All Time Favourite Books and Movies and their Epic Journey :: A Book Review
- Book by Vishwas Patil and Nadeem Khan -

Nongmaithem Rakesh *

Genre : Non-fiction/History/Translation
Publisher : Niyogi Books
Price : Rs. 595
Rating : Must read

What you have learned from the day of your birth to the present day is based mostly on history. So, the importance of history in our life can't be underestimated. This fact is also confirmed by the book "All Time Favourite Books and Movies and their Epic Journey"translated by Nadeem Khan from the Marathi book "Not Gone with The Wind" written by Vishwas Patil.

Vishwas Patil is an author, historian and civil servant who writes in Marathi. He has written other books like Panipat (a novel about the third battle of Panipat), Jhadajhadati and Mahanayak. The translator, Nadeem Khan has done several translations. He is comfortable with Hindi, Marathi and Urdu. Together, they have created an absolute gem of a book.

The book is written about some of the writer's favourite books, dramas and movies which include Othello by W. Shakespeare, Tess of the D'Uberville by Thomas Hardy, Anna Karrenina by Leo Tolstoy, All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque,Mother India, etc. There are 14 fascinating chapters in the book.

Each chapter narrates the story of the novel, drama or movie in a brief, precise and tantalizingly readable synopsis. Then, it discourses on the history of the writer and how the book was written.

For example, the author of Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was held for treason and conspiracy to overthrow the ruling clan in 1849. He was about to be hanged. However, due to last minute pardon by the Czar he was incarcerated in Siberia. Further there is the story of the great director, Roman Polanski. He has witnessed the worst atrocities of the second world war in the Auschwitz concentration camp. It happened that once Nazi soldiers had decided to use his head as a target which is escaped due to sheerest luck.

Further, there are chapters which relate the troubles that the producer or the director has to undergo while filming the epic movie based on the books. The Anarkali of the movie MUGHAL-E-AZAM was based on a fiction written by Abdul Halim Shara around Promegranate and that work has produced one of the greatest movie in the history of Indian Cinema. Prithiviraj Kapoor was told during the shooting of Mughal-e-Azam not to pick up anything from the floor, issue diktat and other other royal things both on-stage as well as off stage.

Further, the movie directed by K. Asif took sixteen years in the making. It started making the movie in the year 1944 and was released in 1960. During this time a lot of trials and tribulation of making the movie has been described in a gripping manner.

The author has written about the books and movie in such a manner that will compelled you to read the books or see the movies once. For instance
"The novel was burned.
The film on the book was banned.
The writer was exiled from his homeland.
But the truth?
Nobody can slay the truth or stark reality."

This is what the writer edifice about "All Quiet on the Western Front" written by Erich Maria Remarque. Another example of the intensity of his writing is that of the movie Spartacus
"John F. Keneddy was the President of US in 1960, when he heard great reports about the movie Spartacus from friends. He insisted on enjoying it sitting among ordinary filmgoers of the country and walked into a cinewma hall in washington DC. The 196 minute epic on celluloid left him stunned. The little known 19510 historical novel written by Howard Fast, had been rendered into an epic by Director Stanley Kubrick."

Not only has the writer done a extensive researched into the subject matter but he can explain how the novel was written and how it was adapted into movie in a enthralling manner. All this information he present in an extremely decent and delighting manner that will leave you spellbound by his magic. You will just gobble up the historical facts like never before. In fact I will like to compared it to Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam translated by Edward FitzGerald.

Just go through once and let the combination of Vishwas Patil and Nadeem Khan takes you in a magical land of arts.