Aandhi by Gulzar

Aandhi is a novel by Gulzar. The foreword to the novel explains that it is a screenplay or a scenario that is presented to the readers. This is a movie directed by Gulzar starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen.

It is about how J.K. a hotel manager and Aarti Devi, an establish politician, meet after years of being separated from their marriage. Flashbacks narrate their story, and a few events in the present bring alive the tensions and the affection that is still alive between them.

An easy read, this scenario, as he chooses to call it, is moving and thought provoking. I have not seen the movie, but it is almost there in my head- the descriptions are so real that I feel I have a movie running in my head, probably my own version of Aandhi, and till I see the director's version of it, this is what remains as Aandhi for me.

Which brings me to, is it better to make movies of books? Or the other way round? For me reading a book gives a very different experience than watching a movie. And not even a single book I have read and loved has been the same when made into a movie. Probably because, while I am reading, I create my own characters, fall in love with them, cry with them and laugh with them, and suddenly when I see them in a movie it is someone else who has imagined them and given them life. This someone else's imagination is most often jarring, as it is dissonant from my imagination. So I prefer the books. And if it is a movie, I prefer a movie which does not exist as a book.