Cinematic Adaptation: A Comparative Study of Bollywood movie Noor and Saba Imtiaz’s Novel Karachi You’re Killing Me

Abstract

The present study is aimed at investigating Bollywood movie Noor as an adaptation of Saba Imtiaz’s novel Karachi You’re Killing Me. Linda Hutcheon in her book The Theory of Adaptation (2006), gives theory of adaption which provides relationship between literature and film. Adaptation theory is based on the idea that there is an unequal but strong bond between literary works and visual arts such as theatrical production, a documentary or a movie. A filmmaker has to make certain adaptations in order to make his visual work presentable to the audience. The aforementioned movie, Noor, takes story from Saba Imtiaz’s novel and moulds its characters, scenes, places, situations and the setting in order to cater the cinematic demands. The protagonists as well as subject matter of both these works are similar, facing the same journalistic issues under similar social, political and professional challenges. Such similarity makes this movie an adapted work of the given novel. The movie adapts certain episodes and situations from the novel and gives them Bollywood colour and shape. The adaptation it is aptly investigated through the lens of cinematic adaptation. This study enlightens the readers to realize the positive and natural impact of imitation between written and visual arts when they are converted to each other.