Bollywood movies have always been fond of a bigger than life story. Now and then there is always a movie which seems to be far greater than movies and it simply seemed to be a book, a book that appeared as it was read on the screen. A lot of the films in this list would not be considered adapted novels in the slightest, but they so wonderfully portray poetry, storytelling, even literature that you feel as if you read the virtual book scene by scene. These movies do not merely depict stories, they enable one to feel them, and characters, emotions, and worlds are woven in a way that they are written long before being shot. In this article, we’ve covered 10 such movies that beautifully capture the essence of poetry and literature.
Here are 10 Bollywood Movies That Bring the Essence of Poetry and Literature to Life
1. Dil Se (1998)
It is set in the life of radio journalist Amar who is tasked with a mission in Northeast India where he meets a mystery woman of silence known as Meghna. The attraction he feels for her becomes an all consuming love even though her secrets begin to draw distance between them. The movie is a mixture of romance and political upheavals and inner struggles.
It is the writing of Gulzar that makes Dil Se poetic. Not mere music, the songs are lines of yearning and heartbreak, and the images of Mani Ratnam seem to dance like lines of a suicide love poem. It is as though literature is being screened and overlaid with passion and complaint.
2. Umrao Jaan (2006)
This film is based on the story of Amiran who was kidnapped as a child and taken to a kotha where she becomes a famous courtesan known as Umrao Jaan. Her life is her ghazals, dancing and grace, searching for her dignity and love in the society where people admire only her art.
What is appealing in Umrao Jaan is that it is a poem in itself. All the songs are ghazals stolen to be a part of a traditional text, the dialogues are a la finesse of Urdu literature, and the story of Umrao is intoxicated to be lost in the realm of poetry and sorrow.
3. Pinjar (2003)
It tells the story of a young woman, Puro, whose life is changed in a quiet, negative, way by this very sequence of events she has no control over. It is her challenges that bring her to being exploited to exemplify the hardening, the living and human cost of division.
This movie has the foundations of the renowned novel of Amrita Pritam and her lyrical voice featured in the movie. The silence, the harsh texture of feeling and the classy hierarchy of interpersonal relationships drag the baggage of prose which reads like a piece of poetry.
4. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2003)
The film tells the story of the existence of three friends, Siddharth, Geeta and Vikram and how they deal with politics, love and ambition in the turbulent 1970s. The characters portray different ideals: rebellion, romance or pragmatism and merge them into predicaments of the generation of trouble assail.
Even the title it takes after Ghalib predetermines the spirit of poetry. The narrative resembles a novel, as personal desires become mixed up in politics. The gravity of its archetypal characters gives it as much of the weight of verse as of film.
5. Haider (2014)
Haider is set in conflict ravaged Kashmir, where the hero , a young man, tries to find the answers to the dilemma concerning the disappearance of his father. His homeland makes him confront betrayal, pain and the issue of fidelity.
The film is adapted to the book of Shakespeare Florentine Hamlet through an English tragedy mixed with Kashmir culture, poetry and music. Soliloquies, songs, and haunting images are some of the means Bhardwaj employs in extracting the rhythm of Shakespearean verse whilst pushing it to the depths of the soil of Kashmir.
6. Rockstar (2011)
Rockstar is the story of Janardhan, a small town youth who transforms into a musician named Jordan, and how his life after college alters permanently. Rockstar teaches us that sometimes we may feel we finally got what we wanted but it can only be yours if it’s meant to be, especially if it’s love. The movie also reflects the notion that the best art may be derived when some pain is involved, a classic of literary tropes. The emotion, and that is the transformation the character undergoes before us, is rendered in a very epic novel, by Irshad Kamil, who is very poetic in his lyrics.
7. Dedh Ishqiya (2014)
It is a dark comedy that follows the lives of two conmen known as Khalujan and Babban as they get mixed with Begum Para and her ally, Muniya. What starts out as a plotted one is indeed a game of wit, charisma or secrets in the sophisticated world of nawabs.
The poetry of the movie shines through it– actually, literally, in its preference of shayari and idioms. It is full of Urdu tehzeeb in its conversation, and comes across as a contemporary staging of modern classics. The film does not depend on plot only; observers have it swept along by wit, rhythm and wordplay.
8. Dor (2006)
Dor narrates the lives of two females- Zeenat and Meera, two individuals who share the tragedy that none of them wanted. The film turns into one of forgiving, friendship, and freedom as they gradually learn to know each other gradually.
It is a tender and poetic narration. Nagesh Kukunoor sees every break as verse, every silence as stanza. The relationships between the women are the tenderness of the poetry, when motifs of griefs and valor play out at a certain gentle magnificence.
9. Tamasha (2015)
Ved is a man that plays a role to satisfy people but that disguises his real self as a storyteller. He finds his mirror and his muse in Tara, which sets off the process of self-discovery.
This sensation applies to the movie itself a theatrical act, alternating between scenes, disguises, and narratives. It reflects the soul of literature by bringing into doubt how individuals lived their own tales- how real is much of it and how much of it is performance. Such a poem is more poetry of identity than of love.
10. Masaan (2015)
The film, set in Varanasi , covers the parallel lives of Devi and Masaan. Devi, dealing with loss and judgment, and Deepak, a young man from a marginalized background who works at a cremation ghat and falls in love with a girl from an upper caste and thus he cannot have. They are both grieved yet they are both hopeful.
The hesitation of Masaan is what renders it poetic. The Ganges is transformed into a setting and metaphor, and the dialogues are filled with the tones of a modern verse. It is moving literature–nuanced, silent, and very human.
Conclusion
We’re sure after reading this, you’re convinced to watch these films and experience the essence of poetry and literature on screen yourself — and we promise you won’t be disappointed.
