Before I start this
review, I want to declare this. A book to film ‘adaptation’ isn’t a book to
film ‘conversion’. A film holds the right to just get inspired from the book,
freely include and exclude parts of it, yet preserve its essence. Cinema
adapted from a popular book, isn’t a mere articulation of each and every scene
in the book to a picture format—it’s a cinematic representation as a whole. Adapted
cinema isn’t a stage play getting performed line by line, its juts another way
of looking at the book.
‘Dil Bechara’
inspired from John Green’s bestselling Young Adult fiction ‘The Fault in Our Stars’
has released yesterday on an online platform. In this review, I will attempt to
review ‘Dil Bechara’ in its entirety and not just compare to what extent it has
justified the book.
‘The Fault in our
stars’ became famous for its portrayal of flawed characters, both inflicted
with cancer, due to which they stand at the verge of death. It showed us how we
can live life to the fullest, even though time slips through our hands like
grains of sand. It whispered into our ears the melodies of pure contentment,
the power of acceptance and being courageous to the face life squarely. It conveyed
that it’s alright not to emerge as a winner in all fronts, its okay to feel
broken and defeated—what matters is whether we are able to come out of it. It
celebrates the essence of relationships and family and shows the fragility of
our lives, in contrast to our expectations from it.
‘Dil Bechara’ successfully
manages to preserve mostly all of these themes. Through the brilliant acting of
Sanjana Sanghi and Sushant Singh Rajput, it takes a separate stand. Maybe it is
not as sophisticated as the original book, maybe the contexts are different,
maybe the lead characters are not as broken and believable as Hazel and
Augustus---but even after all of this, the film still manages to dawn upon you
the sweet fragrance of compassion and kindness. It still rattles your heart
with the sadness of demise, as the book did.
Recreating the book
brick by brick was certainly difficult. The direction therefore doesn’t copy
the original script, rather it casts the original scenarios to modern, Indian
settings. Due to this remoulding, some of the facets of the story was
involuntarily lost. But it was successful in making the film shine without the
contextual baggage of the book. The movie harps on its uniqueness. If judged just
from the perspective of the book, it must be said that this movie failed to
uphold some extraordinary intricacies of it. The sophisticated and charming
Augustus is cast into a jolly, energetic, flirtatious Manny. The withdrawn and
timid Hazel finds herself to be illuminated through the eyes of a flexible and
easy to convince Kizie. This amplification of the character traits was perhaps
an attempt to make the characters more prominent, losing some unsaid nuances in
the process. Some snippets of the book like Augustus holding an unlit cigarette,
the duo getting disappointed by a creative personality they admired—was modernised
to similar scenes, and quite convincingly.
In all, I can say
that “The Fault in our stars” wasn’t a very linear narrative. It didn’t just tell
you to ‘live life’ and ‘not give up’. It’s much more dimensional and colourful.
However, ‘Dil Bechara’ came off as a very streamlined and restricted version of
it. As a standalone of Indian cinema, it is worth recommending. It manages to make
you shed a few tears and embrace the melancholy, but its perhaps not as good an
adaptation as you would expect it to be.
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