Transformation of Five Point Someone into 3 Idiots
Transformation of Five Point
Someone into 3 Idiots:
A Study in Adaptation of Film Language and Techniques in the Texts
Dr. Swagat
Patel
patel.swagat@gmail.com
(Adapting
a text into a film requires certain inevitable changes. The changes can be done
through some techniques and also in the use of language while adapting the text
into the film. In such an adaptation the
literary language of the text is to be changed into cinematic language of the
film. Sometimes the text material is either too short or too long for its film
adaptation to fit into a two-to-three-hour film. Therefore, the techniques of
condensation and expansion are used to adapt the text into film. This study
investigates the techniques of condensation and expansion as applied to the
novel ‘Five Point Someone’ and the flux of language while adapting it into a
film entitled 3 Idiots.)
1.0 Introduction
The present paper is a study in the adaptation of Five Point Someone in making it into a
film entitled 3 Idiots highlighting
how literary language has been changed into film language and also how
techniques of condensation and expansion have been applied to the novel in
transforming it into a film.
1.1
What is Film Adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a
feature film. It is a type of derivative work. A common form of film adaptation
is the use of a fiction as the basis of a film, but film adaptation includes
the use of non-fiction (including journalism), autobiography, comic book,
scripture, plays, and even other films. From the earliest days of cinema,
adaptation has been nearly as common as the development of original
screenplays.
Popular film as we know it is essentially the result
of applying the conventions of cinematography to the conventions of fiction
(short story, fiction and drama). Literary texts provide the raw material,
which is already tested: stories which work and are popular, as well as
offering the 'respectability' conferred by the notion of 'literature' in
itself, as well as the cache of certain writers.
Films that are adaptations are generally popular and
successful: the biggest box-office successes tend to be adaptations. Since the
Oscars began in 1927-28, more than three quarters of the 'Best Picture' awards
have gone to films which are adaptations of fictions.
Fiction and film have narrative in common: ‘narrative’
meaning the recounting of a sequence of events. Film evolved as and from
popular culture from interstices of a number of technical developments and
recreational/leisure pursuits: Victorian optical toys, the projector, the music
hall and burlesque, photography and the sensitivity of photographic emulsions,
sound technology, scriptwriting, editing, and the phenomenon of the persistence
of vision.
Since adaptation of one form of art (fiction) is made
by another form of art (film) some changes are inevitable. As Beja (1979:81)
says, “Even the most well-intended, literal-minded, indeed slavish adapter will
have to adapt (change) a book, or a short story, and perhaps even a play;
certainly in regard to a fiction, the possibility of altering nothing can be
dismissed. Disagreement comes only when we discuss the nature and degree of
such alteration as will take place, for some modes of alteration will seem
‘faithful’ to a given book, and others will seem a betrayal. ‘Betrayal’ is a
strong word, and perhaps needlessly or distractingly moralistic, but in fact it
does reflect the way people can feel about seeing a movie based on a book they
have read.” Finally he comments, “Of course what a film takes from a book
matters; but so does what it brings to a book. When it brings dedication and
talent (or, if we are truly fortunate, genius), the result can be what Andre
Bazin calls ‘the fiction so to speak multiplied by the cinema’. The resulting
film is then not a betrayal and not a copy, not an illustration and not a
departure. It is a work of art that relates to the book from which it derives
yet is also independent, an artistic achievement that is in some mysterious way
the ‘same’ as the book but also something other: perhaps something less but
perhaps something more as well.”(Ibid.:88)
2.0
Language Adjustment in Adapting the Text into Film
When a fiction is adapted into a film, the language of
the fiction has to be adjusted in the film depending upon the situation. The
same linguistic items of the fiction may not always fit into the corresponding
cinematic film scenes. In a fiction, we cannot see the action and movements of
the characters. We just imagine it through the literary description by the
writer. But in a film we directly see the actions. To fit them into the visuals
of the film the language or the rhetoric of the characters need
adjustments.
2.1
Language Adjustment in 3 Idiots
Certain scenes may be cited here where adjustment in
the language, particularly in the dialogues, are made which would fit not only
to the situation but also to the nature of the characters. There are some
splendid moments and some memorable scenes in which feeling and thought are to
be captured in cinematic equivalents of the linguistic recourses of the
literature concerned. For example, in Chapter 4 of the novel Five Point Someone Ryan speaks about the
monotonous life in the IIT. Ryan again
questions the existing education system of the IIT. He raises questions like
how many great engineers or scientists are produced by the IIT. If their
Institute is India’s best technology institute, how is it that it has not been
able to invent anything. It is clear that students only care for a degree and a
good job. He blames the whole system, “This system of relative grading and
overburdening the students. I mean it kills the best fun years of your life.
