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Jatinder Kaur
Assistant Professor
P.G. Department of English
Gobindgarh Public College, Alour (Khanna)
e-mail: [email protected]
Mobile no.9815112452

Paheli from Leaf to Reel: A Surrealistic Tale from the Deserts

Abstract
Man, since times immemorial, tries to imitate whatever it sees, hears, and experiences; hence

literature is often transformed and transported from page to stage and even to celluloid screens.

Sophocles, Marlowe, Shakespeare and directors of twentieth and 21st centuries like Amol Palekar

have poured the old wine in new bottles by adding their own flavor to create something new.

Thus, adaptation is not new, but the adaptation studies have fused another realm of inter-textual

and interdisciplinary studies with literature. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how the

validity of a text increases when it is adapted for the screen, opening new avenues to interpret the

work afresh and Amol Palekar's “Paheli” has been taken up as an object of study, based on a

work by Vijayadan Detha originally written in Rajasthani, later translated by Kailash Kab as

"Duvidha" and by Christi Merrill as "The Dilemma". Amol Palekar has presented the story by

lending it a tinge of the modern mind where a wife makes a conscious choice to lead her life with

a ghost as her lover than to be a submissive wife of a living husband. Detha has delved in the rift

between the materialistic world with the ‘world of yearnings’ and gives a tragic ending to the

love story of a ghost and a human being. However, Palekar succeeds to take the audience to a

surreal world of deft imagery reflecting the inner desires of humans giving a twist to the story in

the end.

Keywords: Adaptation, contemporaneity, adaptation studies.

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Paheli from Leaf to Reel: A Surrealistic Tale from the Deserts

A story or a piece of writing bestirs itself from the thoughts of its creators to reach in the

hearts of not only its readers, but it also yearns for audience as well and hence, it ends up in the

hands of directors and through actors who get themselves in their character’s skin. Literary

adaptations have been in vogue since humans have learnt to capture life in motion pictures.

Literary adaption is a process to recast a piece of literature in a new form or through a new

medium as a complete work or in parts, just as Aeschylus, an ancient Greek dramatist, has

chiseled out many of his plays from the verses of Homer in his quest for higher truth. The

movies like The Last Lear, Don Quixote, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Bride

and Prejudice, Harry Potter Series, 3 Idiots, 2 States, The Namesake, Kafan, Samskara, The

Mistress of Spices and many more have been the offshoots of the rich literary legends.

Adaptations of literature into other mediums like stage plays, radio play, nuked naatak, television

soaps and in movies or animated films in 3D or 5D have immense potential to preserve culture

and keep it alive in the memory of folks, but the choice of medium should be apposite, as it is

affirmed by Michel Foucault in his discourse ‘What is an Author?’

Perhaps it is time to study discourses not only in terms of their expressive value or

formal transformations, but according to their modes of existence. The modes of

circulation, valorization, attribution and appropriation of discourses vary with each

culture and are modified within each. (qtd. Murray 2011, xiii)

Adaptation studies are seeping in the field of research analysis these days. Sarah Cardwell’s

Adaptations Revisited: Television and the Classical Novel (2002), Kamilla Elliot’s Rethinking

the Novel/Film Debate (2003), from Blackwell Publications A Companion to Literature and
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Film (2004), Literature and Film: A Guide to Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation (2005),

Thomas Leitch’s Film Adaptation and its Discontents (2007), Christine Geraghty’s Now a Major

Motion Picture (2008), and the establishment of Association of Literature on Screen Studies in

Leicester, UK (2006) and later in various others parts of the world, are some examples from the

first decade of the twenty-first century (ibid 2-3).

The present paper is focused on the study of Vijaydan Detha’s Rajasthani folktale

“Duvidha” which was translated into English by Christi Merril under the title- “The Dilemma”,

and its celebrated adaptation Amol Palekar’s Paheli (2005) starring Anupam Kher (Bhanwarlal),

Shahrukh Khan (Krishanlal and Ghost), Rani Mukherji (Lachhi), Amitabh Bachchan(Shephard),

Sunil Shetti (Sunderlal) and Juhi Chawla(Gajrobai). Detha, recipient of Sahitya Academy Award

and nominated for the Nobel Prize, belonged to the family of two renowned poets of Rajasthan-

Sabaldan Detha (father) and Jugtidan Detha (grandfather). He is a modernist writer, satirist,

folklorist, socialist and architect of hundreds of short stories those have breathed a new life into

the folklores of the sandy stretches echoing of its culture.

