From “Kabuliwala” to “Bioscopewala”: Adapting Tagore into a modern day cinema

Stories have the power to cut through the barriers of culture, language and time. But not all writers survive the challenges and threats posited by the constantly evolving dynamics of time and all that it encompasses. Some stories wither and fade away like flowers during winter. Only a few are retained in the memories of readers and viewers alike- as stories can be narrated in both the audio-visual form (such as cinema) or in printed manuscripts. Such tales continue to rejoice people even decades after their conceptualization and execution. Rabindranath Tagore is a writer of such many tales which never cease to take readers by surprise irrespective of the age they belong to. In this paper, I shall be focusing on one of his short-stories titled “Kabuliwala” and its screenplay adaptation “Bioscopewala” with undue emphasis upon all those elements that have been remodelled and refashioned to fit a modern day story better. This, in turn, would facilitate a multi-layered understanding of the genius that Tagore was which makes him relevant even to date. This paper shall also seek to explore the possible causes triggering so many movie adaptations of popular novels and stories.