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HARSHA CHANDRASHEKAR
(Bangalore, India)

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harshacshekar [at] gmail [dot] com

Please leave a short story alone

Let’s get a few things straight here. We do not make movies that are 90 minutes long nor can we live without sandwiching songs into it (Classic example: Guru). In such an event we got to be extra careful while selecting stories suitable for the celluloid.

Here are three movies that I cringe every time I see it on Television.

Film 1: Raincoat - 2004 (Cast… Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan; Director… Rituparno Ghosh)

This movie is based on the short story The Gift of the Magi by O Henry. I have no problem about the story or premise, however the question is does this classic deserves two hours of screen time. The answer is a resounding No. The beauty of the original is the way the plot unfolds giving you no time to wander, now if you see the adaptation by Rituparno Ghosh due to its format of a feature length film you needs songs (thought great) really unnecessary and a annoying Mouli Ganguly as Manu’s friend’s wife calling every 10 minutes in the movie. At the end of the movie you are numb rather than empathetic, which for me is losing the soul of the story written by O Henry.

Film 2: Ahista Ahista - 2006 (Cast … Abhay Deol, Soha Ali Khan; Directer… Shivam Nair)

If you guys have seen the STAR Bestsellers telecasted by STAR PLUS (99/00) you would have seen Ahista Ahista, by that I mean the original short story in its deserving format. STAR Bestsellers was a selection of best short stories written by Indian authors/directors in a 1 hour tele series format. I cannot recall the title of this short story but it was excellent, right from the character choice, to location and simplicity of the plot. Credit for the story of Ahista Ahista (the film) has been given to Imtiaz Ali. I sincerely hope it’s not a Plagiarism effort on part of Imtiaz as that would really disappoint me to see a director who gave us Socha Na Tha and Jab We Met to stoop to these levels. So the question now arises, how do you spoil the movie Ahista Ahista? It’s not difficult ask Himesh Reshammiya to croon the songs for you and that should do the trick! Not just that the performances were also not par to the requirement and most importantly characters did not feel real as I did when I first watched the tele serial.

Film 3: Gayab - 2004 (Cast… Tusshar Kapoor, Antara Mali; Director… Prawal Raman)

Here it is best reserved for last. This is a spin-off of the Purab’s (Aftab Shivdasani) story from Darna Mana Hai (2003), dare I say from the same director (Prawal Raman). I absolutely loved Purab’s story as it was diametrically different from what I had seen. Though Saif and Boman plot was equally good, it was a downer as Sushant Singh and Boman Irani’s character was more or less same thus diluting its impact.

Only people who are nuts would try and remake a short story like the one in Darna Mana Hai into a full length movie. However, I am not entirely surprised as it from RGV’s stable. The Stop story though silly was novel, now however how do you adapt this to a movie … Antara Mali comes to rescue with her antics. To call this movie a disaster would be an understatement.

Directors if they cannot make the simple distinction as what’s best for silver screen, then god save them. Even though you come across a short story that is too tempting, please enjoy the process of reading it but do not let the idea seep in your brains to bring the work alive on the big screen. Though I can think of one brilliant movie adapted from the last few lines (can you believe it) of a book into a feaure length movie Beladingala Bale (Kannada Movie, 1996) directed by Sunil Kumar Desai, written by Yendamuri Veerendrnath and brilliantly performed by Ananth Nag one of the finest actors in world cinema. But not all directors are Sunil Kumar Desai who made a rip off Die Hard to Nishkarsha (1995) such a convincing effort.

Did I miss out Saawariya based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story, White Nights directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in this list? Yes sure I did, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a finely crafted director who has left me with nothing to write on his magnum opus.

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