Paheli was the last film based on Detha’s works, buts is a visual treat for the readers of this

complex story that endows them with an opportunity to have glimpse of Rajasthani folk, its

culture, and girls wearing colorful traditional folk dresses like ghagra-choli giving a sharp

contrast to the golden oceans of sand. Earlier Mani Kaul’s Duvidha(1973) Prakash Jha’s

Parineeti [based on a story "Amit Lalsa" ("Anaadi Anat")] and Shyam Benegal’s Charandas

Chor were the celluloid adaptations of the colorful paintings of folk Rajasthan in words and

metaphors from the leaflets of his anthologies. The film has been able to capture the slice of the

story and takes it to another level highlighting the eternal dilemma, “to be or not to

be”(Shakespeare 127), but this time the victim is not a Prince of some British state, rather a
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woman, engulfed with the traditional Indian orthodox society that has been made weaker by the

termites of avarice turning men into calculative machines, who finds the solution of her dilemma

by embracing the love of a spectre - perhaps purer than the love of her human husband for whom

maintaining the ledger of the wedding expenses is more fascinating than his beautiful bride. She

too is desirous to have a secret companionship of her choice. She is exactly like that magical bird

who fascinated her at the village where the groom’s family and relatives have stopped to have

some rest.

Krishan is adept in his loveless mercenary skills, he also treats marriage a monetary deal that

could easily be postponed or put on hold to accumulate wealth. In his greed for money he even

ignores and degrades the emotions of Lachhi who has left her entire family, all friends and her

home for him, but these mammons are oblivious to the fact that relationships are like the water

clasped in a fist, a little delay and things are gone.

Vijaydan Detha’s creation justifies the titles endowed to it by its translators. It’s not only the

female protagonist who is facing “the dilemma”, trying to overcome her “duvidha”, and finding a

solution to the ‘paheli’ posed by ghost taking its readers and audience to a surreal, a dreamlike

world. This phantom, like a divine spirit, is ready to shower his immense love upon her, whereas

her husband- Krishan and his father all have been combating with their own dilemmas and

engrossed to solve the conundrum of life. For the final rescue, a shepherd appears on the scene.

Like Jesus Christ, he gave the final judgement for the spirit enticed by love and a mortal; and

resolved the dilemma of the bewildered people to see two Krishan.

The domineering influence of father hampered Krishan’s growth to be a perfect human being

who could otherwise have nurtured his instincts to the full, just as the growth of William and
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Paul gets stunted under the influence of their mother in Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. Krishan

always remained confined in the world with the rule and regulations set by his father. His

dilemma was laden on his shoulders by his father in form of the task of business expansion, but

at the cost of separation from his newly-wed wife because his father believes,

The joys of accounting and trade are the greatest joys. Everything else is nothing but a

useless distraction. God too is a careful keeper of accounts. He keeps track of every breath

we draw. He preserves an exact record of every drop of water, gust of wind and grain of soil.

When even nature makes no mistake in its accounts, how can a mistake in a trader’s ledger

be overlooked? (Detha 33)

The thwarting influence of his father made him so barren in the valley of emotions that he

could not even ask his father for a few days permission to take his newlywed wife, being blind in

the superstitious belief ‘shubh mahurat’ (auspicious time period), he leaves his new wife and life

in the lurch. “She must preserve the honour of the house at all costs. She must serve her parents-

in-laws. Her honour was in her hands”. (34) Even the spectre, too, falls into the trap of duvidha,

as he finds his life force in the young, beautiful and charming Lachhi. He wants to possess her,

but she is to depart, as she is wife of someone else and that forest does not have any permanent

dwelling of the family.

He could neither bring himself to trouble her by inhabiting her frame, nor could he bear to be

parted from her. […] Should he take the possession of the bridegroom? But that too would

cause the bride sorrow. If such beauty were to grieve, the clouds would withhold their waters

and the lightening veil itself. … Never before had he felt compassion for anyone. (32)
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When the ghost in the guise of Krishan had the first encounter with Lachhi, he found himself

struggling in the battle of head and heart. If he desired, he could have simply hid his true identity

from the whole family but not from his love, ‘Lachhi’. When Lachhi felt that with the return of

her husband, her soulful desire is fulfilled; he got surrounded by a storm of queries pricking his

conscience.

How could he mix filth in this pure? To deceive her would be a great sin. She was so happy

because she thought he was her real husband. What lie could be meaner, more despicable?

