Why no movie could show the same story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’?

 

 

Real Alice who inspired the story of Alice in wonderland

From the time of its release, the novel ‘Alice of Wonderland’ saw many adaptions, illustration, inspiration of itself. There are many animation movies on it from the time 1951 to 2010. Many painters painted their imaginary wonderland in their paintings and exhibited to the world. Same as them, Illustrators drew wonderland according to their imagination and after taking inspiration from the original illustration of wonderland which is in Lewis Caroll’s original copy.

Not only movies were made on the novel but also the name of Alice and wonderland was used as an inspiration to many creations including novels, TV series, movies. May be if human reach at other planet and find life, we will start to give them name after ‘Alice in Wonderland’, like as ‘We reached at wonderland’. 

A painting inspired from depiction of White rabbit and rabbit hole

Why no movie could depict the same story of novel?

There are many movies but no movie adaption depicts the same story as it is written in the book. Movie makers adapted facts according to their own convenience. And this type of adaptation has both good or bad perspectives.

We know that people who watch English movies, generally have read the book in their childhood or at any stage of life. So, if movie makers will just show the depiction as it is, it will lose the curiosity from audience because they already know the story.

But, there are millions of people in the world who try to watch movies to know the stories of fairy tales. We know that English is prevalent in all over the world and the people who read English also know that there is something ‘Alice in Wonderland’, So, in case if they try to know the actual story and couldn’t watch it through movies, it is not good.

With the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, a magical can be created by the movie makers by using modern techniques such as VFX because visuals affect us more than the reading. 

Alice in an animation movie

The scene of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ which secured a place in almost every adaptation of the novel.

Without second answer, it is the scene of ‘Tea Party’ which may be considered as the most popular scene of novel. Seventh Chapter of the novel introduced us with the most popular character of the novel ‘the mad hatter’. Tea party is the scene where mad hatter is drinking tea with March Hare. When Alice go there to join ‘Tea’ with them, first they say there is no room but then they allow her to sit there. 

A Tea Party from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

‘Tea Party’ is the scene which appears in every movie which was made on the story of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, the travel to wonderland is incomplete without joining ‘Tea Party with ‘Mad Hatter’ and ‘March Hare’.

“There was a Table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it.

The table was a large one but the thee were all crowded together at one corner of it: ‘No room! No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice Coming.”

The other scene such as Trial, playing of croquet, visit at a home where a woman carrying baby, are moulded according to the convenience in movies.

After Tim burton’s ‘Alice in wonderland’ and Johnny Depp as Hatter in the movie, the character of Hatter became very popular among to the people who even don’t know the whole story of the novel.

Alice, red queen, white rabbit, Hatter are the most popular characters of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Tea party from original illustration of Lewis Carrol's book

Why ‘Alice in Wonderland’ has the character of Queen and not of King as the head?

Three years earlier from its publication in 1865, when three daughters Reverend Robinson Duckworth came to Lewis Carrol and they went to boating and these daughters asked to tell a story to Lewis. He would have related the story with the conditions and happenings of that time because probably, Children understand the story if it relates to the current things which are happenings at present. 

Three daughters

At that time, the head of the Great Britain was Queen Victoria, a queen who was famous among her subject, so may be Lewis seemed it good to also introduce Queen in the story, however not a sane Queen but quire insane Queen who has only one solution of all problems ‘Off with their heads’. However, no one executed on these words (otherwise whole wonderland would be empty except the queen). 

Now, I think, the character of Dictator in ‘The Dictator’ was also inspired with the character of Red Queen, who also orders to execute everyone even on petty mistakes, however, no person is executed. 

Red Queen

 Which cinematic Adaptation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ I like the most?

Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ considered as the best cinematic adaptation of ‘Alice in wonderland. However, the story of the movie is completely different from the story of novel. But, the characters of Alice, Red Queen and the Hatters made it the favorite movie to the people, also the changed story and the visuals of wonderland the acting of the characters made it a masterpiece. 

Tim burtons' Alice in Wonderland

Another one was the character of ‘Alice’ in ‘Once upon a time’ TV Series. The intelligently woven story of ‘Once Upon a Time’ which depicted every fairy tales’ characters, characters from classical fantasy novel such as Jeckyll and hide, even the Popular Greek God ‘Hercules’. 

Alice in Once upon a time

 The series also showed the character of Alice, the depiction of wonderland and the character of Alice and Hatter also give a satisfaction to eyes and senses.

Hatter in Once Upon a Time

The novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’ inspired many generation and always be one of the best recommendation to the Children to broaden their imagination which is required for the proper development of a child. No matter how many movies you watched but if you are a book lover and you did not read the novel then your love for books is incomplete.

Why Khuda aur Muhabbat-3 beccome so popular in India?

 

With mostly expected end, Season 3 of ‘Khuda aur Muhabbat’ concluded last Friday. At the end of last episode, maker of the drama showed their gratitude towards almighty to make it first blockbuster drama in Pakistan which crossed all records in viewership.

Sometimes ago, the lead actress of this drama Iqra aziz (mahi) also posted on Instagram about its 1 billion viewership crossing. One of the comments on that post (ofcourse it was by an Indian fan) was that it is Indian viewership which gave this drama too much success. And she (or he) was quite right.

