EurasianStudies_0110..

January-March 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 1.
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DEAR READER,
OF MOVIES AND BOOKS…
« Movies are the lingua franca of the twentieth century » — proclaims Gore Vidal at the beginning of
his second memoir entitled Point To Point Navigation. And he adds a few pages later: « Today, where
literature was movies are. » There is lot of truth in these words, though I am not quite sure if the
situation is really so unbalanced towards the Tenth Muse (as the movie is called in Italy).
Recently I have ordered both the movie and the book Slumdog Millionaire. Due to a delay in shipment
the book arrived some two weeks before the movie, hence I had the chance to first read the book and
then watch the movie. It was the last time I did such a thing. Not that I did not like the movie; it is a
good one indeed. For me it perfectly symbolizes our current, interwoven world: a western-eastern
co-production, with mostly a western staff and an all-out Indian cast, set in one of India’s fast-growing
economical centers, Mumbai, featuring an Indian theme. One may say: India as a topic is hot…
The movie has many merits and rightfully won so many Oscars and it seems to be a great ticket-office
success as well. Despite all this I had a strange feeling, an unsatisfied expectation when I watched it, and
it became to me obvious why: I read the book first! The book of Vikas Swarup, himself a career diplomat,
is in spite of its high-tension drama not a documentary of the slums of India, but a sharp and witty
examination of the many layers of modern Indian society. Each answer to the quiz questions is almost an
individual drama; reading the book is like reading a series of high-tension real-life adventures, with
philosophical excursions. And this is exactly where the movie fails to produce this richness. And
probably this is why many people consider the movie as a remake of Salaam Bombay!
The cause of this ´narrow focus´ is not the fault of the producers and cast. It is a fundamental and
structural difference between the possibilities of a novel and a movie. I have realized this so many times
in the past and with this one I learned the lesson: never read the book before watching a movie!
And the good news is that the book itself is an international bestseller, translated into forty-two
languages so far. Seemingly the Tenth Muse could not kill the other Muses. But the best thing is that
with both the movie and the book, people all around the world can learn more about India. And this is
good news for us, indeed.
Flórián Farkas
Editor-in-Chief
The Hague, March 15, 2010
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