This was indeed the ultimate lie. How could he play false with love’s unconscious? […] one

may try one’s wits against an equal, but to cut the throat of one who is asleep is to defile the

sword. (36)

Krishan’s parsimonious father, though an extremist, is not without riddles. He, perhaps, could

not have solved the basic riddle of life. His quandary was that he was unable to recognize his true

wealth- his family and children. His thoughts echo in the words of Krishan too, when he tells his

wife,

You can see it for yourself –heaps of diamonds and pearls. But wealth should keep

increasing, twofold by day and four fold by night. Business is the primary duty of a trader.

We must increase our wealth. […] (33)

The story as well as its adaptation Paheli begins with bubbling aspirations and desires of a

beautiful girl who like “the lake leapt and danced … mirroring the lotus flowers.” The whole tale

is laced with imagery from nature. The nature, here seems to be the reflection of the state of

mind and feelings of its characters, esepecially of the heroine. The nature was cool and calm in
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the beginning when the bride jovially started off for her new home, but the moment thegroom

shatters her illusion, nature gets ruffled:

“[…] I have to reckon up the wedding accounts before Teej, because on that day I must leave

on a business trip to another land. There isn’t another such auspicious day for seven years to

come.” (33)

With the verbal tussle over berries, the calm weather suddenly got hot. “It was hot enough to

make his eyes burn. The brambles laden with yellow flowers looked to him like so many flames

of fire.” On the other hand, the same nature brought a spirit to soothe her cankerous wounds

which otherwise might have no cure. The departure of the bride from the forest changed

everything for this spirit who was under the charm of her beauty. His arrival in her barren life

was signalled with the sand storm:

A terrible black and yellow tornado was seen approaching from the north. Gradually, the

darkness thickened. One could not see one’s own hand. What strange dreams nature has! Had

it not been for this dream, could the dust that lies underfoot have blotted out the sun? Dust

ascended into the sky. The air shrieked aloud, whipped by the coming storm. The whirlwind

stirred the very roots of the mountains. Huge trees, hollow in their pride, were uprooted, one

by one. But the flexible bushes that humbly swayed and bent to the storm, remained unhurt.

The grass that is trampled underfoot remained unhurt. Enquiring, caressing, stroking, the

storm passed overhead. All vegetation rocked as though in a cradle. Every leaf and bud was

shaken. (35)
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On the other hand, the stairs of the baori match the landscape and at the same time become the

epitome of the emotional upheaval brewing in the heart of the bride who was seeking love and

affection from her life-partner.

Lachhi is unlike other girls of her age, she can’t speak her heart out. But her married life has

proved to be the tree of those red berries, where every fruit has a price of thorns. Unfortunately,

her ‘saut’ is not a woman, but wealth. When Krishanlal goes after his first wife (money), she

seems to be a lump of flesh or a desert which is devoid of life. She sinks in the lake of her own

sobs and tears.

Claude Levi Strauss opines that ‘myth could be seen as the primitive people's attempt at

balancing the binary opposites and making them less contradictory, or reconciling them with

each other.’ (qtd. Sharma 144) Palekar has blended the folk motif of ghost with the traditional

Indian art of puppetry which is brought into mesmerising visuals in the film reminding the

audience of the mysterious surreal world of Girish Karnad in Nagamandala which also deals

with the similar dilemma of a woman who is chained in the taboos of the orthodox patriarchal

society, intertwined in the duality of being a dutiful wife maintaining her chastity and the

fructification of her dream to be with her ideal lover. “In Nagamandla, it is done through the

shape-shifting of the cobra, Naga, into Appanna, Rani’s husand…” (Sharma 152) Palekar’s

phantom (alike the Kannad serpent lover), in the adaptation Paheli, takes the shape of squirrel, a

beautiful blue bird and finally as Krishan- Lachhi’s mechanical husband. Dehta and Palekar both

gave a beautiful tinge of the folk culture of Rajasthan by employing the art of puppetry and

enhanced the impact of phantom forming a surreal world with a couple of ghostly puppets who

unlike the omniscient narrator fills the gap between characters and their audience; and at the
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same time, these two speaking puppets, residing on an old haunted tree whom only the dead can

listen, form a perfect trancelike universe on one’s subconscious.

However, this phantom is more humane than the world of living beings. It is the strength of

his love for the girl that gives her the courage to shatter all the shackles and brings her out of her

dual standards. The behaviour and demeanour of the ghost shakes her whole being. She was an

unwelcomed and unwanted child.