But it kills something else. Where is the room for original thought? Where is
the time for creativity? It is not fair (p.35).”
These serious issues are raised in the film but in a
dramatic way. In the film, a student commits suicide when his project was
discarded by Director Sahastrabuddhe. Angry Rancho calls the suicide as murder
and blames the Director for this. Director Sahastrabuddhe tells them that he is
not responsible if a student cannot handle the pressure and commits suicide. He
has brought ICE from 28th position to 1st position.
Rancho shows a statistics that India is in the first position as far as the
suicidal rate of students is concerned. Every 90 minutes a student commits
suicide. Rancho argues that bringing the IIT to 1st position means
nothing when nobody talks about new inventions and ideas. Here nothing but only
how to get good marks is taught. The enraged Director drags Rancho to the
classroom and asks him to teach. Smart Rancho writes two words on the board and
asks everyone to search the meaning from the book. When everyone fails, Rancho
tells them that nobody is interested in learning new things as all of them have
jumped into the race. He tells them to learn to gain knowledge and not for
competition.
2.2 Songs as Cinematic Equivalents to Rhetoric
and Discourse of Fiction
Often a Director uses cinematic equivalents of the
rhetoric and discourse of fiction to either render or critique the perspective
of a literary source. In the second chapter of the
novel Five Point Someone, the narrator Hari describes the tight
schedule of IIT life. Six courses, four Practicals from morning 8.00 a.m. to
evening 5.00 p.m. in the institute building, rest few hours is spent in the
library or in rooms to prepare reports and do assignments. To add to these
tensions there is Surprize Quiz. This tight schedule of IIT life has been shown
in the film through a song called “Sari
umra hum mar mar ke jee liye” within just 4 minutes. Sometimes in a film, we find that the audio-visual
becomes much more effective than the literary source of the original written
description. Sometimes not-so-famous fiction becomes a hit film because the
cinematic equivalents of the rhetoric and discourse of the fiction extend the
perspective of the literary source.
2.3
Telescoping Information through Cinematic Equivalents
A book may take fifty or one hundred pages to give the
information that we can get in just three minutes in the adapted film. In the novel Five Point Someone the author takes a number of pages to describe
the situations in the IIT campus, and also to sketch the characters. But in the
adapted film 3 Idiots the film maker
takes hardly one minute to introduce or sketch a character. For example, the
character of Alok sketched as Raju in the film as it is in the novel. But in the film, Raju and his family have
been sketched in a much more effective way and in a much less time (Film Time)
than they are done in the book (Reading Time).
Film is also much faster in building up details. It
does so through images. The camera can look at a three-dimensional object and
in a matter of seconds get across details that would take pages in the novel.
Film can give us story information, character information, ideas, images, and
style -- all in the same moment.
When we read a novel, we can see only what the
narrator shows us at that particular moment. If the narrator puts the focus on
action in those pages, then we follow the action. If the narrator talks about feelings, then we
focus on the feelings. We can receive only one piece of information at a time.
A novel can only give us this information sequentially. But, film is
multi-dimensional. A good scene in a film advances the action, reveals the
character, explores the theme, and builds up an image.
3.0
Techniques of Adaptation: Concepts of Condensation and Expansion
When a literary work is translated into a film, it is
metamorphosed not only by the camera, the editing, the performances, the
setting, and the music, but by distinct film codes and conventions, culturally
signifying elements, and by the producer’s and the director’s interpretations
as well. Meanings that may have been lost when the text of the narrative first
became the screenplay, condensed and bereft of some of its linguistic recourses
may be resurrected subsequently by the new medium in different form and through
a different kind of imaginative process. When a filmed script comes alive on
the screen and is experienced by an audience, the dialectic between film and
viewer is not exactly the same as that between literary text and reader. Film
is a more collaborative process than literature.
In cinematic
narrative, the spectator must supply a more categorical and abstract
narrativity. A well-made film requires interpretation while a well-made novel
may only need understanding. The cinematic world invites, even requires,
conceptualization. The images presented to us, their arrangement and
juxtapositioning, are narrational blueprints for a fiction that must be
constructed by the viewer’s narrativity.
