazzling piece of cinematic history.Guide – The GuideRK Narayan, is best remembered for Malgudi days but he also bestowed upon Bollywood the classic screenplay of Guide in the form of the critically acclaimed novel by the same name. The award winning performance by Devanand and Waheeda Rehman turned this cinema into a classic. Saat Khoon Maaf – Suzanna’s Seven HusbandsRuskin Bond has given the world of literature many gems to cherish, Vishal Bharadwaj, being himself just picked up one of these and turned into another attempt to bring a classic piece of literature to life. But here unlike his success with the bard’s work, he quite failed to deliver owing to the lack of crisp screenplay that reduced Bond’s short story, ‘Suzanna’s seven husbands’ to a mere shadow of its literary self and hence we have Saat Khoon Maaf. The saving grace of this movie is Priyanka Chopra’s wonderful performance.2 States – 2 StateGirl loves boy, boy loves girl but they belong to two different states. Nothing remarkable about the story itself as it’s a daily occurrence and an everyday situation in this nation of diverse culture. Leave it to Chetan Bahgat to turn his own love story into a novel with campus romance, sex, drama, big fat Indian wedding and happy ending. Bhagat’s 2 states was adapted to a movie of the same name starring Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles which went on to be a block buster hit 3 Idiots – Five Point SomeoneA lot of controversy exists about this one. Movie 3 Idiots was loosely adapted from novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. The film stars Aamir Khan,Kareena Kapoor, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Omi Vaidya, and Boman Irani. 3 Idiots went on to become one of the highest-grossing Bollywood film.
