Be it “Lion”, “Victoria and Abdul”, “Slumdog Millionaire” or “Midnight’s Children” – other than the “desi” angle to the storyline, there is one string that connects all of the Hollywood films together and that is they all are book adaptations.
IANS lists some names of films that give visual translations to popular books.
* “Lion”: “Lion”, which features an international cast led by Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara and British actor of Indian origin Dev Patel, apart from Indian actors like Deepti Naval, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Priyanka Bose and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is a heart-wrenching true story of a couple who adopt a lost Indian boy – Saroo Brierley, and help him find his birth mother.
The movie is based on non-fiction book “A Long Way Home” by Brierley.
* “Victoria and Abdul”: “Victoria and Abdul”, starring Ali Fazal and Judi Dench, is based on Shrabani Basu’s book “Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closet Confidant”. It revolves around the relationship shared by Queen Victoria and Abdul, who was a munshi in her government. It also shows his journey on how he became one of the most powerful figures in the court.
* “Slumdog Millionaire”: “Slumdog Millionaire” – which took home eight Oscars in 2009 – narrates story of a young man from the slums of Mumbai, who participates in “Kaun Banega Crorepati” game show and how he exceeds people’s expectations. It also throws light on struggles of people who live in slums. The film was an adaptation of novel “Q & A” by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup, and made Dev Patel and Freida Pinto stars overnight.
* “Life of Pi”: Oscar-winning film “Life of Pi” – with Indian actors Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, and Adil Hussain in the lead – is based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name. The American survival drama, directed by Ang Lee, tells the story of Indian man named “Pi” Patel, who is narrating to a novelist how he survived a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
* “The Namesake”: The film was based on the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. Directed by Mira Nair, the film stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan. It follows life of two generations of a Bengali family in New York, as they search for identity and integration.
* “Midnight’s Children”: The 2012 film is a Canadian-British film adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s 1981 novel of the same name. It brings forth a story about India’s transition from British colonialism to independence and the partition.