“By its very
nature, adaptation is a transition -- a conversion from one medium to
another. All original material will put
up a bit of fight, almost as if it were saying, “Take me as I am.” Yet adapting
implies change. It implies a process that demands rethinking, re-conceptualizing
and understanding how the nature of drama is intrinsically different from the
nature of all other literature. The adaptor is much like the sculptor
Michelangelo, who, when asked how he was able to carve such a beautiful angel,
replied, “The angel is caught inside the stone. I simply carve out everything
that isn’t the angel.” The adaptor is sculpting out everything that is not
drama, so the intrinsic drama contained within another medium remains. What do
we need to do to make an adaptation work? What does the process include?”
(Seger 1992:2)
3.1 Condensing of Material
Erich von Stroheim attempted a literal adaptation of
Frank Norris's novel McTeague in 1924 with his film, Greed. The resulting film was over sixteen hours long. A cut of the
film only eight hours long, then one running to four hours, appeared. Finally,
the studio itself cut the film to around two hours, resulting in a finished
product that was entirely incoherent. Since that time, few directors have
attempted to put everything in a novel into a film. In the Indian context a film
has to integrate songs and dances into a film whether it is an adaptation or
not. The Indian audience cannot easily accept a Hindi film without songs and
dances. So to fit songs and dances into the film, certain portions of the
original material are bound to be condensed.
Therefore, condensing is nearly mandatory in Bollywood films.
Very few original sources will be equal to a two-hour
film. The six- hundred pages novel will be too long, the short story or
newspaper article will be too short. The first job of the adaptor will be to
figure out how to fit the original material into different time parameters.
Rarely does a film story begin and end where the books
does. True, there are notable exceptions like the film Gone with the Wind which begins with the first scene of the book
and ends with the last scene of the book. More often, though, beginnings and
endings are found within the body of the story.
3.1.1
Condensing or Expanding the Beginning or End
The book Five
Point Someone opens with the narrator promising to write a book about their
crazy days if his friend “Alok makes it through” to whom they are taking to
hospital in an ambulance. In the film, Alok is being taken by his friend Rancho
and Fahran but not in the beginning of the film but somewhere in the
middle. The film opts for a different flashback point which is
also one of the most significant differences to adaptation. A passenger faking
a heart attack to make emergency landing after he gets a call from an old
friend and another friend forgets to wear pants in the nervousness to know
about a missing friend. The caller Chatur Ramalingam, an old college mate,
reminds them of the day of the bet – the day they would find out who is more
successful. Three of them travel to Shimla to find out their missing friend
Rancho. On the way, the narrator in the film reminds them of the first day they
meet Rancho in I.C.E. hostel.
3.1.2
Condensation of Subplots
The nature of condensation involves losing certain
portions of the material. Condensing often includes losing subplots, combining
or cutting characters, leaving out several of the many themes that might be
contained in a long novel. For example, some of the subplots in Five
Point Someone are lost by way of applying the technique of condensation
in making the film 3 Idiots are: (i)
Watching Terminator movie before the
examination and subsequently failing in it; (ii) Accidental meeting of Hari and
Neha while jogging; (iii) Ryan getting a scooter from his parents, roaming,
eating food outside and enjoying life and subsequently scoring low marks in the
examination; (iv) Ryan’s ‘Cooperate to
Dominate’ plan and its implementation; (v) Neha avoiding meeting Hari in public
places and also her strange behavior with Hari after meeting him; (vi) Later
her meeting Hai regularly in an ice-cream parlour and at the temple near the
railway track; (vii) Neha’s revelation to Hari about her brother’s suicide;
(viii) Prof. Cherian catching Neha and Hari together in the ice-cream parlour;
(ix) Hari sleeping with Neha in her home and stealing keys from the bunch; (x)
Prof. Cherian stopping Hari while driving Cherian’s car; (xi) Prof. Veera
helping them from the ‘Disco’ (Term used for Disciplinary Action); (xii) Working
on Ryan’s lube projects; and (xiii) Hari’s Dreaming about Prof. Cherian’s
speech.
Only those subplots are selected for the film which
the filmmaker thinks are important for the dramatic progress of the film. This
is done to make the film a commercially successful and to fit the novel into an
almost three-hour film. Such condensations of the subplots can be frustrating
to writers as the filmmakers in order to make the film work often give up
scenes and characters the writers love most.
3.1.3
Condensation of Minor Characters
Cutting and combining characters help condense an
unwieldy novel into a workable form. As these minor plots are not added as part
of the film, some minor characters also get automatically deleted from the
film. For example, Prof. Veera who saves Ryan, Alok and Hari from the ‘Disco’
is not present in the film. Also there is no mention of Dean Shastri and Prof.
Saxena.