But, why Indian audience loved this drama too much? I tried to observe the reasons for its success and here are those-

Pakistani Dramas are already popular in India

Corona period might give you hard time, but some sectors benefitted from it. During this time, people explored options to kill boredom. Pakistani dramas which are easily available on YouTube were their new discovery. However, some people already acquainted with this option before corona time. but, corona period kicked high of its popularity.

The reasons why people loved these dramas were obvious. These dramas were in short series with 25 to 30 episodes and mostly in one season. Everyone has YouTube, you don’t need to download any app and pay premium to watch these dramas. Thus, these were available even to the most common people in India who don’t know much about apps installation and search. 

The other reasons were their language which was urdu, a beautiful language, which everyone wants to speak (thanks to shayri culture which contributed too much to maintain the love to urdu in this English culture.). People attracted to these people who speak in this beautiful language.

And, how can we forget the impact of Pakistani dresses in India? Modern Indian society is too much under impression of European culture, and fashion designers, whose clients are mostly elite people, mostly design traditional clothes for special occasions like weddings. These heavy and overpriced clothes which are sometimes too bold even in traditional sense, are out from the hands of common Indians who live in small cities, towns, and villages and who can’t wear such dresses which are of deep neck or open back. 

So, when they search for affordable traditional dresses of daily use, they find the traditional dresses of Pakistani fashion designers for their use. And this love for Pakistani dresses extended their love to Pakistani dramas which also present beautiful traditional dresses.

Therefore, due to these reasons, Pakistani dramas gained handsome popularity in India. And, KAM-3 also got the benefits of this popularity. But there were some special things in KAM-3, which helped it to become the first blockbuster in Pakistan. Let’s also discuss those specialities-

Iqra Aziz was already favourite of Indians

The lead actress of this season was Iqra Aziz who played the role of Mahi in the drama. Due to the grand success of three seasons of comedy-drama “Suno chanda”, Iqra Aziz was already favorite of Indians. We should also not forget the elegant beauty of Iqra Aziz in her popularity. So, when new drama of her released, it was received by Indians with full admire. 

Iqra aziz (mahi) in KAM-3

Previous seasons of Khuda aur muhabbat were also popular

‘Khuda aur muhabbat’ franchise always gave popular seasons. In previous season, Imran Abbas mesmerized the audience and people loved the story and presentation of the seasons. Thus, people couldn’t skip new season.

OST of the season

I should admit that it was the title song of the season which gave it a big hit. The melodious voice of Rahat fateh ali khan, the lyrics which had deep meaning, and the video cum trailer which showed the beautiful presentation of the show impressed the audience too much. In a very short period, this song became viral on whatsup status and insta stories. As a music lover, I also watched this song on youtube and enjoyed it greatly but viral clips of this song forced me to watch first time any Pakistani drama. 

Graceful Presentation

The presentation of this story was graceful. People loved the story of high class people of Pakistan who were zamindars (landlord), big businessmen, Peer/Pir (पीर), and too powerful. 

On the other side, we watched the dargah and their muzawirs which added the philosophical approach to the drama. There was also the story of Sikandar and Romana which gave the taste of classical romantic stories. Romana’s dialogues were too deep. The family story of the lead actor, Fahad gave a glimpse of the middle-class life of Pakistan. 

Depiction of havelies and their people, the place of women in every class of society, the stylish and elegant jewellery, dresses, and customs (however derogatory but beautifully presented)  added the charisma in the series. 

And how can we forget to mention the incredible acting of the characters? Although, every character gave its best, but, the character of Nazimshah (Mahi's brother), which was played by Sohail Sameer impacted me most. Sohail Sameer played the role of Iqra Aziz's humorous, weak and fearful father in ‘Suno chanda’ but in KAM-3, he played the powerful and aggressive role of powerful brother. 

Nazim Shah

Therefore, all factors contributed too much to the popularity of the KAM-3. However, this season was not free from criticism.

The core story of the season was itself problematic. They showed the one-sided love of the lead actor and we know that how much girls face distress due to this one-sided love and commit suicide mostly in Indian subcontinent. The story was helping to increase it. Also, the love of Taimoor shah’s mother toward him was just overacting. 

I think the biggest defect of this series was its 40 episodes, there was need of just 25 or 30 episodes but they stretched the story like rubber. In beginning, it was enjoyable to watch but after the marriage of Mahi, it became a burden to watch the drama further.

Too much tears, too-long scenes of conversations between two people, and unnecessarily long scenes of preaching, made these dramas unbearable. Sometimes, they showed just 3 scenes in the entire 43 minutes’ episode. I also left to watch this series after 35 episodes. 

Last year, a clip of Pakistani qawwali ‘bol kaffara kya hoga’ became viral in India. And its original Pakistani song ‘bol kaffara kya hoga’, which was also an OST, recorded highest views and become the most viewed song of Pakistan on Youtube due to Indian audience.

This year, KAM-3 got this luck and achieved immense success. The large population of India is strong enough to make any cinematic peace popular. Now, let’s wait, what is going to be popular next year.