When she was born, a basket had been beaten instead of a plate. Her family was none too

pleased. […]Her mother’s womb had given her a place but there was no place for her in that

house. A coconut happened to be sent from this house. It was her fate that her parents did not

return that coconut. […] She would have had to take the hand of whichever man her parents

chose. (37)

Amol Palekar added another woman in the movie who was also confronting her own dilemma

whether her husband would ever come back or not. She had been suffering the pangs of

separation for the last seven years. Her creation, in the story, was just conforming to the general

the state of women in India, who are living in the pain of separation and bearing the burden of

life silently. In an interview, Shah Rukh Khan could not help saying, “It is a very progressive

story, basically a story of a woman. Every man thinks that ‘I married a woman and I have done

my duty’. …woman is treated for so many years in our society in …a way that she is considered

that she has to bear … we’re trying to show in the film, may be after marriage a man thinks that

he has done everything for her but still there is something need to be done for a woman. It is

about to understand the loneliness if a woman who is your life partner. So, the film is inherently

about the loneliness of woman because she does not speak up.”
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Detha’s “Duvidha” is purely set in Indian purview, where a woman has to surrender to her

destiny, and to love someone other than her husband seems quite revolutionary. But questions

raised by Detha at the end of the story regarding the status of woman in society raise doubts

whether a woman is only a child rearing machine. In spite of an augmentation in the number of

the so called feminist harangues, she is treated as an object not as a being who might have any

thoughts and emotions. Detha ends the love story of Lachhi and ghost on tragic note where the

ghost is captured by a shepherd. This time the yellow color of the flowers of brambles in the

burning sands was the color of the bride’s dress. After butchering all the hopes to get humane

love, Lachhi becomes the part of all other grains of sand, a soul muted once again, but mutation

should not be for good. As Detha concludes the tale,

How many lives would she have to endure in this bedchamber? But if this baby girl, now at

her breast, should not have to endure such life when she grew to womanhood, the mother’s

sufferings would not have been in vain. Even animals cannot be used against their will.... But

are women allowed to have any will of their own. Until they reach cremation ground, they

must be in bedchamber, and when they escape the bedchamber, they go straight to the

cremation ground. (43)

The movie possesses the hue of contemporaneity that perceives and illustrates the nature of

eternal human predicament. The movie is a visual treat for the readers of this complex story that

endows them with an opportunity to have a glimpse of Rajasthani folk, its culture, and the sad

plight of the women in a patriarchal world even in the 21st century. Palekar wraps up the story

with a positive note, where Lachhi, after the trials of both look-alikes, gets her love back, when

the ghost has inhabited the body of Krishan.

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“The Dilemma” from the deft hands of Detha is a trans-creation as Paheli in the hands of

Palekar, a masterstroke to provide women equality and choice in a surreal universe. It’s a tale of

a liberated Indian Anna Karenina who is unburdened and awarded with true love of spirit who

gets unified with her love-stricken husband in body and soul. Thus, adaptations embalm the

literature of gone by days with the icing of melodious visual flakes for generations.
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Works Cited

Detha, Vijaydan. "The Dilemma." Dilemma. Vol. 62. Leicester: National Youth Bureau, n.d. 32-

43. Print.

"Indian Cinema." Paheli | Indian Cinema. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2017.

<https://uiowa.edu/indiancinema/paheli>

Murray, S. (2011). The adaptation industry: the cultural economy of contemporary literary

adaptation. New York: Routledge.

Nishat Zaidi. Review of Detha, Vijaydan, Chouboli and Other Stories. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews.

October, 2012. <http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=33309> Web. 7 Jan. 2017.

Paheli. Dir. Amol Palekar. Perf. Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherji. Eros, 2005. DVD.

"Parinati – The Inevitable (1989)." Filum Chillum !! N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2017.

Mowat, Barbara A., and Paul Werstine, editors. “3.1.” The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of

Denmark, by William Shakespeare, Folger Shakespeare Library, pp. 127–127.

< https://www.folgerdigitaltexts.org/download/pdf/Ham.pdf> Web. 31 Jan. 2019.

Sharma, Rajesh. "The construction of contemporary indian subjectivity in the selected plays of

Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani ." Thesis. Patiala/ Punjabi University,

2011. Print. <http://hdl.handle.net/10603/2092> January 8, 2017.

Wikipedia contributors. "Paheli." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2016. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.