Fourth day of the Festival of Letters Inauguration of the National Seminar on Post-Independence Indian Literature

New Delhi: the fourth day of the Festival of Letters, discussions on various topics and multilingual story and poetry readings were organized in thirty sessions. Ajit Rai, Atul Tiwari, Murtaza Ali, Nirupama Kotru, Ratnottama Sengupta and Tripurari Sharan presented their views on the important topic 'From Books to Reel and From Reel to Books: Interaction of Cinema and Literature' under the chairmanship of renowned cine critic Arun Khopkar. Ajit Rai said that it is not necessary that a good film should be made on good literature or a bad film should be made on bad literature. Cinema is a different genre, so literature needs to adapt to it. Atul Tiwari said that cinema is a new genre, but it has also derived its strength from tradition. He further said that literature will have to be adapted to the language of cinema, only then the relationship between the two will complement each other. Giving examples of ‘literalization’ of many foreign films, Murtaza Ali said that generally there is always a situation of agreement and disagreement between the writer and the director. Citing the example of Shyam Benegal, Nirupama Kotru said that a good director is needed to film a literary work in a respectable manner. Ratnottama Sengupta said that while cinema is a medium of dialogue, literature is a medium of expansion. Just as theatre took a long time to integrate into literature, cinema will take time to become a part of literature. Tripurari Sharan said that the conflict between popular literature and art has always been going on. But they complement each other and will always work together. Finally, the chair of the panel discussion, Arun Khopkar, said that as a new genre, cinema has very quickly absorbed other genres including literature. While cinema is taking from other genres, it is also giving something to other genres. Films have also given birth to a new language.

The inaugural address of the national seminar titled Post-Independence Indian Literature was delivered by renowned English and Hindi scholar Harish Trivedi and the keynote address was given by renowned Hindi poet and critic Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari. Sahitya Akademi President Madhav Kaushik and Vice President Kumud Sharma were also present on the occasions. Tribal Writers’ and North-Eastern Writers’ Meet were also organized. At the face-to-face programme, award-winning writers Neelam Sharan Gaur (English), Vinod Joshi (Gujarati), Sanjeev (Hindi), Ashutosh Parida (Odia) and T. Patanjali Sastry were in conversation with eminent litterateurs/scholars.  

As part of the cultural programme today, Mahesha Ram and his fellow artists who came from Jaisalmer musically rendered Sant Vani.