New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

If movies like Freddy vs. Jason, Kramer vs. Kramer, Alien vs. Predator, Ecks vs. Sever and King Kong vs. Godzilla have taught us nothing else, it's that everything is somehow better in battle format. We here at BOP recognize this fact, but at the same time realize that our breed of super-smart readers sometimes yearns for a touch of the intellectual at the same time. And since Hollywood has a certain obsession with turning literature of all types into big screen features, we're afforded the perfect opportunity to set up grudge matches galore.

Slumdog Millionaire

For some reason, a lot of people I've run into these days tell me they had no idea Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was adapted from a novel. Perhaps its because Vikas Swarup's 2005 literary debut was published under a different name (Q&A).

It may also have something to do with the book's little attention in the mainstream. Besides positive reviews in publications like The Washington Post and The New York Times, Q&A barely received any other accolades. It's not like any major award hardware is currently sitting on Swarup's bookshelf.

On the other hand, Slumdog Millionaire has turned into a smash success for Fox Searchlight. Since its November 12th release date, the $15-million budgeted drama has already accumulated more than $5 million here in the States. (And this is without appearing in more than 600 or so theaters in a single weekend). 94% of reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are positive, a number of critics placed the movie on their top ten lists for 2008 and the foreign press nominated it for four Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. Winners will be announced on January 11th.





Having consumed both the book and scribe Simon Beaufoy's (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) vastly different interpretation of Swarup's original narrative, I've set up another Book vs. Movie battle here at BOP. People may be more familiar with the movie adaptation, but are they missing out on an even better story from Vikas Swarup?

The Book

Similar to something by an author like Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner), who more or less introduced me to what life is like in Afghanistan through two powerful works of fiction, Q&A did about the same, though this time in a different part of the world. The setting for Swarup's book is India, and our hero is Ram Mohammad Thomas, a poor and parentless 18-year-old who reboots his life by winning the top prize on a game show not unlike Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

However, the show's producers aren't convinced a young person with a tragic background like Ram's could ever correctly answer all 12 questions. (How is a boy without regular access to the Internet, let alone a real education, able to recall answers to questions related to poetry, cricket and the Indian armed forces?) Thus, they accuse him of cheating. What comes next, separated into chapters, are 12 extraordinary events from Ram's childhood that demonstrate how he came to know the crucial answers when he needed them most.

Continued:       1       2