Underrated Bollywood Movies Based On Books That You Can’t Miss!

Haider

Haider

Haider, one of the underrated Bollywood movies, based on HAMLET, beautifully penned by William Shakespeare. The man behind the lens Vishal Bhardwaj who bought the story of HAIDER on screen, the story of lives living, dying, and thriving around Haider, a boy, grown up to be an assassinator for the revenge of his lost father’s Hilal’s death.

The saga revolves around his mother Ghazala and her alleged affair with Hilal’s brother Khurram, his childhood lady love  Arshia Lone, who happens to be a  journalist and whose father, Pervez, is an Indian Army officer playing an important role in the twists and turns, Roohdar his top-notch contact to help him on his vision and conflicts bringing the news of his father’s well-planned death and hours of suspense to keep you hooked with your screen.

The film received quite an appreciation for the intensity and the screenplay bought with a tint of Roman.

Devdas

Devdas

Devdas adapted from a Bengali romance novel- Devdas written by Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. Devdas Mukherji is black-listed by his multi-millionaire Zamindar father, Narayan. After years of study, Devdas returns to his hometown where his family prepares to welcome him, but their happiness changes when Devdas prefers to visit his childhood sweetheart, Parvati alias Paro, before paying respect to his mother.

He is prevented from marrying Paro, who happens to be a lower-caste girl. Eventually, time passes with Paro’s family arranging her marriage to a much older man, Bhuvan Choudhry, whose children are in her age group. This sadness not only breaks Devdas’ heart but shackles him to alcohol in a big way. Soon Devdas starts to frequent a brothel and catches the eyes of a courtesan named Chandramukhi.

Step by step, Devdas trudges down a path of self-destruction. The story powerfully depicts the customs of a society that prevailed in Bengal in the early 1900s, which largely prevented a happy ending to a true and tender love story.

Lootera

Lootera

Portraying Manikpur at best, out of the book of O. Henry’s, The Last Leaf, Mr. Vikramaditya Motwane who brought us the beautiful coinciding lives, the story of Pakhi Roy Chaudhary and Varun Shrivastav, an archaeologist who wants to study the land surrounding the temple that the landlord owns. The souls bond over the common inclination for art and architecture.

But the story has its harsh side as the lust for money interferes and the story takes a turn about leaving Pakhi lonely with a roof over her head in Dalhousie, where she’s waiting for her love to return while rotting inside with tuberculosis to be gone as the last leaf falls. But little did she know that the leaf is never gonna fall so aren’t her hopes and thus creates a masterpiece. 

The White Tiger

The White Tiger

Story of ambitions and too good to be the true storyline of rags to riches but also riches to rag. The movie is made on the pages of  “ The White Tiger ”, a psychological thriller written by Aravind Adiga adding life and characters to the story is the director Ramin Bahrani with the life of the story Balram Halwai who came from Gaya district who is blinded by the city lights, the money, fame, fast-moving life and of course his lords in the city Ashok and Pinki madam for whom he works as a driver.

But one night all his daisy dreams crumble under the tires of their Honda City as Pinki madam decides to take the wheels in her hands while drunk and runs over the child. The famed family pressurizes Balram to take the blame over to him, which starts the burning of matters with a lot of bribery to govt officials, Balram encountering the working nature, the corruption, and the out smartness of people keeps changing him mentally and fetching him ways to come out of his poor lame bland life even if it asks killing his master Ashok which he actually does.

The curtains go blind with his dark humor of success and convincing himself that his actions were relevant for his freedom and him living his best life. 

Bareilly ki Barfi

Bareilley ki Barfi

A quirky romantic comedy, Bareilly ki Barfi has been inspired by a French novel titled ‘Ingredients of love’. With a change in setting, from France to Uttar Pradesh,  received highly positive reviews from critics with praise for its heartwarming and realistic story. Bitti Mishra, a tomboyish girl in Bareilly, runs away from home and while waiting for a train, she buys and reads a book, Bareilly Ki Barfi, and realizes to her shock that she is Barfi, the eponymous main character.

She returns home and decides to track down the author, mentioned on the back cover as one ‘Pritam Vidrohi’, joyous by the fact that there exists someone who would love her the way she is.

The bookshop owner directs her to Chirag Dubey, who lies to her that the author isn’t in the town anymore and later brings his friend, Pritam, and makes him the fake author. After a long charade, finally, Chirag and Pritam both marry their chosen partners and lead happy married lives in Bareilly.

Aisha 

Aisha

A rom-com drama,  Aisha, is set in the upper-class society of Delhi and is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic Emma with the same tone as the 1995 cult Hollywood film Clueless which is also an adaptation of Austen’s novel. Aisha, who loves playing matchmaker much to her friend Arjun’s disapproval finds a new target in the simple Shefali.

But in the process, she ends up ruining her own relationship with close friends. Later, Arjun and Aisha meet and reminisce about their childhood and friendship, and ultimately declare their love for each other. Aisha is a story of love, confusion, relationships, and realizations.

Parineeta

Parineeta

Parineeta is an Indian musical romantic drama film adaptation of the 1914 Bengali novella of the same name by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Parineeta primarily revolves around the lead characters, Lalita and Shekhar. Since childhood, Shekhar and Lalita have been friends, and slowly this friendship blossoms into love.

A series of misunderstandings surface and they are separated due to the conniving schemes of Shekhar’s father. The plot deepens with the arrival of Girish, who supports Lalita’s family. Eventually, Shekhar’s love defies his father’s greed and he seeks out Lalita proper.

The film has several notable allusions to Indian literature and cinema. Parineeta was showcased at several international film festivals.

Thanks for reading! This blog post was made in collaboration with Crepaniva. Don’t forget to check out her blog for some amazing writeups!