3.2.1 Expansion of Minor Characters
Sometimes directors visualize scope of expansion in
minor characters. In the novel, one character might be a minor one but in the
film that minor character can play a major role in the film. For example, the
character of Venkat in the novel Five
Point Someone has a very meagre role but in the film 3 Idiots Venkat’s character portrayed as Chatur Ramalingam – better known as ‘Silencer’, has a major role in the
film. He is the person who calls Farhan and Raju to search for Rancho after 10
years of their college life. His memorable and tampered speech is one of the
best scenes in the film lasting for four minutes. Chatur’s character is present
in almost all the important scenes in the film.
The
character of Neha has been given much more importance in the film in its
dramatic development of the action than she has been in the novel. Neha’s
character as Pia Sahastrabuddhe is a doctor. She gives instructions
step-by-step through video-conferencing to Rancho to help in the delivery of
her elder sister Mona. This incident which is not in the novel is crucial in
the sense that it helps Rancho to win back the stern Dean Viru Sahastrabuddhe’s
heart. There has been
slight interchange of characters between Ryan (Rancho) and Hari (Farhan)
involving Neha as a girl-friend. In the film, Pia is the girlfriend of Rancho.
The character of Prof. Cherian in the novel has been
portrayed as Dr. Viru Sahastrabuddhe – better known as "Virus"-is a larger-than-life character in the film. He is the
Director of Imperial College of Engineering. By nature, he is highly
competitive and cannot tolerate anyone moving ahead of him. To save time he
uses Velcro instead of buttons in his shirts. Even his neck-ties have hooks
just to save time. He has trained his mind to write with both hands
simultaneously. Every day at 2.00 p.m. he takes a seven and half minutes of
power nap where he has instructed his servant to carry out all his unproductive
tasks such as shaving, nail-cutting etc.
In the novel there is no mention that Prof. Cherian has excused Ryan,
Hari and Alok. But at the end of the film 3
Idiots Dr.
Viru Sahastrabuddhe not only excuses Rancho, Farhan and Raju but also presents
his ‘Astronaut’s Pen’ to Rancho as he
finds him a more extraordinary student than he himself.
3.2.2 Expansion through Songs and Dances
When we condense a novel, we also have to expand
certain portions of the film to fit into the gaps created by such
condensations. As we know songs and dances are an integral part of Hindi
cinema, certain portions are expanded to create a background for these songs
and dances to give the feeling of natural flow to the main events or incidents
of the film. This addition of songs and dances is also a kind of expansion.
There are five songs in the film which means almost 21 minutes of material is
expanded:
(i)
The
first song "Behti Hawa Sa Tha Woh" (5:01 sec.) demonstrates the nature of
the main character Rancho to whom the other two characters Farhan and Raju are
searching.
(ii)
The second song “Give Me Some Sunshine” (4:07 sec.) shows
the pressure the students go through their academics.
(iii)
In
the book Ryan gives ‘Cooperate to Dominate’ plan to beat IIT systems but in the
film Rancho gives “Aal Izz Well"
mantra to face the problem in life. To explain the background of “Aal Izz Well" Rancho narrates a
small incident from his life and that scene is followed by the 4 minutes 36 seconds song “Aal Izz Well".
(iv)
The
fourth song "Zoobi Doobi"
(4:08) is a romantic song which shows that the hero and the heroine fall in
love. For this song a scene is added to fit into the film.
(v)
The
fifth song "Jaane Nahin Denge Tujhe" (3:32) is a background song which
comes at the time when Raju who has jumped from the college building is
hospitalized. His friends are trying to motivate him to get up from the
hospital bed.
3.2.3 Expansion through New Sub-Plots
(i) A new concept such as the existence of ‘Astronaut Pen’, non-existent in the book, has been introduced in the film. This is supposed to be a special type of pen used by astronauts in space in zero gravity. Prof. Cherian received this from his Director as a symbol of excellence with the promise that he would pass it on only to the student more talented than him. Now after thirty-two years he has been able to pass it on to Rancho;
(ii) “All is Well” as a line of thought by Rancho;
(iii) speech scene by Chatur (Venkat) and his dramatic return after 10 years of college;
(iv) Ryan (Rancho) characterized as Phunsukh Wangdu in the latter half of the film;
(v) Pia (Neha) being paired opposite to Rancho (Ryan) and not opposite to Hari, the narrator (Farhan), whose religion and professional ambition in life has been changed;
(vi) introduction of character of Mona (Neha’s (Pia) sister) and delivery scene of Mona;
(vii) the
final conflict between Phunsukh Wangdu and Chatur, that shows the theme of the film
to “Chase Excellence, Success Will Follow”.
In the book the three characters cannot win Prof. Cherian’s
heart but in the film the three characters help in delivery of Prof.
Sahastrabuddhe’s pregnant elder daughter Mona and win back Prof.
Sahastrabuddhe’s heart. The whole
sequence is 12 minutes long and is a very important part of the film.
The film doesn't stop at graduation; it follows the three
friends into their later, post-career life. The sub-plots which are not in the
book are:
(i) Flight take off aborted by Farhan Qureshi (Hari) to deboard;
(ii) The search for Rancho (Ryan) by Raju Rastogi (Alok), Farhan (Hari) and Chatur Ramalingam (Venkat), trip to Shimla to find Rancho;
(iii) Finding real Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad (Javed Jaffrey) who has the same certificate and graduation photograph but he is not their friend Rancho;
(iv) Revelation of Chhote as their friend who is in Laddakh;
(v) Farhan and Raju help Pia (Neha) to run away from her marriage to meet Rancho (Chhote) in Laddakh;
(vi) Their friend Rancho turned out to be Scientist Phunsukh Wangdu who has many invention in his name and Chatur's prospective business partner whom he was searching; and
(vii) Reunion
of Rancho (Ryan) and Pia (Neha).
All these plots are very important
parts of the film which make the film look different from the book and make it
a blockbuster. Let us note
here that the incidents mentioned above are not in the novel. Songs and dances
in this film are also integrated into the film not only to enhance the
incidents but also to attract the audience for the commercial success of the
film.
The one-liner of the book is Chetan Bhagat’s Five
Point Someone is about three underachievers who come to terms with the
system after failed attempts of cheating it. But the film is about a person to
whom his best two friends are searching and about their crazy college days.
The work of adapting the short story demands adding
rather than subtracting. Usually a short story has fewer characters than a
novel, and they are in a simple situation, sometimes one without a beginning,
middle, and end. In many short stories there are few, or no, subplots to
complicate the action. Working with the short story demands adding subplots,
adding characters, and expanding scenes and story lines. For film adaptations
of short stories, new scenes and situations are added to develop characters and
story line. These decisions help construct the script into a workable dramatic
story line. However, the adaptor also has to translate the story into a
commercially viable film.
4.0
Conclusion
The film industry is all about show business. It
means, as Seger (1992:4) says, it “is show plus business, and producers need to
be reasonably sure that they can make a profit on their investment. There is a
fine line between taking reasonable risks so that original projects get made,
and making cautions decisions by assessing what has drawn audiences in the
past.” The film makers will find the means to do what is necessary to assure
the film is commercially successful as possible. They will try their best to
advertise and market the film and most importantly will attempt to hire A-List
performers to act in the film; their motive here is to appeal to fans around
the globe. To be honest, films are usually too concerned about profits to truly
care about a proper adaptation. Though it would be absurd to include every small
fact contained within the fiction, it is also a detriment to the overall
importance of the film to omit details as well. There is nothing wrong with
film makers adapting texts for films. It is quite normal for people to see
their favorite book come to life on the big screen. However, there are very few
that receive high praise when the end result comes to pass. The reason perhaps
is that they are just made too differently. In retrospect, these two mediums
are forever linked through the reality of popular culture but will forever be
separated by the idea of imagination.
A film attains the power and clarity of allegory and
folk narrative, of forms which began centuries ago to fuse and develop further
within the novel. It is also at moments like this that we fully appreciate what
Eisenstein, Conrad and Griffith meant when they said that their art was
designed to make us “see”: that is, to make us perceive and understand.
Adequacy of vision and talent are, in the final sense, the determining factors
of the quality of an adaptation from literature into film.
Bibliography
Primary
Sources
Bhagat, Chetan. Five
Point Some: What not to do at IIT!. Rupa Co, 2004. Print
3 Idiots,
Dir. Rajkumar Hirani. Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions, 2009. Film.
Secondary Sources
Beja, Morris. Film and Literature: an Introduction, Longman, New York and London,
1973. Print
Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of
Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print
Monaco, James. How to Read a Film. OUP (Indian Edition), New Delhi, 2007. Print
Richardson,
Robert D. Literature and Film. London:
Indiana University Press, 1969. Print
Seger, Linda. The art of
adaptation: Turning fact and fiction into film. New York: Owl Books Henry
Holt and Company, 1992. Print
Welsh,
James M. and Peter Lev (Eds.). The
Literature/Film Reader: Issues of Adaptation.UK: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007.
Print
Web
Sources
“3 Idiots.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 25 Dec
2009. Web. 20 Aug 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Idiots>
“Film
Adaptation.” Wikipedia: The Free
Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 19 June 2005. Web. 20 Aug 2014 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_adaptation>
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